Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

The Comedians

by Graham Greene, Paul Theroux (Introduction)

3.94 of 5 stars 3.94 · rating details · 2,844 ratings · 226 reviews

Three men meet on a ship bound for Haiti, a world in the grip of the corrupt “Papa Doc” and the Tontons Macoute, his sinister secret police. Brown the hotelier, Smith the innocent American, and Jones the confidence man—these are the “comedians” of Greene’s title. Hiding behind their actors’ masks, they hesitate on the edge of life. They are men afraid of love, afraid of pa...more

Paperback, 320 pages

Published February 1st 2005 by Penguin Classics (first published 1965)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene

Best Graham Greene novels

7th out of 20 books — 60 voters

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

Best Books of the Decade: 1960's

107th out of 437 books — 509 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Nov 17, 2012 Evan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: my-faves, __in-my-collection, graham-greene, yearning, favorites, evans-alternative-100

I've just finished this and am basking in some kind of awestruck state. The more I read of Greene, the more I'm slain. The main character, Brown, must be a sort of surrogate for the author: jaded, cynical, fatalistic; a realist who nonetheless has just enough of that kernel of optimism that allows him to hope against hope, to sometimes do the right thing even as the cowardly part of him offers token resistance.

The book takes place in Haiti in the early 1960s during the early days of the terroris...more I've just finished this and am basking in some kind of awestruck state. The more I read of Greene, the more I'm slain. The main character, Brown, must be a sort of surrogate for the author: jaded, cynical, fatalistic; a realist who nonetheless has just enough of that kernel of optimism that allows him to hope against hope, to sometimes do the right thing even as the cowardly part of him offers token resistance.

The book takes place in Haiti in the early 1960s during the early days of the terroristic reign of the brutal dictator Papa Doc Duvalier, and in the framework of a fictional story Greene somehow conveys an illuminating, vividly rendered portrait of an historical time and place without ever resorting to historical explanations. Additionally, there's a wry critique of the Cold War (and presciently, the "war on terror"); a lament of the ongoing tendency of superpowers to support surrogate wars in Third World countries, even when they seem to contradict the supposed idealism of the enabling superpower. In this case, Papa Doc is seen as a "bulwark against communism" and the rebels, merely trying to rescue their country from a monster, are labeled as communists. As in Greene's "The Quiet American," there are westerners---Americans and Europeans---in country, operating at cross purposes or otherwise, yet virtually all ineffectual.

The book is both wry and sad, often in the same sentence, and conveys always a powerful and overwhelming sense of mood, place, tension, yearning, hopelessness and expectation. If there's anything here that leaves nagging doubts, it might be the occasional racism of Greene's omniscient narrator (though we suspect this is how the characters see things), the sense of stiltedness in some of the overly crafted dialogue and his deficiency in rounding out his female characters (Martha seems merely a defeated mirror image of her lover Brown). Still, many of Greene's black characters are rendered sympathetically and show depth, Dr. Magiot and Phillipot for instance.

The enigmatic, chameleon nature of the gypsy-like conman Jones provides Brown and the reader an evolving conundrum that eventually morphs into an absurdist, pathetic comedy. In fact, the one constant about Jones repeatedly alluded to is his talent for making anyone laugh, a skill as good as any in a world where diversion is as important as useless actions. He is, in a sense, the central "comedian" of the story. His can-do bullshitting seems infectious, and in fact, it turns out to really be the only skill he has, despite his elaborate personal backstory. The notion that we're all unwitting comedians in a tragic world seems a too obvious conceit on Greene's part, too cheap of one for an author of his skill and stature. Yet, the true nature of Jones, revealed at the book's end, makes the conceit more valid. Brown's dispassionate observations of the madness around him belie the pull of a morality that still radiates a magnetism inside him, and allows him to admire the certainty of purpose possessed by the naive American couple, the Smiths, who are on a daffy campaign to bring vegetarianism to places where people don't tend to have any food at all.

