Image of Papa Doc via Wikipedia with attribution and thanks to PikiWikiIsraelThe earthquake in Haiti in January this year was a colossal tragedy: 230,000 dead, 300,000 injured and a million people homeless. Amongst the early televised reports and interviews was one with the Haitian ambassador in Washington. He seemed mainly concerned with the safety of his boss, the prime minister of Haiti. He assured us that this man was safe and well. I was reminded of an earlier horror of a different type that had happened to this poor country: a governing clique that ruled by fear with a self-appointed President for life. Graham Greene had dramatised this situation in a book I had read many years ago.
Set in the Haiti of dictator Papa Doc Duvalier and the Tonton Macoute (bogey men) with their black glasses and murderous reputation, the title is puzzling. There is not much to laugh at. There is a fine sense of minority representation in the characters. Greene always includes Roman Catholics and on this occasion Vegans. The latter are Mr and Mrs Smith, nice people with nice manners and firm beliefs who make up a lot of food in their hotel bedrooms. Brown, the main character meets up with them as passengers on a cargo ship from Philadelphia to Haiti, where Jones is also a passenger. ( Greene didn't bother with atmospheric names.)
Brown is returning to his hotel in Haiti after a failed visit to the USA to try to sell this ailing business. Tourists rarely visit Haiti because of fear of the regime and Brown is short of money. The Smiths are going to Haiti hoping for support in their plan to provide a building which will have facilities for teaching others about the Vegan way of life. Somehow, you just know that this is not going to work but the Smiths do have backing from their community with funds and a letter of introduction to a minister. Jones is the unknown quantity although he likes to be called 'Major' Jones. Perhaps he really was in the army. He talks about Burma a great deal but is never precise. Brown is also returning to his girl-friend, the wife of a South American ambassador posted to Haiti and seemingly complaisant about his wife's card-playing evenings when she, in fact, meets Brown to make love in a parked car.
Brown manages to meet her on the first evening of his return, even after finding the dead body of the Minister of Health in the empty swimming pool of his unsold hotel. (You have to smile at the Black Comedy). Other characters: Dr Magiot is a brave Haitian doctor amongst the cruelty going on around him; Philipot is a young Haitian who wants to fight the regime but is not the Ché Guevara type of guerrilla - although he does write poetry; Concasseur - a vicious top bogey among the Tonton Macoute; Joseph, the dependable man-of-all-work at the hotel joins the rebels and.....what happens to the good-guys?
Brown and Jones are The Comedians: they are people who have no roots and make up their life story as they go along, therefore they make up comedies. You cannot take yourself seriously if you pretend to be someone you are not. The macabre Duvalier and the Tonton Macoute are Director and stagehand comedians. Comic but tragic.
There is no hyperbole here, Green's style is matter-of-fact, which makes all hardships including the beatings and the murders part of normal life. It is a remarkable achievement, thoroughly recommended. 9 out of 10.
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