The Comedians (Penguin Classics)
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The Comedians (Penguin Classics) description
One of Graham Greene's most chilling and prophetic novels, The Comedians is set in a Haiti ruled by Papa Doc and the Tontons Macoute, his sinister secret police. Just as The Quiet American offered a preview of the coming horrors of American involvement in Vietnam, this novel presages the chaos in Haiti. Classic Graham Greene. |
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The Comedians (Penguin Classics) Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥ |
Fascinating glimpse into a troubled country...
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In the introduction to this novel, it seems like Paul Theroux does everything in his power to dissuade you from reading it. "The novel is not one of Greene's best..." he writes. Maybe so, but a bad novel by Graham Greene is better than a good novel by most other authors. Theroux points out that some of the themes - such as a narrator who involved in an affair with a woman who is married to a boring politician - are familiar to Greene's readers. Also, he feels that Greene only gave a superficial depiction of life in Haiti. Perhaps so, but what is here more than makes up for any failings of the novel.
Even Theroux admits "[the novel's] value most of all is its setting... Haiti had no fiction - and hardly had a face - until Greene wrote this book." In many ways this is THE novel about Haiti. Most of its readers won't be FROM Haiti, so it helps that the narrator is an outsider. Brown has returned to his hotel (once, one of the best spots in the Caribbean) because he is unable to sell it - and also to resume his affair with an ambassador's wife. On his return, he enters a nightmare country ruled by the infamous Papa Doc Duvalier.
This novel has become part of Haiti's history. Every time one sees the Oloffson on television or in print, it will always be followed by the blurb: "As immortalized in Graham Greene's novel, The Comedians." Unfortunately, Haiti remains one of the most interesting places in the world, forty some odd years after the publication of this novel. To quote Theroux, who wrote his intro in 2004: "As a Failed State, Haiti has little hope of financial independence or political stability, and seems destined to remain one of the world's slums." This is the type of place that attracted Greene - beautiful countries in the grip of despair, as Mexico was in The Power and the Glory. Greene was obscenely talented (one of the century's best novelists and travel writers). The Comedians is invaluable not only because it allows us a rare glimpse into a mysterious country, but also because it allows us to spend more time in Greeneland.
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