It's a darkly funny conceit in a book drenched in black comedy and tropical heat. The moral force that moves Brown finally also moves Jones to become the man he has always claimed to be, a hero stitched from the wholecloth of his own fictions. He becomes an unlikely hero, to Brown and to us. This is a splendid, memorable short novel that just may haunt you as much as it likely will me. -EG

[The 1967 film version with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor is a strange and wonderful oddity but is no substitute for the book (even though Greene himself wrote the screenplay). The movie jettisons the many pages of personal backstory about Brown's youth and his mother and all the activities aboard the ship prior to his return to Haiti that make up a large part of the book's first portion. We see Jones thrown into the stockade for interrogation just a few minutes into the film, whereas in the book this takes place much later (in fact, Jones' apparent disappearance remains a mystery to other characters for quite a long time in the book). Jones is thus too demystified early in the film. There are all kinds of other changes, and I'd think someone approaching the film would wonder why certain things have any significance; it throws a lot of things at you in short dialogue bursts that take up many pages in the book. I like the film, but it lacks the book's great richness :]. -EG(less)

15 likes · like · see review

Oct 08, 2010 Steve rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Several years back, after reading Robert Stone’s (underappreciated) Bay of Souls, I saw someone somewhere say that Stone had departed from his Conradian foundation, and had pulled a Delillo on readers. I puzzled over that, because even though Bay of Souls is a change in approach, I didn’t see any of the incomprehensible Falling Man in Stone’s hallucinogenic tropical nightmare book. With Graham Greene’s The Comedians, however, I believe I have found the source for Stone’s trippy foray. And it ma...more Several years back, after reading Robert Stone’s (underappreciated) Bay of Souls, I saw someone somewhere say that Stone had departed from his Conradian foundation, and had pulled a Delillo on readers. I puzzled over that, because even though Bay of Souls is a change in approach, I didn’t see any of the incomprehensible Falling Man in Stone’s hallucinogenic tropical nightmare book. With Graham Greene’s The Comedians, however, I believe I have found the source for Stone’s trippy foray. And it makes sense, since a jump from Conrad to Greene to Stone, is as logical as 1-2-3. One probably shouldn’t start out a review with a digression, but reading Green’s book has made me want to return to Stone’s book for more of the same.

Published in 1966, The Comedians is unlike any book I’ve yet read by Greene (I’ve not read them all, but I’ve read a lot of them). It’s funnier, raunchier, and looser than his other books. I don’t know whether it’s considered one of his “Catholic” novels or not, but you will get plenty of meditations on sin, evil, love, suicide, and death. The novel opens with a ship a ship headed to Haiti. On board are three men, with the improbable gathering of Everyman names: Smith, Jones, and Brown. Brown owns a hotel in Haiti, which is now ruled by Papa Doc Duvalier. (As it turns out, while in New York, Brown has been trying to sell his Hotel.) Smith, is a former Presidential Candidate for the Vegetarian Party (is that so far fetched anymore?); and Jones, who is always described as “ambigious,” is a confidence man – who everyone (oddly) seems to like. Given where this bunch is headed, a real Hell, it’s not hard to see Greene as setting this up as a Ship of Fools.

Brown is the main character. Educated in Jesuit schools, he has lived a lonely life, virtually parentless. Like Greene (also a color) himself, he’s pushing 60. He currently is having a pretty hot relationship with Martha, the wife of the German ambassador. And by hot, I mean they’re doing it in the car, the lawn, and wherever else they can fit some action in. However, Brown’s own self loathing cannot seem to let it move beyond more than sex. He thinks himself incapable of love, and yet he desires it. When Brown gets nasty, he faults Martha for being German (and she in fact the daughter of a Nazi war criminal – though she carries none of that evil baggage). But longing for Martha is unrealistic anyway, since she’s a devoted mother to her son, Angel (see Hawthorne’s also eagle eyed “Pearl”). Martha would never leave her husband (who is not a bad man) if it means losing her son.

