This is without exception my favorite Graham Greene novel. Love and murder in 1960's Haiti among the evil Papa Doc Duvalier's Tonton Macute. The evocation of landscape and murderous heat and voodoo would alone be enough to hold our attention. But there's more than that: there's a great story of intrigue and jealousy. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

The edition I have begins with a letter to a publisher which we would be better without. Because the story is told by one of the characters, Greene points out that Brown is not Greene. Well, I wouldn't have thought of that! Then he notes that Brown, like Greene, is a Catholic. He justifies this on statistical grounds, which is just about as stupid as you can get.

'It is often forgotten that, even in the case of a novel laid in England, the story when it tcontains more than ten characters would lack verisimilitude if at least one of them twere not a Catholic. The ignoring of this fact of social statistics sometimes gives the tEnglish novel a provincial air.'

We are here in the ludicrous domain where we would have represent each of the components of society in proportion. By the author's own ten percent rule, The Comedians should have at least one gay or lesbian character. It doesn't. Given the number of gays, not to say paedophiles, in catholic holy orders this should be a surprise, but it isn't.

The narrator is a catholic because Greene is forever hitting us over the head with Catholicism, which he likes to spread like margarine over every inch of the bread. No doubt if he'd been born a catholic, or born French, we would have been spared this. It's the gratuitous references which annoy me most.

'The air was full of coming rain, and the low sound reminded me of voices chanting tthe responses at school.' (p203b)
Give us a break, Graham.

Or again, 'I suppose it was my Jesuit education which reminded me of that moment when, from a high mountain above the desert, the devil displayed all the kingdoms of the world,' (p197) It may well have been, but a Jesuit education is not required to know this story. I even know it myself.

On page 18 he takes a brief sideswipe at a novel, any novel, by CP Snow: 'the heavy, foreseeable progress of its characters down the uninteresting corridors of power made me drowsy.' With him there.

As for other matters, we have the detached observer business at work here, the observer also being worldly wise in a tired and hopeless sort of way. The question of Brown's lack of involvement comes up. Of course, it is not Brown's fault that he is rootless, but it is Greene's fault that he has gone for a rootless character.

'. . . somewhere years ago I had forgotten how to be involved in anything. Somehow somewhere I had lost completely the capacity to be concerned.' (p182)

Technically, his residence is Monaco, 'a city of transients’, but he feels no tie to it, which is hardly surprising. 'I felt a greater tie here, in the shabby land of terror, chosen for me by chance.' (p223) This last is a reference to the postcard from his mother which led him to travel to Haiti.
t
His attitude to his lover, Martha, is not only tired but tiring since he seems impelled to undermine their relationship with groundless suspicions. He also seems impelled to have her at the drop of a hat, which gave me the impression that for him sex was like responding to an urgent need to relieve himself, affection having nothing to do with it. As adulterers go (my phrase, not his) she is honest while he is not.

'Many months later when the affair was over, I realised and appreciated her directness. She played no part. She answered exactly what I asked. She never claimed to like a thing that she disliked or to love something to which she was indifferent. If I had failed to understand her it was because I failed to ask her the right questions, that was all. It was true that she was no comedian. She kept the virtue of innocence, and I knew now why I loved her.' (p138)
t
Comedians aren't serious. This is because they play parts, as Brown's mother had suggested he was doing just before she croaked. So Brown is a comedian because he isn't serious. Jones is a major comedian because he pretends to be what he would like to have been. According to the publisher's blurb, Smith is also a comedian. I don't think so. He is ridiculously serious throughout, and certainly isn't playing a part. The fact that he doesn't have a faith is cited (by the publisher) as evidence that Smith is a comedian, thus turning reality on its head. But the publisher may not be right in suggesting that Greene intended Smith to be a comedian. If he did, he was in a different category – the unintentional comedian.

In fact, Greene comes at it from at least one other angle, which does not require faith.
'Neither of us would ever die for love. We would grieve and separate and find another. We belonged to the world of comedy and not of tragedy.' (p161)

He is referring to Martha and himself, when they lie down outside with a view to sex but choose a shallow grave location to do it. Apparently, you have to choose one extreme or the other. Horace Walpole strongly inclines me to the comic pole. People of a tragic cast of mind take themselves far too seriously.

Greene has traveled a lot and knew many countries. The Quiet American and the Comedians are good books partly because they evoke Vietnam and Haiti so well. Either that or they appear to. I have no way of knowing which it is. We would have to ask observant people who were there at the time. I know no such people, neither do I know if this has ever been attempted.

