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The Comedians (Penguin Classics)
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Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Author: Graham Greene
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price: $10.20
You Save: $ 4.80 ( 32% )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Author: Graham Greene
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Average Customer Rating:
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The Comedians (Penguin Classics) Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780143039198
ISBN: 0143039199
Label: Penguin Classics
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 320
Publication Date: 2005-01-25
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Product Release Date: 2005-01-25
Studio: Penguin Classics
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780143039198
ISBN: 0143039199
Label: Penguin Classics
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 320
Publication Date: 2005-01-25
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Product Release Date: 2005-01-25
Studio: Penguin Classics
Editorial Review of The Comedians (Penguin Classics)
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.
Customer Reviews of The Comedians (Penguin Classics)
Customer Rating: 
Review Summary: Fascinating glimpse into a troubled country...
Review: 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.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Perhaps Greene's greatest
Review: "I am in favour of jokes. They have political value. Jokes are a release for the cowardly and the impotent."
This was my first Graham Greene novel, and is still my favorite. The preceding quote comes from a leader of the Haitian Tontons Macoute during the brutal reign of Papa Doc during which the novel takes place. I love that quote not because I agree with it, but because it sums up how little value the most brutal among us place on subtlety or joy. All of Greene's central themes are here - socialism vs catholicism, death as reward for virtue, and of course us American simpletons and the havoc we bumblingly sow across the globe. That last part was sarcastic, at least mildly.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Cynicism Meets Innocence Amidst Ruin in Haiti. Welcome to Greeneland!
Review: Just like ten years earlier in "The Quiet American" Greene presented Vietnam in vivid detail to his audience. In "The Comedians" he does the same with Haiti. Dictator "Papa Doc" is in power with American assistance since he's a bulwark against communism. Important characters include Brown the protagonist, Martha his German mistress, Jones the trickster who can't talk without lying, Mr. and Mrs. Smith the innocent Americans traveling to Haiti to espouse benefits of Vegetarianism and Dr. Magiot, one of few doctors in Haiti who is discreetly a communist. One finds the usual Greene elements in this novel: protagonist's cynicism, doubt, love-hate relationship with his mistress, his frequenting the brothels and the discussion about morality, Catholicism and God. Reading Paul Theroux introduction is helpful too.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: BETTER LATE THAN NEVER
Review: This is a late review and I won't go over what has already been said about this novel. Papa Doc's reign of terror is now historical fact. But if one reads this tight political thriller and one of Greene's best, you can see history repeating itself in the not too recent Hussein reign of terror or go back on a grander scale to Hitler. It goes on and on and THE COMEDIANS deliberately gives the main characters a "no name" status--common with no first names. They are people who hide themselves behind comedic masks and at times tell funny stories while the terror of the Touton Mocteuc consumes everything around them.
We are fortunate there is a paperback edition of this classic still available in print. It is a must read to learn the valuable lessons of the past. When the book was written, it was immediate and hard hitting. The author has visited Haiti twice and before finishing it, Papa Doc heard of the book and refused him entrance into the country, so the book ends on a boat leaving the country which was probably not the author's original ending due to his inability to enter Haiti again.
A very important book for all. A must read. As I stated, I am not giving plot summary or details that have been written about previously in 20 some reviews, just an overview of the book and the impact it still maintains after 40 years.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Comedy and tragedy in the dark night of Haiti
Review: Three men meet on the Medea, a ship sailing from Philadelphia to Haiti, a country then in the grip of the corrupt Doctor Duvalier - Papa Doc - and his sinister secret police, the Tontons Macoute.
Brown is a sixty-year old owner of the hotel Trianon in Port-au-Prince which he inherited from his mother. The place used to swarm with guests, there used to be cocktails and music but now with the Duvalier regime, hardly any tourists come to Haiti. He is a man without roots and often disillusioned because he has lost the capacity to be concerned, Yet subsequent events in the novel show that he is a man who can get involved if the situation requires him to do so, even at the expense of his own safety. In this sense he is a true humanist.
Mr and Mrs Smith are an American couple travelling to Haiti to open a centre of vegetarian cooking in Port-au-Prince. The reality they are about to discover is bound to disappoint them bitterly. These two characters show that a passionate belief in the integrity of the world may not be a simple flaw in character.
And then there is Mr Jones the confidence man whom everyone likes because he can make people laugh despite the fact that little of what he claims can be taken seriously.