Once ashore, Brown finds his hotel empty, and the body of a government official in the empty pool. He has cut his own throat out of fear of Duvalier’s thugs, the Tonton Macoutes. What follows is a series of episodes, often comic (as in the Coen Brothers sense of “comic”), as Brown tries to deal with disposing of the body, keeping the Smiths (Holy Fools) out of trouble, having more sex with Martha, and keeping track of the trajectory (Up then Down) of Major Jones – who is brewing up some scheme with the Tonton Macoutes. At times this can get a bit wearying, especially when it comes to ridiculous conversations with the Smiths about vegetarianism and good works. Brown, from the start of the novel, likes to see all the characters he meets as actors – comedians, working through their silly human roles on their silly human stage. Tragedy is a thing for young men who believe in something. Brown is at that late point in life where he doesn’t believe in much of anything anymore. But as the novel unfolds, Brown continually sells himself short. He intervenes repeatedly, and bravely, into situations that put him at great risk. Beneath the cynicism there is a lingering sense of hope. And Brown responds best when he senses the goodness of others (the Smiths in particular), and will rise to defend it. As a reader, you never really buy into the We-Are-All Comedians world view. Sure, the grin painted on the skull in a place like Haiti is brightly colored, but it’s still a skull. In one late Conradian passage, Brown, while meditating on a picture hanging in his hotel, drops his novel long pretence of life as a comedy filled with comedians. Brown does (as he always has) see the horror, the corruption of the place. Life – and Death are at the heart of this novel:

On the first landing there was a picture by Phillipe Auguste of a carnival procession, men, women, and children wearing bright masks. Of a morning, when the sunlight shone through the first-floor windows, the harsh colours gave an impression of gaiety, the drummers and the trumpeters seemed about to play a lively air. Only when you came closer you saw how ugly the masks were and how the masquers surrounded a cadaver in grave-clothes; then the primitive colours went flat as though the clouds had come down from Kenscoff and the thunder would soon follow. Wherever that picture hung, I would feel Haiti close to me.

So the tone may be different, but with Greene the moral concerns remain the same.

(less)

9 likes · like · see review

Mar 21, 2012 Drew rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: british-lit, greeneland, boulder-public-library

Not a terribly funny book, despite the title. Not that I expected it to be, given other stuff I've read by him. I was mostly intrigued by the fact that it takes place in Haiti during Papa Doc Duvalier's regime: a supremely messed-up time and place. And Greene does Haiti well; it seems like they were made for each other, though I've got the feeling Greene can evoke any place pretty well. This is marginally lighter fare than either The Power and the Glory or The Heart of the Matter, and considerab...more

8 likes · like · see review

Aug 24, 2007 Ashley rated it 5 of 5 stars

No, it's not about Comedians. It refers to the comedian aspect of all of us. The face that we present and the strangeness of the lives we create.

When, on a steamer en route to Haiti, three men meet, their paths stick closely together through the dramas that enfold. Messrs Smith, Brown, Jones cover all the bases: Smith is a positive soul, a former American presidential candidate who thinks of little but improving the general condition of the world and has come to Haiti with a mind to improve thi...more No, it's not about Comedians. It refers to the comedian aspect of all of us. The face that we present and the strangeness of the lives we create.

When, on a steamer en route to Haiti, three men meet, their paths stick closely together through the dramas that enfold. Messrs Smith, Brown, Jones cover all the bases: Smith is a positive soul, a former American presidential candidate who thinks of little but improving the general condition of the world and has come to Haiti with a mind to improve things there, but also with a mind ignorant of the current state of the country. Brown is a European living in Haiti who, while he doesn't mean anyone any harm, is a cynical man who is willing to try and help others to an extent, but doesn't really want to be bothered. He is returning after a trip to the US in which he failed to find a buyer for his hotel and now wants to return to his life of waiting for the government to be overthrown. And Jones? "Major" Jones? A Man of Mystery, a friendly and genial man who hints of everything but tells nothing (well, nothing that is certainly true, at least) and is only looking out for his own interests, which he has come pursuing, in a mysterious fashion.

