About this title: This novel of politics and espionage, set in the Haiti of "Papa Doc" Duvalier., describes the course of events that brings together three men who came to the island for very different reasons: Smith, an American idealist and crank who plans to establish a vegetarian commune for the Haitian poor; Brown, an Englishman who runs a cheap hotel and is involved with the wife of a South American diplomat; and Jones, an international gunrunner doing business with the Duvalier regime. Greene, who visited Haiti several times, was proud of the fact that Duvalier read his book and loathed it, saying it ...
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Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking Books
Date Published: 1966
ISBN-13:9780670232086ISBN:0670232084
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Trade paperback (US). Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking Books
Date Published: 1966
ISBN-13:9780670232086ISBN:0670232084
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Trade paperback (US). Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking Books
Date Published: 1966
ISBN-13:9780670232086ISBN:0670232084
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Trade paperback (US). Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Books
Date Published: 1967
ISBN-13:9780899669236ISBN:0899669239
Description: Acceptable. Good reading copy! Tanned pages & 2 repaired tears on bottom of spine. Amazon: 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 in. read more
Description: Good. 0140027661 Good condition paperback book, some creases to spine, some edge/corner rubs, may have corner crease, small edge tear or spine slant, a good book for reading. Shop & Save With US. read more
"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 may not be what he seems, join the mix. Mix politics and a British man's depression and you can imagine the feel.
Ultimately though, it is Greene's earthy and frightening portrait of Haiti under Papa Doc's regime of terror that makes the novel worth the read, and quite the page turner, too, as you never know where the violence is going to come from next. It's not surprising that the book was eventually banned in the country.
Certainly not his best, but worth looking at for a Greene enthusiast."
"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 future. I think this book would be a great one for discussion in a literature class or book club. I highly recommend this book."
"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 twenty years of life contain the whole of experience - the rest is observation - but I think it is equally true of us all." (p.57)
"It was the moment to say good-bye and go: the longer we stayed the greater demands the future would hold for us. In silence trust begins, contentment grows." (p.83)
"She had kept the virtue of innocence, and I know now why I loved her. In the end the only quality but beauty which attracts me in a woman is that vague thing, 'goodness'." (p.138)
"He was a small fat man who wore, for some reason, a fraternity pin, and his teeth were very big and white and separate, like tombstones designed for a much larger cemetery. A curious smell crossed his desk as though one grave had stayed open." (p.152)
"'I don't think they are quite ripe here for vegetarianism.' 'I was thinking the same, but perhaps...' 'Perhaps you must have enough cash to be carnivorous first.'" (p.168)
"... the mosquitoes had long ceased to trouble me, I was stale and tainted meat." (p.223)
"I had felt myself not merely incapable of love - many are incapable of that, but even of guilt. There were no heights and no abysses in my world - I saw myself on a great plain, walking and walking on the interminable flats." (p.291)"
"I'm not usually a fan of novels from 20+ years ago - I don't read fast enough to suffer through fiction that doesn't age well. Maybe it is my fascination with post-colonial places like Haiti or maybe it is just the way that Greene writes, but I really liked this one."
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