The Comedians

Set in Haiti during the brutal dictatorship of François "Papa Doc" Duvalier, the novel follows three men whose lives become entangled against a backdrop of political terror and personal deception. The story is narrated by Brown, a middle-aged British hotel owner of uncertain parentage, who reflects on events with cynicism, self-awareness, and regret.

The novel opens aboard the Medea, a small Dutch cargo ship bound for Haiti. Brown is returning to his Hotel Trianon in Port-au-Prince after a failed attempt to sell the property in New York. He introduces his fellow passengers: Mr. Smith, an elderly, idealistic American who ran for president in 1948 on a vegetarian ticket, accompanied by his fierce wife; and Jones, a small, tidy man who calls himself "Major Jones." Brown first encounters Jones trying to bribe a steward into swapping cabins. The ship's captain privately asks Brown to watch Jones, having received a cable of inquiry about the passenger. Over the voyage, Jones wins at gin-rummy, claims to have lost a platoon behind Japanese lines in Burma, and probes Brown about conditions in Haiti.

When the Medea docks, Brown finds the country paralyzed by fear. Petit Pierre, a gossipy local journalist, greets him at the port and reveals that Doctor Philipot, the Secretary for Social Welfare, has not been seen for a week. Brown reunites with Martha Pineda, his lover and the German-born wife of a South American ambassador. At the Trianon, the hotel is deserted. Joseph, Brown's loyal barman who limps from a previous beating by the Tontons Macoute, Duvalier's dreaded secret police, reports that Philipot had been hiding in the hotel, too ill to flee. Joseph leads Brown to the empty swimming pool, where Philipot lies dead, having cut his wrists and throat. Brown hides the corpse from the Smiths and sends for Doctor Magiot, a distinguished Haitian physician and quiet Marxist. Together they carry the body to an abandoned garden, staging the scene to suggest Philipot died there.

A flashback traces Brown's rootless history. Born in Monte Carlo to a woman of uncertain nationality who left him with the Jesuits, he grew up with a wavering religious vocation that ended after a school performance of Romeo and Juliet. He used a stolen passport to sneak into the Monte Carlo casino and won 300 pounds, then drifted through odd jobs in England before a postcard from his dying mother brought him to Haiti. She had acquired the Trianon through a legal ruse and left him two-thirds of the shares. Brown transformed it into a fashionable hotel, met Martha at the casino, and began their affair, constrained by Martha's possessive son Angel and her complaisant husband, the ambassador Luis Pineda. As Duvalier's terror worsened, tourists vanished and the hotel emptied.

The body of Doctor Philipot is discovered sooner than expected when a militiaman's romantic encounter with a peasant woman in the garden leads to the find. Jones, meanwhile, has been arrested for carrying an incriminating letter of introduction. Brown persuades Mr. Smith to intervene with the Secretary of State, and they leave $200 to smooth Jones's release. In his cell, Jones is bruised but cheerful; he passes Brown a note addressed to a Tontons Macoute officer, deepening suspicions about his true connections.

Madame Philipot, the dead minister's wife, attempts to bury her husband, but the Tontons Macoute, led by Captain Concasseur, smash the hearse glass and seize the coffin. When Mrs. Smith grabs Concasseur's shoulder, he shoves her into the bougainvillea. Joseph explains that people believe the President will use Philipot's body as a zombie, a figure from Voodoo tradition forced to labor in the palace. That night at Mère Catherine's brothel, Jones emerges cheerful and free, now in some business arrangement with Concasseur. The prostitute Tin Tin tells Brown she liked Jones because he made her laugh.

Mr. Smith presents his vegetarian center proposal to the new minister, who responds with a transparent scheme for skimming money. Smith recognizes the swindle. He and Brown visit Duvalierville, the regime's showcase city, which proves a desolate cement plain with empty houses and an artist without legs who begs passersby. Smith scatters dollar bills for the artist; Brown watches the resident justice of the peace chase the man to steal the money. Meanwhile, Henri Philipot, the dead minister's young nephew and a poet, appears at the South American embassy and speaks of wanting guerrilla training. Brown mentions Jones's claimed military experience.

The public execution of prisoners, with schoolchildren forced to attend, proves the final blow to Smith's faith in Haiti. He and Mrs. Smith depart. Jones's own scheme collapses when Concasseur is sent to Miami to investigate his claims. Jones appears at the Trianon soaking wet, needing to flee immediately. Brown drives him to the Medea, but the captain refuses to take him. The purser outfits Jones in a costume from the ship's wardrobe; Jones shaves his moustache, applies makeup, and descends the gangplank on Brown's arm. Brown drives him to the South American embassy, where Martha sees Jones in his disguise and laughs until tears come.

Jones settles into embassy life as a charming houseguest, playing cards with Martha, entertaining Angel, and winning the family's affection. Brown's jealousy grows corrosive. Doctor Magiot reveals that Henri Philipot is in the mountains with a dozen guerrillas, including Joseph, and wants Jones as a military trainer. At the embassy, Brown steers conversation toward military matters. Jones, performing for Martha, boasts that with 50 Haitians he could take Port-au-Prince. When Brown offers to arrange his escape, Jones, unable to back down before Martha, agrees.

On the night of the escape, Brown asks Martha whether she has slept with Jones. She replies defiantly that the answer is yes, but Brown only half believes her. Brown and Jones drive south through torrential rain until the car's axle breaks, and they walk the remaining kilometers to a cemetery rendezvous near the town of Aquin, arriving two hours late. Sheltering among miniature tomb-houses, Jones confesses he lied about Martha and never touched her. Then he reveals his deepest secret: He was never a commando in Burma. Rejected by the army for flat feet, he was stationed at Imphal in India, managing entertainment for the troops, never firing a weapon in combat. He asks Brown not to tell the others.

At dawn, Concasseur ambushes them, but Henri Philipot and Joseph emerge from a hut across the road and open fire, killing Concasseur and his driver. Jones, who has never seen a man die, vomits beside a tomb.

Brown spends one night with the guerrilla band before Joseph guides him on an 11-day trek to the Dominican border. In Santo Domingo, Brown reunites with Mr. Smith and discovers that Mr. Fernandez, a quiet passenger from the Medea, is an undertaker. Weeks later, at a border post, Brown encounters the surviving guerrillas: six exhausted men, Philipot with a broken arm, and Joseph dead on a stretcher. Philipot tells Brown that during an ambush near the border, Jones's feet gave out. Jones found a defensible position and told the others to go on; he never came. Philipot says the men loved Jones because he made them laugh, and he plans to erect a monument where Jones fell.

Martha, passing through Santo Domingo en route to Lima, tells Brown that Doctor Magiot has been killed by the Tontons Macoute. Brown finds Magiot's final letter, which implores him not to abandon all faith. Brown reflects on his spiritual emptiness, wondering for what belief Jones died. He becomes a junior partner in Fernandez's undertaking business. The novel closes with Brown dreaming of Jones lying among dry rocks, delivering a comic line to an invisible audience, and the laughter rolling on.