THE COMEDIANS

No novelist in his time infiltrated the corrosive, soul-depleting terrain of Third World dictatorships with a more discerning eye or acidic wit than Greene. In THE COMEDIANS, he is at his sardonic best, laying scalpel to the repressive, casually violent regime of "Papa Doc" Duvalier in Haiti, as seen through the eyes of Brown, a hotelier with nearly nothing left to believe in. Tim Pigott-Smith captures the signature cynicism of Greene, so much so that the occasional appearance of pure sentiment strikes like a scream in night. If Pigott-Smith's attempts at a French-Caribbean accent sound a bit like Peter Lorre, it's a small fault, given the wicked intelligence he brings to the narration. M.O. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 02]