The Comedians

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

Short Review: I know that Greene is one of the most well regarded novelists from the 20th century. And I loved the End of the Affair. But this was not a book that I loved. It ended well (the last 100 pages or so were the most engaging) which is often hard for novelists. And it is easy to see Greene's skill. He can write. And tweaking a repressive dictator that was still in office did take guts. (This was not historical fiction but written as a contemporary novel within a couple years of the setting and published 5 years before Papa Doc died.)

But it does make me want to read more Greene. My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/comedians-graham-greene/

Wonderful, but bleak.

The reading on this audio book wasn't great, but my 5 stars are based on the excellent story by Greene. It's a fascinating tale set in the early days of Papa Doc in Haiti.