مُقلدها عنوان کتابی ایست از گراهام گرین ، نمایشنامه نویس ، منتقد ادبی و داستان نویس سرشناس انگلیسی . کتاب مقلدها پس از سفر او به هائیتی نوشته شده و روایتگر دورانی از هائیتی ایست که کشور در چنگال فرانسوا دووالیه دیکتاتور یا پاپادوک اسیر بوده و تون تون ماکوت ها یا شبه نظامی ها حکومت ترس و وحشت در سرتاسر هائیتی فقیر و قحطی زده برپا کرده اند .
گرین با زبانی سرشار از طنز فقر و عقب ماندگی و ویرانی تقریبا تمامی زیرساختارهای یک کشور کاملا بحران زده را شرح داده ، فقر ، گرسنگی ، فساد ، ناامنی ، نبود سوخت ، قطع مداوم و همیشگی برق و تلفن ، جهل و خرافات تنها بخشی از چهره و حقیقت هائیتی را نشان می دهد . سوی دیگر تباهی ، غرب به رهبری آمریکاست که نه تنها چشم خود را بر این جنایات بسته ، بلکه به بهانه مبارزه با کمونیسم از رژیم پاپادوک حمایت هم می کند .
رگه های طنز را در تمامی شخصیت های مُقلدها می توان دید . راوی داستان براون ، سرهنگ جونز و آقا و خانم اسمیت گرچه با مشکلاتی روبرو هستند که می تواند به قیمت جان آنها تمام شود اما تلاش آنها برای حل بحران و نجات خود ، غالبا خود به بحرانی دیگر ختم می شود .
جالب ترین آنها را باید زوج آمریکایی اسمیت دانست که در طعنه ای آشکار به ناآگاهی آمریکایی ها از روزگار هائیتی ، به قصد سرمایه گذاری درصنعت گیاه خواری به کشوری آمده اند که تقریبا همه از آن فراری شده اند و کمبود هر نوع خوردنی در آن آشکار است . گرچه که بی خبری اسمیت ها با اصولگرا و سخت پابند به اخلاق بودن آنها همراه شده است .
گرین مبارزات پارتیزانی ضد پاپادوک را هم به سخره گرفته ، پارتیزان ها نه دانش و علمی برای ارائه راه حل دارند و نه قدرتی برای آنکه رژیم را بترسانند . سر دسته آنها باید هم سرهنگ قلابی باشد که به عمر خود نه در جنگل بوده و نه اسلحه ای در دست گرفته است .
اهمیت مقلدها را باید در آشنا کردن افکار عمومی جهان ( البته منظور آمریکا و اروپاست ) با کشور همواره مصیبت زده هائیتی دانست . ( اگرچه که چندان مشخص نیست که این آشنایی چه اثرات مثبتی برای هائیتی داشته ) گرین تصویری واضح و روشن از زندگی درجهنمی به نام هائیتی ترسیم کرده است .

This book was published in 1965 and the audible version of it was created in 1993. This is pretty ancient by audible terms and certainly preceded the time when audible books were rightly considered done by performers rather than readers. This audible performance definitely leans in the direction of being done by a reader.

I was thinking that this book being written by Graham Green would be a little more complex than I found it to be. It is possible that that is because I completely missed the point! over 50 years after the time of Papa Doc in Haiti we have perhaps forgotten that horror. Regrettably for Haitians that were goes on in newer forms in 2021.

This book captures the horror of life in Haiti in the mid-20th century without really closely examining any true Haitian characters. And my expectation of Graham Greene having some religious content was only occasioned by the hero having gone to school in a Jesuit school and some tangential religious references occasionally.

I found the book in someways fascinating because of the characters and their struggles to find a meaningful and strangely moral life. The comedians had some kind of reference to people trying to live their lives with their true self being somehow hidden to protect themselves from I’m not quite sure what. It would be easy to say they were protecting themselves from the papa docs of the world but that would probably be an oversimplification. This is not a book where anyone finds a happy ending. Some people find a cause that they might be willing to die for.

