Télécharger maintenant -The Comedians- free ebook [PDF]
Livre pdf complet -The Comedians free ebook [PDF]
Enjoy, You can download **The Comedians- Télécharger maintenant Now
Click Here to
**DOWNLOAD**
Détails sur le produit
- Marque: Brand: Penguin Books
- Publié le: 1970-05-20
- Nombre d'articles: 1
- Dimensions: 5.00" h x
1.00" l x
7.00" L,
- Reliure: Broché
Fonctions
- Used Book in Good Condition
Description du produit
Book by Greene Graham
Commentaires clients
Commentaires clients les plus utiles
0 internautes sur 0 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile.
Par John P. Jones III
Haiti is, by far, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. It is also the first country in the Latin America or the Caribbean to have gained independence, via a successful slave revolt. It flitted across the “world’s consciousness”… or, at least the media’s, due to the massive earthquake in 2010, which killed some 50,000 to 75,000 people. The rush of attention has faded, and it again has its status of “not a destination of choice.”Graham Greene roamed the world, and proved to be a chronicler of what was once, and perhaps still is, called “The Third World,” though “developing” is more the preferred term, even if it is not merited. I’ve read a number of his works, for example, The Power and the Glory set in Mexico, and The Heart Of The Matter set in West Africa. Three other of Greene’s works were set in countries that were ill-served by the interests of the American empire, and two of them were on the brink of transition. Since it affected me personally, I’ve read The Quiet American three times, which was set in Vietnam. And I have recently read Our Man in Havana: An Introduction by Christopher Hitchens which was set in Cuba, during the final days of the Batista regime, before Castro seized power. Thus, I figured a read of the third in this roughly grouped trilogy was long overdue. It was first published in 1966, after the other two works.The three principle expatriate characters, Brown, Jones, and Smith, arrive in Haiti by boat, after making their initial acquaintances on the boat. Greene admits their names are unlikely, and there is no doubt that element of a spoof. They are very different characters, with wildly different motives for going to this non-destination. Brown is going to see his mother, after a long period of estrangement, and will, through the most improbable of circumstances, inherit a once grand hotel, that has fallen on hard times. Jones, who likes to be called “the Major,” due to his (suspected) wartime experience in Burma. When asked if he was in Wingate’s unit, he gently, and with experience, deflects the query with: “a unit like Wingate’s.” And Smith, who was a Presidential candidate against Harry Truman (for the Vegetarian Party!), along with his wife, are arriving to spread the message of vegetarianism to this country in which the vast majority of people are too poor to eat meat! And there are a couple of other expats, like the German wife of a South American ambassador with whom Brown is having an affair.Looming in the background is the rule of Francois Duvalier (1907-1971), who is in a league of the most corrupt, venal, and brutal of rulers, who simply “run their country into the ground” economically. “Papa Doc,” which was the nickname for Duvalier, who was once a practicing physician of note, rules through terror, as enforced by the “Tontons Macoute,” his secret police. Anyone, simply anyone, particularly those who are close to him in the government, can simply “disappear.”No question, Greene has tremendous insight into the human condition, and is a master storyteller. Once the stage is set, as indicated above, he develops with wonderful skill the interactions among the three former passengers on this “ship of fools,” as well as the other expats and their Haitian “hosts.” Each has their own back story that Greene reveals. In terms of simply “a story,” this novel, with several principle characters, could be Greene’s best. The novel’s title is a play on the French word for actors, “the comedians.” For each acts, and dissimulates, in their own way.I find the novel faultless; the introduction by Paul Theroux, far less so. He give a summary of the novel, which I found annoying. And he reveals a distinct “blind spot,” relating the following without irony: “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.” Later Thoreau says: “After Greene’s death it was revealed that for forty years in secret reports the FBI had monitored his movements and his provocative statements.”So yes, “Papa Doc” did not like this novel, and decided to ban the novel and the author. But the US government did the same thing! As indicated, the FBI monitored him for 40 years, and he was banned from entering the United States on occasion. And although there fortunately remain major difference between Haiti and the United States, it remains unsettling that over the past half century the US is moving towards Papa Doc’s Haiti on at least two issues: the increased militarization of the police, and income inequality, where true economic development of the country, that benefits its citizens, remains on the “back burner.” 5-stars, plus, for Greene’s outstanding novel.
No comments:
Post a Comment