The Haiti that they are approaching is the one in which Papa Doc Duvalier has just been "voted" President for life and the nation has recently moved from a tourist haven to a police state and has fallen into a state of poverty and violence ruled by paranoia, fear, duplicitness and the sinister Tonton Macoute...

When they arrive, Brown's empty hotel becomes the center of a variety of dramas. Mister Smith and his wife have come in the hopes of setting up a vegetarian center, Jones is arrested, and Brown is troubled by his long-standing affair with the wife of an ambassador. Mister Brown becomes involved in the middle of everything going on and his disinterested, yet pivotal attentions (as the only "local" of the group), are the crux of the story and make for a very engaging story indeed! It involves the chilling and untouchable, sunglassed Tonton, a whore house, chilling escapes, corpse theft, lots of rum drinking and all sorts of nastiness!

I found the writing to be great, the characters are very involving and the story is quite entertaining, playing out as a comedy that isn't at all funny. It is also a quick read.
(less)

like · see review

Nov 08, 2012 Trina rated it 4 of 5 stars

This short novel is not concerned with spiritual struggle as much of Greene's work. Instead the protagonist, Brown, faces the end of his life as a perpetual expatriot whose ideals, if he indeed ever had any, have been completely shattered by the takeover of Haiti by Papa Doc and the Tonton Macoute. Always lovely writing, with memorable descriptions of Haiti's landscape and climate, some very amusing people, and arresting passages about the nature of life, such as this one voiced by the true sage...more

2 likes · like · see review

Nov 03, 2012 Justin Evans rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

For Greene, this was epically long- nearly 300 pages? The heck? Unwonted length aside, though, it's standard Greene: foreign country, political machinations, darkness, weirdly sex-obsessed leading man and his illicit, tortured relationship with a married woman, naive Americans, cynical Englishmen and so forth.

It's also, sadly, slightly substandard Greene as far as structure. It's very flabby- there are, in effect, three storylines, which only interact insofar as the characters involved happen t...more

1 like · like · see review

Oct 09, 2012 Louise rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, haiti-fic-lit

My sister read this book with her "Lit and Flick" group and I'm glad she recommended it to me. A few years ago, never having read a Graham Greene novel, I tried the "The End of the Affair" which was a let down. The Comedians, has given me a much more favorable view of this novelist.

Upon finishing the novel, I realized how well paced and planned it is. The title refers to those who face the world with masks. This theme recurs as the narrator discovers who is showing a true face and who is merely...more My sister read this book with her "Lit and Flick" group and I'm glad she recommended it to me. A few years ago, never having read a Graham Greene novel, I tried the "The End of the Affair" which was a let down. The Comedians, has given me a much more favorable view of this novelist.

Upon finishing the novel, I realized how well paced and planned it is. The title refers to those who face the world with masks. This theme recurs as the narrator discovers who is showing a true face and who is merely performing. The characters connect and disconnect as Greene describes life in the tropics as a dictatorship tightens its grip.

Four main characters have generic names (Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Mr. Brown and Mr. Jones) and their first names are never revealed. They have very different reasons for immigrating to Haiti. The narrator, Mr. Brown, inherited a hotel, the Trianon, from his mother. The hotel had a brief heyday before the ascension of Papa Doc Duvalier. Hotel guests, Mr. and Mrs. Smith are idealists who want to bring vegetarian ideals to Haiti. Mr. Jones seems to be escaping a shady but undisclosed past.

These ex-pats interface with an embassy couple with a young son, a highly skilled medical doctor, an incredibly reliable member of the hotel's staff, a gossip columnist, Duvalier loyalist Captian Concasseur, Mere Catherine and her brothel employees, an undertaker from the Dominican Republic and the deceased Minister of Social Welfare's nephew. Mr. Brown's mother, who created the legacy of this hotel, evokes respect and empathy among those who knew her. Her memory and her lover's ghost are part of this story as well.