I’ve always wanted to read Greene because of my love for the film The Third Man, and I’m not sure why I choose this one to start, but it was an excellent choice. A cynical hotelier, a confidence man, and an idealist couple travel to an island ruled by a mad doctor, their respective names are Browne, Jones, and Smith. What type of story is this? Well this book discusses whether we are in tragedy, a comedy, an adventure story, or a romance and can never quite decide, in which lies the truth. Set in a sadly, I believe, accurately described Haiti during the rule of “Papa Doc” Duvalier and his Tonton Macoute secret police (which translate to the equivalent to our legend of the boogeyman), a nation controlled by superstition, fear, and absurdity (but supported by the U.S. because it was anti-communist), this story has suspense, tragedy, and dark comedy, in its cinematic scope. Plus lots of discussion about the difference between those that believe (whether in vegetarianism (The Smiths the couple, not the band, but then again Meat is Murder), communism (Dr. Magiot), Catholicism, or lies (Jones and Browne’s mother and her lover) and those that do not like Browne, and who rootless and empty, still survive. Lots of food for thought in other words. Will definately read lots more Greene.

Our main character is a world weary drifter. The novel starts with him returning to Haiti on a cargo ship with just a handful of passengers. There are so few Europeans in Haiti that all these passengers and some of the crew enter the story again. Disengaged from his courtesan mother and even unsure what his last name really is, he has worked in European restaurants and sold forged low-end paintings. His mother dies and leaves him a hotel/cabaret in Port-au-Prince. He attempts to run the hotel and has an affair with a South American ambassador’s wife who is obsessed with her child. He ruins the affair with his jealousy.



The real story is the brutality of the Haitian dictatorship. Despite the blatant brutality of their regimes, the US supported the Haitian dictators “Papa Doc” Duvalier from 1957-1971, and his son, “Baby Doc,” until 1986, because they were anti-communist. This was the time after Castro’s takeover of Cuba.

Key figures in the story are the Tontons Macoute, perhaps the original “Men in Black.” They are the ‘police’ who run the country; basically terrorist authorized to kill, rape, torture and steal. The drive around in US military style jeeps and they all wear cheap sunglasses. They are the KGB and the SAVAK of Haiti. (I have known folks from the Caribbean who are visibly upset when the term “Tontons” is mentioned.) More people die in this book than in a typical Friday the 13th horror movie.



Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. The phones don’t work; electricity is intermittent; no one travels at night for fear of the Tontons; the capital city is a shantytown; school kids are rounded up to watch executions in the park. The country is thoroughly corrupt. (The book was published in 1965. I found it in a used bookstore and in the back was a clipping of a NYT article from 1982 about how half the food aid being sent to Haiti was stolen and diverted into the black market. I thought, ‘Only half?’)

A very naïve couple from the US, promoters of vegetarianism, serve as foils for the events. The husband is always referred to as “the Presidential candidate” because he ran against Truman and got a few votes as one of those numerous also-rans. So we have the black humor of conversations about goings-on in Haiti which begin literally as soon as the main character arrives back at his hotel and within minutes finds the body of a government minister in his pool.

“They can’t make it out to be anything but suicide,” I said. “They can make it out to be whatever suits them.”

“Has he seen a lawyer?” “That’s not possible here. The police wouldn’t allow it.”

“A witness here can suffer just as much as the accused.”

“What is the charge?” “There won’t necessarily be a charge.”

“The minister said he was a Haitian and he could do what he liked with a Haitian.”

“The police may exceed their instructions.”

If someone is silly enough to ask about things such as ‘bail’ or a ‘warrant,’ the police laugh and pretend not to understand. (Or genuinely do not understand.)

The main theme of this novel, from which the title derives, is this: a few people have a purpose in life. They are dedicated to a cause, committed to some purpose; they have dedication, courage and integrity. They might be Catholics or communists or, like the husband-wife team in the story, even vegetarians. But they have something. The rest are comedians. The main character admits to being a comedian. In early conversation on the ship one of the other characters speaks of the same idea, calling the people with purpose tofts, and the comedians, tarts. Here’s a great quote from a priest at a funeral; he’s obviously not a comedian (spoken in the Dominican Republic; he would not dare say this in Haiti):

“…our hearts go out in sympathy to all who are moved to violence by the suffering of others. The Church condemns violence, but it condemns indifference more harshly. Violence can be the expression of love, indifference never. One is an imperfection of charity, the other the perfection of egoism.”

This is Graham Greene, so obviously we expect and we get excellent writing. A few examples:

“He was only half way through his own story and he had no audience left: he resembled a sea-lion who has dropped his fish.”

“He knew as many intimate things as a prostitute’s dog.”

“’There’s a rendezvous I have to keep,’ I told her without knowing that I spoke the truth.”

“…his teeth were very big and white and separate, like tombstones designed for a much larger cemetery. A curious smell crossed his desk as though one grave had stayed open.”