I get the impression that Green's first person narrators leave a lot to be desired. Like Greene.

حتی اگر اعتقادتان را به چیزی از دست داده‌اید،
نفس اعتماد را فراموش نکنید‌.انسان همواره به جای اعتقادی که از دست داده جانشینی برمی‌گزیند.آیا این جانشین می‌تواند همان اعتقاد قبلی، منتهی با نقاب دیگری باشد؟
.
پ.ن ۱: فاصله‌ی کمی که ایران با هایتی داره، به وحشتم میندازه.
.
پ.ن ۲: اگه بخوام "گرین" رو تو سه کلمه توصیف کنم :
بی‌ادعا، بی‌ادعا، بی‌ادعا

בסך הכל נהניתי מהנזיד הזה שרקח גרין. כל נזיד הוא חיבור בין מרכיבים שונים ומשונים, מהם איכותיים ומהם נחותים תמצאו בו שאריות עבשות כמו גם עצמות שעוד נותר עליהן בשר. אז כמו שפתחתי, הטעם הכללי טוב, לא כל המרכיבים טריים אבל טבח כגרין משכיל לאזן ביניהם וליצור חיבורים מעניינים. ואם להשתמש במטאפורה מסוג שונה ... גרין הפך את הספר קרוב לפרסומו גם לתסריט שגם התממש לכדי סרט (אותו לא ראיתי). אז הספר הוא כמו סרט משנות החמישים או השישים. שורה עליו אווירה של קלאסיקה בעלת אופי ישן מעט (קצב איטי, דלות התרחשויות, כתיבה מפוקחת המבקרת את האמפריאליזם שחציה עוד נגוע במוטיבים קלוניאליים).

זה בעת ובעונה אחת גם יתרונו וגם חסרונו. מצד אחד אפשר להינות מספרות מודרנית, הבנויה היטב שאינה ממהרת לשום מקום, מצד שני חלק מהדברים התיישנו. מה התיישן? העלילה (כאמור בנויה היטב) אינה עשירה או בעלת תפניות מרובות יחסית לרומנים המתפרסמים כיום. גם תאור זוועות המשטר העריץ של פפא-דוק ושלוחיו הרצחניים הטון-טון מקות, כבר קהה עוקצו. נדמה שבשישים השנים שמאז פרסומו כבר הועלתה כל זוועה על הכתב או הוסרטה (כאילו ששילובם של רצח-עם או גילוי עריות ביצירת אומנות מעניקות לה אוטומטית איזו חותמת של מכובדות, דחיפות ואיכות). יש בספר גם הרבה פילוסופיה – עיקרה צידוד בהימנעות מאידאולוגיות גדולות, ההופכות תמיד לרצחניות והדגשת הדואליות שבאופי האמריקני – אידאליסטי ונאיבי מצד אחד ואימפיאליסטי ציני מצד שני. אך גם זו היום כבר אינה מחדשת הרבה.

אבל הספר מאוזן ביותר ומשלב יפה בין מרכיבים אלו ואף מוסיף להם סיפור אהבה, גבורה, דמויות פלאקטיות במתכוון (המשקפות אלו את אלו ובעצם ניתנות להחלפה באפיון הכללי שלהן) ואווירה יפה משהו של ריקנות סוריאליסטית הנובעת מהתרחשות הסיפור על רקע אפל של מדינה טוטאליטרית מתפוררת ונחשלת.

פתיחת הספר יפה – הגיבורים עושים דרכם להאיטי בספינה, מה שמאפשר לגרין להטרים התרחשויות,ליצור אינטימיות בין הדמויות ואז להדגיש חצייה של גבול, עם העגינה, אל עולם אחר - אמיתי עד כאב אך גם מתעתע כשאול אפלה. ההמשך יותר סטנדרתי אך גרין קושר היטב בסופו של דבר את כל הקצוות.

The Comedians is almost - almost - as dark as a pair of Tontons Macoute sunglasses.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_g_n...

After I finished reading The Comedians, I read Paul Theroux's introduction and wondered why he wrote it, since his opinion of it is not very high. After very little thought, the answer is that he was paid to write it and it was just another writing gig. Then I wondered why Penguin accepted his introduction and printed it. I couldn't come up with an answer for that one. If I were the publisher, I would have paid him and told him to hit the road and to take his intro with him.

4.5 - Very gripping. One of my top three Greene novels, together with The Quiet American and The End of the Affair.