The characters visit government offices where they get double talk. They navigate checkpoints and hide their cars when they visit each other whether it is for an extra-marital romance, sending signals/warnings or just seeking human companionship. Everywhere they see the very poor. At the end, Greene artfully ties up their stories as each begins a new phase of life... or has died.

The regime that has made Mr. Brown's hotel unsalable is strengthened by its anti-communist rhetoric (guaranteed US support). It is soon to expropriate Mr. Brown's hotel, just as it has taken anything else it chooses to own. Mr. Brown, who had no roots until the Trianon came his way, broods over his empty hotel and his free spirited lover against the backdrop of Duvalier's repression and a resistance movement.

The novel shows how the political repression plays out. In this small microcosym, Haiti loses its talented citizens and those who remain live in fear.

Curiously, the 1967 movie of this novel with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton was filmed in Africa and not Haiti. Later, and even more curiously, Burton responded to the invitation of the then ruler, "Baby Doc" Duvalier and built a get-away home in Haiti. (less)

like · see review

Mar 29, 2012 Smcleish rated it 4 of 5 stars

Originally published on my blog here in November 1998.

The Comedians is about three men, Smith, Jones and Brown, a shifty sounding set of names, as the narrator remarks. They meet on a ship bound for Papa Doc's Haiti, each travelling there for a very different reason. Brown, the main character and narrator, owns a hotel there which he has been trying to sell in the US because it has become a liability rather than an asset through the vagaries of the Duvalier regime; Smith and his wife are evangel...more

like · see review

Jul 04, 2009 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars

At a certain point, it seems like Graham Greene started writing the same book, and would just vary the setting to the worst places on Earth. Vietnam, Havana and now Haiti, and boy, does it come across as one of the worst places on Earth.

The story is about a down-on-his-luck hotel owner, who drinks too much and is participating in an affair (in a Graham Greene book - shocking!) with an ambassador's wife. Various other types, like the idealist and ineffective American and the British soldier who m...more

like · see review

Jun 07, 2009 Matt rated it 3 of 5 stars

Favorite quotes (I'm a sucker for axioms, I admit it...):

"'We'd all like to be toffs, and aren't there moments - admit it, old man - when you envy the tarts? Sometimes when you don't want to sit down with your accountant and see too far ahead?'
'Yes, I suppose there are moments like that.'
'You think to yourself. 'We have the responsibility, but they have all the fun.'" (p.18)

"Life was a comedy, not the tragedy for which I had been prepared..." (p. 25)

"For writers it is always said that the first...more

like · see review

Jun 26, 2011 Chris rated it 5 of 5 stars

If you haven't read Graham Greene, do so now. He was a spy. He worked for Ian Fleming both during and after the war. "The Quiet American" published in 1955 tells more about America's involvement in Viet Nam than was known even many years after the famous image of the last copter leaving Saigon. "The Comedians" deals with Haiti under "Papa Doc" Duvalier, possibly the most horrible and autocratic leader in the history of the Western Hemisphere (Though I can almost hear Pinochet arguing that point...more

like · see review

Apr 03, 2013 David Lowther rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read a lot of Graham Greene when I was younger and then forgot all about him until I saw The End of the Affair on TV. This re sparked my interest and so I read The Ministry of Fear which I thought was pretty good. A friend lent me The Comedians which is, in my view, a quite brilliant novel.

Set in Haiti in the 60s, when the full meglomania and evil of Papa Doc Duval was getting a wide press, it involves a number of brilliantly drawn characters, most of them losers, marooned on that Caribbean Is...more

like · see review

Aug 07, 2012 John rated it 4 of 5 stars

Graham Greene is Great. Brighton Rock, End of the Affair, The Power and the Glory, the Quiet American, the Heart of the Matter and the list goes on. This well-travelled writer packed a few bags. boarded some bumpy propellor-driven planes and quaffed a few martinis in his time. His writing is sparse, lean, factual and devoid of indulgent stylistic excess. He reads quite easily although one may need to check a few historical footnotes along the way. In this engaging portrait of Haiti under the dic...more

like · see review

Aug 17, 2011 Mac rated it 3 of 5 stars

I've had strangely mixed experiences with Graham Greene's books - I like a few of them very much, and then others outright bug me. This one, happily, I enjoyed quite a bit, though perhaps because it's so similar to the other novels of his I enjoy.

