"The Comedians" Graham Greene, 1966, Second Part, Chapter 1, roman I

‘The Comedians’ First published by Bodley Head in 1966
Graham Greene clucked about the abuses in Haiti, wrote outraged letters to newspapers on Haitian subjects, and even a piece of journalism; but the ‘Nightmare Republic’ as he called it, was perfect for him. As a traveller, he greatly preferred nightmare republics to healthy democracies, though as a resident he chose more salubrious places, the isle of Capri, a fashionable district of Paris and Antibes. He moved to the south of France in 1966, a tax exile, the year The Comedians was published.
Greene first travelled to Haiti in 1954. He kept going back until, a dozen years later, The Comedians incurred the wrath of Haiti’s President, Francois (Papa Doc) Duvalier. National novelists are routinely banned by repressive regimes, but what other visiting writer has been personally denounced, and his book reviewed, by a head of state for making his country the landscape of a novel ?
Haiti summed up just about everything that Graham Greene required in a foreign destination, especially one that he intended as a setting for a novel. It was distressed, tropical, ramshackle, overcrowded, poor and on the brink of civil war. It was governed by a Bogeyman.
It was famous for its brothels and its slums and its weird expressions of religious faith – Catholicism and a mishmash of African rituals.
Greene conceived and wrote The Comedians at a time of crisis in his life. He had been dealt a severe financial setback through the mismanagement of his accountant. He was writing for money, had cut his ties with England, sold his London residence and had taken stock of his romantic life.
He was in his early 60ies, not as solvent as he had once been, uprooted and restless. Everything about The Comedians has the implication of crisis: its setting, which is the rotting republic of Haiti: its characters, each of whom is beset with with an unsolvable problem.
Haiti had no fiction – and hardly had a face – until Greene wrote this book – Paul Theroux 2004

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 Graham Greene’s title . Hiding behind their actors mask, they hesitate on the edge of life, men afraid of pain, afraid of fear itself..
Second Part - Chapter 1 - roman I-
Mr Smith finally meets the new Minister for Welfare - since the last one - Mr Philipot had killed himself (although not everyone knows that..)

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heike
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