The Comedians, by Graham Greene

Smith, Jones and Brown could be a musical hall act.  They are not.  They are the somewhat unheroic heroes of Graham Greene’s novel “The Comedians”.  They are fellow passengers in the Medea, arriving in Port au Prince during the rule of Papa Doc Duvalier.  The surprise is that all three of them are, in their own way, Absyrtus, and all three of them are sacrificed to the dictator.  I think it is safe to assume that Graham Greene chose the name deliberately as a reference to a bloodthirsty story from Greek mythology.  It sets the scene for a story set in Haiti under the rule of Papa Doc and his thuggish secret police, the Tonton Macoute.    For those who do not know, Papa Doc Duvalier presented himself to the people of Haiti as Baron Samedi, a Voodoo demon, and the Tonton Macoute were his bogeymen.  Haiti was ruled with a reign of terror by thugs in sunglasses so that you could not see them blink.  This is the world where our three heroes arrive at the start of the book.

Smith is a good-hearted man of principle.  He stood as a candidate for vegetarianism in the Presidential elections which Harry Truman won, and he is known in the book as the Presidential Candidate.  It is a title foisted on him by Petit Pierre, the local gossip columnist and people use it because it gives him, and therefore them as his acquaintances, a certain standing in Papa Doc’s Haiti.  He and his wife have a project to establish a vegetarian centre in or near Port au Prince.  They are, without a shadow of a doubt, innocents abroad.   

Jones, on the other hand, is a chancer on the run.  The reasons for this are never clear, and clearly there is a lot in his background that he has made up.  It is difficult to know exactly what, but there can be no doubt that he is a plausible liar.  This is his weakness because he can talk himself into situations where there would be a serious loss of face if he does not fulfil what he has promised.  To say any more, would be to give away the plot.

Brown is the narrator.  He has inherited a hotel, the Trianon, in Port au Prince from his mother who, as an adventuress, makes Jones look like an amateur.  Brown has returned because he cannot sell the hotel as Papa Doc’s atrocities have completely killed the tourist trade.  You do not have to be Castro to frighten away American capital.  Brown has also returned to his affair with Martha, the wife of the ambassador of an unnamed South American country.

It is arranged that all three men should stay in the Trianon.  That does not happen.  Jones is arrested on arrival, and Brown is dismayed because he finds the body of Dr. Philipot, a minister recently dismissed by Papa Doc, in the deep end of the hotel swimming pool.  All three men then cross swords with Captain Concasseur, an officer in the Tonton Macoute.  Everything goes from bad to worse.

This is one of the classic novels of the C20th about dictatorship and how ordinary people confront it.  It is as relevant today as it was when it was written.  Papa Doc has gone but the dictators remain, and their legacy is still with us.