One could make an argument, probably, that this book should really be called "The Quiet Americans Go to Haiti," since quite a lot of the earlier book - naive American meddling, worn-down and cynical British men, a tropical and exotic location with a do...more

1 like · like · see review

Aug 07, 2009 Quinn Gorbutt rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of the more hellish books by Graham Greene I've read. It has the same misery and heat as The Heart of the Matter or A Burnt Out Case or Our Man in Havana, only multiplied and intensified. It also seemed darker and less hopeful than some of his other books. Again, its based on Greene's own experiences in Haiti, and while he swears the main character is not his own reflection, its hard not to see in Mr Brown (the main character/narrator), shades of Mr Greene.

like · see review

Nov 18, 2012 Jamie Wisner rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm wavering as to how highly I should rate this. It's either a very strong three-star or a relatively light four-star read. Its narrative isn't always cohesive and its American couple, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, prove frustratingly tiresome and unconvincing. Virtually all of its other characters, however, are richly and memorably drawn, many of its scenes are dramatically gripping, and -- as always with Greene's novels -- its "spirit of time and place" is transcendent. The nightmarish setting (in Papa...more

like · see review

Jun 04, 2009 Jason Gignac rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fill-in-the-gaps

I fully expected to think well of this book - I did, though not at all for the reasons I expected. I thought this book would appeal to my long interest in Haiti - it is a novel, after all, about a group of foreigners in Duvalierist Port-au-Prince. The novel did a fine job of telling how horrible Haiti under Duvalier was - and it certainly was.

However, the novel is great beyond that - after all, one could learn plenty of gruesome facts about Haiti from... well... almost any book that has to do wi...more I fully expected to think well of this book - I did, though not at all for the reasons I expected. I thought this book would appeal to my long interest in Haiti - it is a novel, after all, about a group of foreigners in Duvalierist Port-au-Prince. The novel did a fine job of telling how horrible Haiti under Duvalier was - and it certainly was.

However, the novel is great beyond that - after all, one could learn plenty of gruesome facts about Haiti from... well... almost any book that has to do with Haiti. The real pervading part of this book, for me, was the theme of truth and illusion throughout. None of the characters is who they seem to be, and that's common enough in a book. But what was compelling to me about this book was that you begin to realize that it doesn't matter, really, who these people in the protagonist's life really are, because he does not talk to them, he talks to the people they are playing, and the people he has cast them as in his life narrative. So, when each character in turn reveals more about their real selves, the narrator (and in a sense, the reader) feels a sort of dissapointment, a very profound sort. In the Comedians, everyone is the Wizard of Oz, hiding behind a curtain, and there is no Glinda to send Dorothy home at the end. There isn't even really a wicked witch - Duvalier, after all, is a wizard too, holed up in his palace, afraid to show his face, forever divining which of his henchman wants to take his place.

I have not always been the most honest person in my life, and watching this long procession of liars was heart-wrenching - at least for me, it was easy to recognize each of them, from the mild, shrugging lies of the protagonist, to Majro Jones, who desperately wants to prove his lies true, who ruins his greatest strength by using it to pretend he has other strengths that he utterly lacks. Each of these drifting souls sags slowly through the novel, never really finding a place to moor, just finding a new corner to slink into, quietly, and try to live. Noone in this book is really hateable, short of, perhaps, Duvalier, and noone is loveable, they are all, nakedly human. The questions Greene raises about justice, about how injustice is destroyed, about what it takes to be courageous, about the close alliance of blind faith and sheer stupidity, of heroism and selfishness, are chilling and sobering.

