Stephen Hayes reviewed The comedians. by Graham Greene
None
4 stars
A group of travellers who meet on a ship sailing from New York to the Caribbean find their lives entwined long after they step ashore in Haiti, under the dictatorial rule of "Papa Doc" Duvalier and his dreated secret police, the Tonton Macoute.
Brown, the narrator, is a hotelier, returning from an unsuccessful trip to New York attempting to sell the hotel, which he had inherited from his mother. Among his travelling companions are Mr and Mrs Smith, vegetarians hoping to establish a vegetarian centre in Haiti, and "Major" Jones, who turns out to be a con man. The Smiths stay at Brown's hotel, and make it their base for preaching the benefits of vegetarianism.
These expatriates are the comedians of the title, and at many points in the story I was reminded of [a:Jean Genet|29952|Jean Genet|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1605227116p2/29952.jpg]'s play [b:The Balcony|163767|The Man on the Balcony (Martin Beck, #3)|Maj Sjöwall|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320419982l/163767.SY75.jpg|158098], …
A group of travellers who meet on a ship sailing from New York to the Caribbean find their lives entwined long after they step ashore in Haiti, under the dictatorial rule of "Papa Doc" Duvalier and his dreated secret police, the Tonton Macoute.
Brown, the narrator, is a hotelier, returning from an unsuccessful trip to New York attempting to sell the hotel, which he had inherited from his mother. Among his travelling companions are Mr and Mrs Smith, vegetarians hoping to establish a vegetarian centre in Haiti, and "Major" Jones, who turns out to be a con man. The Smiths stay at Brown's hotel, and make it their base for preaching the benefits of vegetarianism.
These expatriates are the comedians of the title, and at many points in the story I was reminded of [a:Jean Genet|29952|Jean Genet|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1605227116p2/29952.jpg]'s play [b:The Balcony|163767|The Man on the Balcony (Martin Beck, #3)|Maj Sjöwall|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320419982l/163767.SY75.jpg|158098], where the setting is a brothel, and the clients are given an opportunity to act out their fantasies. So the comedians play their roles in a society in which everything seems unreal, like a stage set. Over it all hovers the spectral figure of Baron Samedi, the Voodoo lwa of the dead, who functioned (in real life as well as in the novel) as the evil genius of Papa Doc Duvalier.
Brown, who is having an affair with a diplomat's wife, wants to elope with her, but is trapped by, among other things, the corrupt bureaucracy of the authoritarian state, whose ministers tend to disappear when they fall out of favour, and whose bodies disappear even during their funerals.
[a:Graham Greene|2533|Graham Greene|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1254688603p2/2533.jpg] manages to convey the atmosphere of an authoritarian state well, with the ruthless elimination of those perceived as enemies of the regime.