Talking about religion:
“I remember now. I used to think you were nothing.”
“I am nothing.”
“Yes, but a Protestant nothing, not a Catholic nothing. I am a Protestant nothing.”



Other novels I have read about Haiti all portray the same tragic story such as The Kingdom of This World and Love, Anger, Madness: A Haitian Trilogy. The Feast of the Goat is about the kindred spirit of the brutal dictator Trujillo around the same time as the Docs in neighboring Dominican Republic, with which Haiti shares its island.

Photos, top to bottom, from andygallacher.com; forargyll.com; hardrainproject.com

Είναι το πρώτο βιβλίο του Γκράχαμ Γκρην που διαβάζω, σίγουρα όχι όμως και το τελευταίο. Ξεκινά παλιομοδίτικα, αλλά σελίδα τη σελίδα με κατακτούσε όλο και πιο πολύ, με αποτέλεσμα από ένα σημείο και μετά να μην μπορώ να το αφήσω από τα χέρια μου. Αληθινοί χαρακτήρες, εξαιρετική ανάπλαση ενός τόπου και μιας εποχής που δεν πολυγνωρίζουμε (Αϊτή την εποχή της δικτατορίας του Πάπα Ντοκ), βαθιά φιλοσοφικό. Για κάποιον λόγο μου θύμισε Καζαντζάκη, τόσο το Ζορμπά όσο και τον Καπετάν-Μιχάλη.

Although I’ve yet to read everything by Graham Greene, and he’s one of my favorite authors with several novels ranking ‘Top 100’ status, The Comedians by him has now elbowed its way up there among the ‘amazingly unforgettable’ stories at the top.

As with most GG books, it shares a tropical but not exotic setting: Haiti, under François Duvalier, un-affectionately known as “Papa Doc”, elected president in 1957 on a populist and black nationalist platform, who ruled the poverty-stricken country from 1957 to 1971 by means of the Tonton Macoute, an undercover death squad, which killed ruthlessly and indiscriminately—at least as feared by native Haitians as the KGB and/or the SS were in their respective times and countries.

Into this setting sails the main character, Brown, the story’s narrator, a disillusioned part-English, native Monacan, returning to claim the hotel left by his deceased mother. With him are Jones, a likeable fool and Smith and his wife, Americans coming to bring vegetarianism to Haiti, where most people are too poor to even buy meat. But before you dismiss the Smiths as comic figures—as I was wont to do at first—that isn’t what GG has in mind by his title.

By comedians, Greene is actually making reference to The Divine Comedy, the ultimate Story where we all dwell whether or not we acknowledge it. Here we face the choice: comedy or tragedy? A comedy ends in marriage and a tragedy in death. In the supernatural realm this refers to our soul. Will we wed the Bridegroom, Jesus, or will we choose spiritual death instead?

As I listened to The Comedians, I didn’t spend much time thinking about this analogy—the plot line was too enjoyable. I’m loathe to write anything which might give away too much now. Let’s just say, don’t read too many reviews about this book unless you want this excellent story spoilt ahead of time. Knowing nothing about the book going into it, except for a bit of Haiti history for the time, is best.

Near the beginning of the book, good-natured Jones said, “I divide the world into two parts—the toffs and the tarts. . .” By that he meant, those who are committed and those who aren’t. “Who are The Comedians?” In other words, who are those who will choose commitment ... gain Eternal Life? It is always an individual choice.

GREAT book!

TONTON MACOUTE



Uno dei miei romanzi preferiti di Greene.
Più che per la trama in sé, perché il mio scrittore inglese amato sembra alleggerire il peso della croce cattolica che si porta da qualche parte, sul cuore, o sulle spalle, non so.
Sembra invece farsi più politico, più tagliente, più mordace.
E crea una magnifica atmosfera in una Haiti terrorizzante, e terrorizzata dai Tontons Macoute, la polizia “segreta” di “Papa Doc” Duvalier, il dittatore nero dell’isola nera, a poche onde di distanza dalla minacciosa Cuba comunista, e per questo “ultimo baluardo contro il comunismo”, come il turpe stregone fascista ama definirsi per compiacere il suo sponsor più importante, il governo degli US.


Liz Taylor/Martha è sposata con Peter Ustinov, ambasciatore tedesco.