PS - I could tell you I picked the image because it has a lot to do with this book 0- I could bs a connection between the two. I actually picked it, because it reminds me of my reviewing style.
ORiginal Review (less)

1 like · like · see review

Aug 07, 2010 Teri rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read this novel after hearing Amy Wilentz speak at a DemOC PAC event about Haiti. This is the novel which inspired her interest in Haiti long ago, and since I'm a fan of Greene and respect not only his writing but his experience, I bought a used copy for 1¢ online. The main character has an obscure childhood and parentage, having been born in Monte Carlo and raised in Britain, but he is summoned to Haiti by his dying mother, whom he barely knows. There are the usual Greene secondary characters...more

like · see review

Dec 21, 2010 Alan Wightman rated it 2 of 5 stars

Haiti, three years into the reign of Papa Doc. The tonton macoute, the secret police with their dark glasses, bring fear everywhere. People disappear. Roadblocks. Corruption. The telephones no longer work.

Into this step two cynics, Brown and Jones, and one idealistic American, Smith. Brown and Jones are The Comedians, with no real patriotism or idealism. Brown, the narrator, confesses to not really believing in anything.

Greene write well, and his observations can be cutting, and he seems almost...more

like · see review

Jan 09, 2013 Lesley Lodge rated it 5 of 5 stars

Well, at least that's one New Year's resolution ticked: read a classic. After 2012's diet of mainly American detective/thrillers, I found it took a bit more "getting into" - but overall it was well worth it. Much more memorable and thought-provoking. I followed reading it by watching the 1967 film version, with Richard Burton and Liz Taylor. The subject matter - the naivety (or cynicism in some cases) of Brits caught up in third world poverty and evil, violent dictatorships - would in both cases...more

like · see review

Jun 08, 2010 Jo at Jaffareadstoo rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Written in 1966 and set on the troubled island of Haiti, under the rule of Papa Doc Duvalier, we follow the story of three men: Brown, Smith and Jones, who are ostensibly “The Comedians” of the story. The narrator, Brown a hotelier, is returning somewhat reluctantly to Port au Prince, to take up the helm of his run-down hotel. Smith is a one-time presidential candidate, hoping to convert the islanders to a better dietary existence, and Jones is a military man with a hidden agenda, which will pro...more

like · see review

Mar 01, 2010 Anne rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: novel

Set in Haiti in the 1960's during the brutal regime of Papa Doc Duvalier and his security forces, the TonTon Macoute, The Comedians brings together Brits: Mr. Brown, an hotelier and Mr. Jones, a confidence man; and Mr. and Mrs. Smith, naive Americans who come to Haiti to start a vegetarian center of all things. Greene's writing style, long sentences and slow-pacing, made the book hard-going at first, but by the second half, I enjoyed it very much.
The plot is simple, several characters try to ov...more

like · see review

Aug 16, 2011 Will rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: bookstore-impulse-buys

Neither G Greene's best nor his worst. There are some very good parts, as well as some very (very) bad parts. Some things are superfluous and serve no purpose, other things are not given enough time. The cynicism that pervades the entire novel is almost unbearable at times. One wishes the Greene had put this down, come back to it in a year, and given it a thorough revising. There are the seeds of something good in there, although his characters are stock and could be drawn from any of his books,...more

like · see review

May 07, 2009 Jamie Allen rated it 3 of 5 stars

After reading (and falling for) Greene's "Our Man in Havana" a while back, this was an odd switchback. Neighboring Caribbean country, trouble with a bad ruler, man in love with a woman - "The Comedians" shares a lot of similarities, but how stinkin' different could it be? Despite the title, Greene apparently lost his sense of humor and gained a sense of melodrama - and the worst kind of melodrama: The British Kind, with its sense of superiority and manners. I know Greene was upset about the situ...more

3 likes · like · see review

Oct 14, 2012 Drew rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: own-it, rooster