These are the comedians in Mr Greene's novel. As the narrator states at one point: as long as we pretend, we escape. The atrocious dictatorship of Papa Doc is vividly portrayed and looking back it seems hardly believable that such an appalling personage was once viewed as a safeguard against communism in Haiti by Washington. The darkness and the terror of the curfew, the telephones that don't work, the Tontons Macoute in their dark glasses, the violence, injustice, torture and poverty, everything is sharply described by the author. And yet despite all the pain there is always time for love and laughter.
This book has been published as an audiobook by the BBC and is read in a superb way by the comedian Tim Pigott-Smith.
Review Summary: Fascinating glimpse into a troubled country...
Review: 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.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Perhaps Greene's greatest
Review: "I am in favour of jokes. They have political value. Jokes are a release for the cowardly and the impotent."
This was my first Graham Greene novel, and is still my favorite. The preceding quote comes from a leader of the Haitian Tontons Macoute during the brutal reign of Papa Doc during which the novel takes place. I love that quote not because I agree with it, but because it sums up how little value the most brutal among us place on subtlety or joy. All of Greene's central themes are here - socialism vs catholicism, death as reward for virtue, and of course us American simpletons and the havoc we bumblingly sow across the globe. That last part was sarcastic, at least mildly.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Cynicism Meets Innocence Amidst Ruin in Haiti. Welcome to Greeneland!
Review: Just like ten years earlier in "The Quiet American" Greene presented Vietnam in vivid detail to his audience. In "The Comedians" he does the same with Haiti. Dictator "Papa Doc" is in power with American assistance since he's a bulwark against communism. Important characters include Brown the protagonist, Martha his German mistress, Jones the trickster who can't talk without lying, Mr. and Mrs. Smith the innocent Americans traveling to Haiti to espouse benefits of Vegetarianism and Dr. Magiot, one of few doctors in Haiti who is discreetly a communist. One finds the usual Greene elements in this novel: protagonist's cynicism, doubt, love-hate relationship with his mistress, his frequenting the brothels and the discussion about morality, Catholicism and God. Reading Paul Theroux introduction is helpful too.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: BETTER LATE THAN NEVER
Review: This is a late review and I won't go over what has already been said about this novel. Papa Doc's reign of terror is now historical fact. But if one reads this tight political thriller and one of Greene's best, you can see history repeating itself in the not too recent Hussein reign of terror or go back on a grander scale to Hitler. It goes on and on and THE COMEDIANS deliberately gives the main characters a "no name" status--common with no first names. They are people who hide themselves behind comedic masks and at times tell funny stories while the terror of the Touton Mocteuc consumes everything around them.
We are fortunate there is a paperback edition of this classic still available in print. It is a must read to learn the valuable lessons of the past. When the book was written, it was immediate and hard hitting. The author has visited Haiti twice and before finishing it, Papa Doc heard of the book and refused him entrance into the country, so the book ends on a boat leaving the country which was probably not the author's original ending due to his inability to enter Haiti again.
A very important book for all. A must read. As I stated, I am not giving plot summary or details that have been written about previously in 20 some reviews, just an overview of the book and the impact it still maintains after 40 years.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Comedy and tragedy in the dark night of Haiti
Review: Three men meet on the Medea, a ship sailing from Philadelphia to Haiti, a country then in the grip of the corrupt Doctor Duvalier - Papa Doc - and his sinister secret police, the Tontons Macoute.
Brown is a sixty-year old owner of the hotel Trianon in Port-au-Prince which he inherited from his mother. The place used to swarm with guests, there used to be cocktails and music but now with the Duvalier regime, hardly any tourists come to Haiti. He is a man without roots and often disillusioned because he has lost the capacity to be concerned, Yet subsequent events in the novel show that he is a man who can get involved if the situation requires him to do so, even at the expense of his own safety. In this sense he is a true humanist.
Mr and Mrs Smith are an American couple travelling to Haiti to open a centre of vegetarian cooking in Port-au-Prince. The reality they are about to discover is bound to disappoint them bitterly. These two characters show that a passionate belief in the integrity of the world may not be a simple flaw in character.
And then there is Mr Jones the confidence man whom everyone likes because he can make people laugh despite the fact that little of what he claims can be taken seriously.
These are the comedians in Mr Greene's novel. As the narrator states at one point: as long as we pretend, we escape. The atrocious dictatorship of Papa Doc is vividly portrayed and looking back it seems hardly believable that such an appalling personage was once viewed as a safeguard against communism in Haiti by Washington. The darkness and the terror of the curfew, the telephones that don't work, the Tontons Macoute in their dark glasses, the violence, injustice, torture and poverty, everything is sharply described by the author. And yet despite all the pain there is always time for love and laughter.
This book has been published as an audiobook by the BBC and is read in a superb way by the comedian Tim Pigott-Smith.