Greene conosceva bene l’isola, e conosceva bene Duvalier e le sue feroci squadracce di torturatori.
E regala un altro di quei magici viaggi a cavallo tra tropici, esotismo, politica, thriller, avventura, storia d’amore fallito.
A proposito di quest’ultima, devo dire che il romanzo è avaro, suggerisce più che mettere in scena: Brown, il narratore, vive nella sua mente il rimpianto d’amore per la donna che ha lasciato sull’isola, Martha, e che vorrebbe ritrovare. Ultima occasione d’amore.
Ma lei è sposata a un ambasciatore (tedesco nel film, uruguayano nel romanzo) e flirta con un mercenario e trafficante di armi, il maggiore Brown.



Solo che nel film (1967) sceneggiato dallo stesso scrittore, film non eccezionale, ma interpretato da una coppia magica provvista di sguardi che hanno fatto la storia del cinema, Richard Burton ed Elizabeth Taylor, all’epoca impegnati nel loro primo tumultuoso matrimonio, che insieme al secondo ci ha tenuti inchiodati alle paginacce dei rotocalchi, che all’epoca anticipavano i social e le chiacchiere da bar oggi sfornate da quell’editore internazionale chiamato internet, il non eccezionale film, grazie alla magia elettrica di questa coppia, trasforma la donna da pensiero e ricordo più che personaggio (Brown la pensa e rimpiange molto, ma la incrocia poco) in protagonista in carne e ossa – meravigliosa carne, e probabilmente altrettanto meravigliose ossa.


Come se non bastasse un marito, un altro uomo che spasima per lei (Burton/Brown), Liz/Martha ha tentazioni per l’avventuriero Alec Guinness/Jones.

Mentre ad Haiti incombe la notte imposta dalla dittatura di gente dalla pelle nera su gente dalla pelle nera afflitta da miseria nera, resa più che inquietante letteralmente terrorizzante dai torturatori che portano gli occhiali da sole anche in piena notte, l’avventura – anche romantica – inizia sull’imbarcazione che dalle coste americane, da New York per la precisione, sta dirigendosi verso l’isola, una scalcagnata nave da carico della Regia Società di Navigazione olandese.
A bordo una coppia americana - lui è stato candidato alle lezioni presidenziali contro Truman, e ora insieme vorrebbero introdurre il veganesimo a Cuba (!?!) - e due avventurieri inglesi che imparano a conoscersi: uno è il narratore Brown, che sta facendo ritorno ad Haiti dove ha ereditato un hotel, l’altro è Jones che durante la navigazione intrattiene gli altri con le sue affascinanti storie di guerra, quando comandava plotoni in Congo e Birmania (per mia delizia Greene è tutto meno che tenero col colonialismo inglese, imperialismo mascherato da democrazia, nessuna nostalgia, nessuna giustificazione):
I gentiluomini hanno un impiego fisso o un buon reddito. Hanno qualcosa su cui contare, come lei il suo albergo. Gli svelti… be’, noi ci guadagniamo da vivere qua e là… nei bar. Teniamo le orecchie aperte e altrettanto aperti gli occhi.
Ma Greene ha in serbo per lo “svelto” Jones una fine magnifica.


Lillian Gish è la moglie nella coppia che vuole portare a Haiti la cultura vegetariana.

Morti (Le morti violente sono morti naturali, qui. È morto del suo ambiente.), suicidi (quello del ministro del Benessere Sociale!), “prima notte di quiete” trascorsa sdraiati per terra in un cimitero, bare sequestrate nel mezzo del funerale…
Greene non risparmia l’ironia neppure nei momenti più drammatici, il suo black humour percorre tutto il romanzo.
I personaggi della commedia, i commedianti del titolo diventano eroi tragici nel dramma di una terra che ha perso qualsiasi valore morale e rispetto per l’umanità.

The Comedians is such a fresh change from more recently written, formulaic detective novels, murder mysteries, chick-lit and suburban trauma-drama. Set in 1960s Haiti under the dictatorship of Papa Doc Duvalier, the story is told in the first person by a Mr. Brown whose first name we never learn (it's part of the comedy that there is a Mr. Brown, a Mr. Jones and a Mr. Smith, none of whom have first names). Brown owns a hotel he's trying to sell because Haiti is crumbling politically and as a result physically and economically, but he's tied to the old hotel emotionally as well as to an ambassador's wife. So there's a love story as well as jealousy, danger from the thugs whose side I could never figure out, and the sort of corruption you always find in Third World countries. Greene manages to weave a terrific story in all of this, adding in humor as well as plot and suspense. But this is unlike any other novel I have read, even other Graham Greene novels. Perhaps it is the character of Mr. Brown, contrasted with the other well-drawn characters, that makes this novel unique and unforgettable.