It seems like lately I'm rating everything four stars. I read this in high school and all I remembered about it was the two elderly vegetarians and their nut cutlets. The passage of 40+ years and a lot more knowledge of Haiti made this much more meaningful to me. On the one hand, Greene's style is quite dated. ("His shoulders were wide and flat. You could have hung a poster on them. They looked like a wall closing a cul-de-sac." Although that is a good description of Martha's relationship with h...more

like · see review

Oct 01, 2012 Keddy Moise rated it 3 of 5 stars

People say it is the best novel about the dictatorship of Francois Duvalier. But it did not impress me like I thought it would. The vocabulary is really rich and elegant. The concept is amazing. It shows the reality of that time in Haiti.
I would rate it 4 stars if that was all. But I don't like the way he transcribes the emotions. They are too weak. Based on our parents stories, the emotions of fear and despair were greater.
The character General Concasseur would be perfect if the author Greene...more

like · see review

Sep 22, 2010 Bonnie rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Lovers of Graham Greene; ex-pats living in foreign countries; Haitians

Recommended to Bonnie by: little ol' me

Shelves: haiti, england, favourite-authors, fiction, 2010

I picked up this little book at a used bookstore for pennies because it was written by an author I love. I say that, not having actually read all that many books by Graham Greene (3 including this one)

It was really quite remarkable to read a book that took place during Papa Doc Duvalier's Haiti (had 60,000 people killed, mostly political prisoners during his 1957-1971 regime) then, and to know first-hand (somewhat, that is) the Haiti of today. Greene was a bit of a prophet I'd say. With all the...more

1 like · like · see review

Jun 25, 2009 Eric rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics

Listened to this book on tape... First experience with Greene (other than a movie or two). I would have probably given it four stars had I read it. There is a lot going on in this book from a literary perspective. Comedians and the roles we play, etc... I learned a few things about Haiti while I was at it. Was funny and sad at the same time. The commentary on Catholicism was a bit much, but I understand that that is a major theme throughout Greene's works. I will be reading more Greene in the fu...more

like · see review

May 13, 2009 Jon rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is Greene at his best. It seems darker to me than some of his other books - which is saying something since Greene, though humorous, is not "light". Very much good reading for an understanding of what happens in developing countries (or what used to be called the Third World) as they try and "modernize" or come into their own as independent nations that were formerly colonies of European powers.

Also an interesting cast of characters though, perhaps, a little too in the Greene mold, bu...more

like · see review

Apr 05, 2013 Barbara Sibbald rated it 4 of 5 stars

This rather gentle introduction to Haiti is a good place to begin before a visit. Underlying the humour and bolsterd by the satire, is an excellent critique of what ails this beleagured country: the corruption, the hope in the face of incredible odds (and lack of pragmatism), the profound distrust, the sheer uncertainty.

I say gentle, because unlike some of the other books I've subsequently read, it is not as consistently violent. And then there's the setting: the magnificent Olaffson Hotel in d...more

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
French in The Comedians	1	14	Feb 26, 2011 09:07pm
graham greene books	1	20	Sep 18, 2009 08:14am

combine
Other Editions (35)

More editions...

Genres

Classics

35 users

Literature

19 users

Novels

14 users

European Literature > British Literature

7 users

Politics

7 users

Historical Fiction

7 users

Literary Fiction

6 users

Book Club

6 users

Travel

5 users

Modern

4 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Graham Greene

Graham Greene was an English novelist, short story writer, playwright, screenplay writer, travel writer and critic whose works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world. Greene combined serious literary acclaim with wide popularity.

Although Greene objected strongly to being described as a “Catholic novelist” rather than as a “novelist who happened to be Catholic,” Catho...more

More about Graham Greene...

Books by Graham Greene

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About The Comedians

1 trivia question

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from The Comedians

“Like some wines our love could neither mature nor travel.” — 344 people liked it

“There is a point of no return, unremarked at the time, in most lives.” — 29 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: The Comedians
avg rating	preview: The Comedians Goodreads rating: 3.94 (2844 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/133399.The_Comedians?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348984255l/133399.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/133399.The_Comedians?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Comedians by Graham Greene[/url]

The Comedians

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website