This suspenseful comedic novel begins on a cargo ship en route from Philadelphia to Port-au-Prince in the early 1960s, during the early years of the murderous reign of the Haitian dictator François "Papa Doc" Duvalier: Brown, who runs a luxury hotel for foreigners that he inherited from his mother; Smith, a minor candidate for the US Presidency in 1948 who ran on an anti-war, pro-vegetarian platform, who is accompanied by his equally naïve and bombastic wife; and Jones, another Briton, who claims that he is a distinguished army major but seems to be full of hot air and completely untrustworthy. All are aware of the terror that Duvalier has inflicted on his opponents and innocent civilians with the help of the Tontons Macoute, his sadistic paramilitary force, yet each of them are unconcerned for their own safety as white foreigners. Brown is drawn back to his hotel and, more importantly, to the woman he desires, if not loves; Smith and his wife seek an audience with a government minister to discuss the creation of a vegetarian center in the capital; and Jones plans a secretive deal that promises to provide him with enough money for him to create a Caribbean golf resort.

Upon his return to the hotel Brown makes a surprising discovery, which he manages to hide from the Smiths, who accept his offer to be his guests. The four become entrenched in the violence and their lives are clearly in danger, yet they are largely oblivious to the threat in the beginning. Brown and Jones independently and repeatedly encounter the Tontons Macoute and one of its captains, along with a corrupt government minister and a trusted local physician. Jones gets into deep trouble, and somehow manages to enlist Brown's help in a risky plan that seems destined to result in failure and their deaths.

The Comedians was mildly entertaining, but it was ultimately a disappointing read given my high expectations for it. The Haitian people, government and paramilitary officers were largely portrayed as exotic buffoons, with little to distinguish them from people from other countries in Africa or the Caribbean, and the sense of imminent danger that the characters were often faced with did not ring anywhere near as true as it did in [The Feast of the Goat], Mario Vargas Llosa's much better novel set during the last days of Rafael Trujillo's regime in the neighboring Dominican Republic. Those interested in learning more about life in Haiti during the Duvalier regime would be much better off reading the works of writers such as Edwidge Danticat, Lyonel Trouillot and Dany Laferrière instead.

Even a flawed Graham Greene is worth reading. You've got the standard tone deaf Americans and an unsavory Brit to go along with the corrupt officials and the misguided revolutionaries, but in the end, I think the horror of Papa Doc and the Tonton Macoute was too much for him.

I came to this book because I needed an author I could rely on and invariably, for me, that is Graham Greene. He does desperation so well but he is brilliant because he is able to sneak hope into characters a more cynical reader might describe as naive. In this there is a lesson for all of us.

I was bizarrely taken by the principle of a failed hotelier in Haiti. Perhaps it was unintentional, but I found it deeply evocative. There is something about the desperate attempt to maintain an industry in a place where everyone knows it will fail, that is strangely compelling. It’s one of the few reasons Brown is so likeable. But it is only in the complement of two other failed men that he becomes such a great character.

This is an easy recommendation, as is practically everything I’ve read by Greene.

Persnickety Narrator sounds Like "Before Man" in Ex Lax Radio Ad

I don't mind so much Greene's hatred of the U.S. in this novel (set on the island of Hispaniola, mainly in Haiti), which is above average insofar as novels go in an intriguing, if not suspenseful, story line, and relatively interesting characters. Though I do prefer Greene's Catholic novels, since few can really successfully aim a grudge or resentment, the likes of which Greene had with the United States.

Yet, I must say that the narrator, who narrates virtually all Greene audiobooks besides "The End of the Affair" (narrated by Colin Firth), sounds persnickety and quite clogged.

I'm giving four stars to The Comedians, because it is very much awesome. Open ending, but not really a happy one in my opinion, it leaves some empty feeling in the end, questioning whether anything we do is really worth in the end if we lose all friends and family. Idk, might be my current existential crisis speaking, but still.
Liked the characters, I really liked Martha, not so sure why. Loved the writing, the whole story, along with the characters.

Είμαι πολύ λίγος για να μιλήσω για τον Graham Greene, μου αρέσει οτιδήποτε έχει γράψει και θέλω να διαβάσω τα άπαντα. Δεν θέλω να πω τίποτα παρα μόνό ότι η σκιαγράφιση των χαρακτήρων είναι τόσο ζωντανή όσο κανενός σύγχρονου συγγραφέα ένω τα ηθικά διλήμματα είναι πραγματικά χωρίς να έχουν φτηνό μελόδραμα και αναμόχλευση των κλισέ. Πάντα τέτοια!!