Always a pleasure for me to discover and read a new Greene novel. Great characters with the world weary, cynical and jaded main character lumbered with a hotel in Haiti at the time of Papa Doc’s crazy dictatorship. A love hate relationship with the German wife of an ambassador.

The semi abandoned hotel suddenly gets a US presidential vegetarian candidate. He has decided to go to Haiti with the insane and challenging idea of opening a vegetarian centre in Haiti! Another mysterious and dubious guest Jones is a Walter Mitty type character trying to make his fortune. The Haiti extremely corrupt secret police are incompetence personified, funny but also dangerous in their craziness.

Comical in places as well as tragic. Another brilliant Greene novel and I can understand why Papa Doc was a bit upset when the novel was first published.

Finding that coincidentally I was reading about Haiti in a week when that sad benighted country fell into total anarchy I found myself deeply engaged with the story of the "comedians" of the title, Smith, hopeless idealist and failed US Presidential candidate, Brown the narrator and self delusional hotelier and Brown the British chancer and alleged Burma veteran.

A fourth major character was the brutal Duvalier regime of Haiti itself and it's nihilistic secret police the Tonton Macoute.

Greene has written a masterpiece of claustrophobic brooding fiction where no-one can be trusted in a setting that grips the reader like a vice.

My favourite Graham Greene was previously "The End of the Affair" but this has taken the crown.

Magnificent.

3.5*

Must be my Graham Greene year, read him sporadically before, but now I can't seem to get enough of him.

The story takes place in the madhouse that is Haiti during the early 1960s. Haiti at the time was a melting pot of voodoo, colonialism, and terror. The corrupt dictator Papa Doc Duvalier, rules through fear and unpredictability, and many from abroad are unsafe (as are the locals).

There's comment here from Greene on how the so-called superpowers of the Cold War supported such horrific regimes for their own political gain sake (can't say much has changed). In this case the totalitarian regime had the US patronage, as Haiti was seen as a combatant against the spread of communism. Irony obviously abounds.

The protagonist, hotelier Brown (Comedian No. 1), is from what I've read and seen of Greene's own life, a strong reflection of the author himself. He's cynical but with a ray of hope, a deep thinker, both passionate and uncertain in his affairs of the heart. Haiti is in dangerous turmoil and Brown is nearly devoid of care as he watches the chaos surrounding him. This is highlighted by his comical commentary on the incredibly naïve American couple, The Smiths (Comedians N0. 2), who in this bizarre state of national upheaval are on a ludicrous campaign to spread vegetarian eating, despite the fact many Haitians have no food at all.

Jones (Comedian no. 3) is a complex character. Who is he really? Hero? Anti-hero? Part conman/part hero? Or complete conman? Yet Jones also has the unique ability to elicit laughter from anybody. Jones, as the flawed figure in many of Greene's novels, does possess some courageous heroic traits. And whether there's a grain of truth in his layered fictitious self-proclaimed backstory, Jones is ultimately heroic.

They are all in danger in the politically charged and incredibly unstable atmosphere.

This is clever Greene. A situational blend of comedy and drama, replete with irony but also a witty commentary on the free world at the time.

This books starts with the three main male characters, and one of the main female characters on a ship, the Medea, bound for Haiti. They are thrown together due to being the only European passengers.
They each travel to Haiti for quite different reasons.

I enjoyed this book perhaps more than any other Graham Greene novel I have read so far. Perhaps it is because the fiction is carefully wrapped in a very real setting, time and situation - Haiti in the 1960s. The time of François 'Papa Doc' Duvalier, the dictatorial President, with his Tonton Macoute or secret police.

Mr Brown the hotelier, Mr Smith (an his wife) the innocent American and Mr Jones (Major Jones) the confidence man are the "Comedians" of Graham Greene's title. Greene's premise is that a few people have a purpose in life, the rest are just comedians.

For me this book strikes a curious balance - between amusing scenes and situations, and the darker oppressiveness of the dictator and the fear and violence. Then there is the intrigue, the jealousy, vegetarianism, political intrigues, voodoo, the rebels, dead ministers and power, cruelty and fear. As well as all of this, there is Greene's assertion that Americas support of Papa Doc was so poorly chosen, simply because of his objection to communism.

5 stars