*Graham Greene's 'The Comedians' - 'on stage' people. Surely, Graham Greene's The Comedians is a perceptive unpacking of a particular type - people who are always in some way, perhaps tiresomely, 'on stage'? And aren't those types a gift to writers of vivid stories. But to write almost an entire cast of on-stagers (the 'comedians' of the title) carries with it a problem doesn't it? How much do we really know, and therefore how much do we really care?
On-stage people are always, consciously or often unconsciously, acting a part aren't they? Six months after reading The Comedians perhaps I've already forgotten who's in it, because somehow they seem unreal. It's not real people doing unreal things: it's people who are unreal themselves (maybe with the exception of Brown). And so why do these people seem a little unreal? Is it melodrama? Randy old ladies with their lovers; a cat arching its back on the roof of a hearse; I don't know. Hugely enjoyable though.
* Of course the sketches are as good as it gets: 'With the little black moustache and the dark Pekinese eyes I would have taken him for a Frenchman: perhaps someone on the Bourse.'
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