A review by david_rhee
The Comedians by Graham Greene

3.0

Graham Greene, the 007 of literature, surely saw much of the world. First, it was the Tabasco region of Mexico, then western Africa, Havana, and now it's Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The story follows shipmates on their way to Haiti who each in his own way resorts to living as a play-actor, or comedian?, to bolster his ambitions in the violent climate of Haiti. There's a fraud military officer, an idealist who envisions a vegetarian center on the island (yes, it is as bizarre as it sounds), and a hotelier who dreams of establishing a tourist haven after fleeing the States to avoid being caught forging works of art. There is a surreal and almost ridiculous feel to the novel as the characters' humorous fronts sidle along just a hair's breadth from the reality of Haiti's bloody dictatorship. The secret police, the much feared Tontons Macoute, menace the locals and foreigners alike. When the players of comedy are faced with the real fate of death and destruction, they can easily become the cast of that other great pillar of theater, tragedy. Curiously, in this passage from one to the other, heroes are born. This is a very clever construction by Graham Greene.