The Comedians

                                                                                                                                                     Novel

The Comedians

Graham Greene

On a ship bound for the strife torn Haiti, are travelling four white passengers. Mr Smith, who has been an American presidential candidate in past, and his wife; Mr Jones, a British citizen, bound for Haiti on a clandestine mission; and Mr Brown, the narrator of the tale, who is returning to Haiti to reclaim the hotel he owns there and his love for Martha, wife of a South American diplomat stationed in Haiti. Brown is possibly an illegitimate child. His mother never revealed to him his father’s identity. He was raised and educated by Jesuits in Monte Carlo. He has always felt rootless: attached neither to the soil of a country or to the demands of human relations. His mother who has led a colourful, dissolute life has been absent from his life for decades till she invites him to Haiti, where she owns a hotel. Browne in his late fifties now makes a very short, a few hours long, acquaintance with his mother, before she dies leaving him the hotel. He leaves Haiti when his business comes to a halt under the totalitarian regime of the tyrant Doctor Duvalier alias Papa Doc. The impasse in his affair with Martha adds to his disenchantment with the lawless Caribbean nation. Smiths are an aged couple with an abiding faith in vegetarianism. It’s their motto to rid the world of acidity and passions arising out of non-vegetarian diet. They are visiting Haiti to negotiate with its Government a centre for promotion of vegetarianism in Haiti. Graham Greene portrays a beguiling picture of genuine goodness, rectitude, generosity and courage in the characters of Mr & Mrs Smith. But he does not reveal much of the life story of Mr Jones except suggesting vaguely about many unscrupulous dealings in the past that have made him persona not grata in many countries. He is traveling to Haiti to execute a grandiloquent scheme of fraud that will earn him millions. He is an unrepentant rogue, a compulsive liar. A barely hidden sense of comedy is an insuperable element of his personality. In spite of his unconscionable conduct in life he is liked by his companions and has an enviable skill of forging faithful friendships.

In the terror-stricken repressive Haitian society ruled by the dictator Papa Doc, aided by his secret police, Tontons Macoute, unfolds the bizarre drama involving Brown, Jones, Smiths & Martha. Strange circumstances unfurl the true character of each actor on this stage; however, he or she tries to suppress their innate behaviour. Greene with his incomparable skill in portraying the psychological life of his characters, once again delivers an absorbing tale. I find a similar ensemble of characters in another of his novel, The Honorary Consul; The dry-of-heart pragmatist Dr Plarr and the comical honorary consul, drunk and cuckolded but possessing a trusting and loving nature. Greene is fond of the character who finds himself a perpetual foreigner, alien in the only country which he calls his own. Dr Plarr of The Honorary Consul and Mr Brown of The Comedians are the prototype of such character. He narrates their emotions, feelings, inner turmoil resulting from their peculiar circumstances and their idiosyncrasies with extreme sensitivity.

When I began reading Graham Greene, I found his prose difficult and convoluted. I thought his narration abstruse. It took me time and a little effort to develop fondness for his way of story-telling. Then for years I did not read any of his books. Of late I’ve read a couple again; Ways of Escape, A Sort of Life, The Honorary Consul and now this. I found them very enjoyable and his language easy on mind. Are these books different from the ones I’d read early or my appreciation has changed? It’s difficult to decide. As in most of his books, an ineffable sadness pervades the novel that is enticing. One also comes across a perpetual sense of ridicule in the daily affairs of his characters that lends an urbane humour to the narrative. The book leaves you a bit doleful, having witnessed this drama of human sorrow, but profoundly satisfies the aesthetic sense, having read a superbly nuanced tale of human affairs told with an exquisite elegance that is quite unparalleled in literature.

It is a Greene story, set in the Greene land, all the way. I am sure Greene fans will find it irresistible and one of his best.