The Quiet American (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) | Graham Greene

The Quiet American (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) | Graham Greene | The Quiet American

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The Quiet American...

	The Quiet American (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) Graham Greene Penguin Classics, 2004 - 208 pages average customer review:based on 102 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Starring Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser, The Quiet American is already gaining incredible buzz -- including a Golden Globe nomination for Caine (Best Actor, Drama). This enchanting film is directed by Phillip Noyce (Rabbit-Proof Fence; The Bone Collector; Clear and Present Danger) and is adapted from one of Graham Greene?s best-loved novels. Into the intrigue and violence of Indo-China comes Pyle, a young idealistic American sent to promote democracy through a mysterious ?Third Force.? As his naïve optimism starts to cause bloodshed, his friend Fowler, a cynical foreign correspondent, finds it hard to stand aside and watch. But even as he intervenes he wonders why: for the sake of politics, or for love.

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Wears well both as literature and political commentary

I recently read THE QUIET AMERICAN directly after having read Greene's THE COMEDIANS. It is striking how similar the two novels are, although they were written about ten years apart. They both deal with political intrigue in a "third world" country (Vietnam in "Quiet American", Haiti in "Comedians"); they both are critical of American intervention (although it is much more front and center in "Quiet American"); they both feature somewhat skewed love triangles; and they both are narrated by a worldly, shrewd, selfish, and almost repugnant narrator who it is easy to see (perhaps unfairly) as the alter ego of the author. Both novels are easy to read and wear well, but I give the nod to THE QUIET AMERICAN.

Written around 1955, it is remarkable for its foresight of America's misguided venture in Southeast Asia. The "quiet" American is Pyle. He is a fresh-out-of-school, supremely self-assured member of the Eastern-establishment on a somewhat nebulous mission for an American secret service, the "OSS" or whatever the current initials might be (Graham perhaps did not know that its new incarnation was the "CIA"). "Innocent" might be a more fitting adjective for Pyle than "quiet". In any event, Greene presents a scathing picture of Pyle and the United States as purblind crusaders for democracy, innocent but oh-so-dangerous in their determined self-righteous zeal. The worldly and jaded British narrator (Fowler) comments to himself about Pyle: "he'll always be innocent, you can't blame the innocent, they are always guiltless. All you can do is control them or eliminate them. Innocence is a kind of insanity."

Meanwhile the recipients of the undercover U.S. political activism and intrigue don't appreciate the efforts on their behalf. Instead, "They want enough rice. * * * They don't want to be shot at. They want one day to be much the same as another. They don't want our white skins around telling them what they want." When dozens of civilians are killed or maimed in a bombing set by subversive forces sponsored and provisioned with explosives by Pyle, he justifies the bloodshed to Fowler with the comment that the victims "were only war casualties. * * * It was a pity, but you can't always hit your target. Anyway, they died in the right cause. * * * In a way you could say they died for democracy." Fowler's response: "I wouldn't know how to translate that into Vietnamese."

The parallels with the current military mission in Iraq hardly need mention.

Another prominent theme of THE QUIET AMERICANS, later reprised and developed further in "The Comedians", is the impossibiity (or if possible, the immorality) of a neutral, un-involved stance when cruely, death, and destruction are going on all around one.

THE QUIET AMERICAN is worth reading, or re-reading, both as literate entertainment and as a sobering reminder of how little our national hubris and zeal for democracy have been moderated by wisdom and experience.

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The Quiet American

I had never read the book but reading it I remembered seeing the movie. The book is riviting, insightful and scary. There is so much said in so few pages. I can see where discussion of the book could be never ending.

Leaves you with a good bad taste

Re-reading this book, it actually seems better than when I first read it a few years ago. Graham Greene was probably the best-ever writer of certain kinds of book about disaffected characters in actual historical and geographical situations. Many have written about the fact that the lead character, Thomas Fowler, embodied many characteristics of Greene himself, and the amazing thing about this is that Greene makes the character so unpleasant.
The writing is magnificent. Greene was a supremely economical writer who could create a mood or an impression in fewer words than anyone else I know. He was also a master of irony, and makes much of the fact that Pyle, the quiet American of the title, was actually more dangerous because of his innocence and basic goodness.
The Quiet American also fills a prophetic role, as we can look back on the many noisy Americans who arrived in Vietnam after the time of this fictional quiet one and amply justified Greene's feeling that they would make a great mess of things.
The other thing that struck me was the faithfulness of Philip Noyce's movie to the text. Many things that I thought the movie had created or changed completely were simply changes of emphasis or dramatisations of things that were too vague or abstract for the screen. Even the changes in Pyle's character were simply attempted clarifications of aspects that were ambiguous in the book - which ironically had the effect of making his character even more ambiguous.

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Intelligent Musings of a Depressive

My name is Graham Greene but you can call me Mr. Grumpy. Greene suffered his entire life from depression and his cynical and dispirited worldview permeates and defines his take on Indochina in the early 50's. In short: there are no winners, only losers. The Quiet American is a short novel with three main characters and only a few minor characters. To call The Quiet American anti-American is not so much inaccurate as incomplete. Americans reading this book should not feel particularly aggrieved. The British, French, North & South Vietnamese are all treated to unflattering or deliberately dismissive portrayals. Graham Greene wants us to dislike the American (Pyle) and the Brit (Fowler) and feel a certain condescending sympathy for the beleagured third worlder (Phong). Communist and other belligerent forces are simplified into a vague indistinguishable "them".

Fowler is the cynical middle aged Brit who has sought refuge from the mess he's made of his life in a faraway land, opium and a low maitenance mistress. Self medication and escape. He is a one man relic of an exhausted empire. He claims nuetrality but betrays it with his open disdain. He is a pundit. He claims the high road without leaving the house, so to speak. Greene presents him in the first person so as to present an aspect of Greene's own outlook.

Pyle is the young, idealistic, overeducated and underinformed American who presumes to involve himself in affairs he does not understand. He is filled with other people's ideas and none of his own. He arrogantly assumes righteousness and assigns himself the so-called white man's burden. The white (adult) superior must show the Asian (child) inferiors the way. His is a smug, well-meaning racism but racism nonetheless. As one can tell, Greene was not fond of Americans.

Phong is a young beautiful South Vietnamese former prostitute turned mistress who must choose between a benevolent user (Fowler's European colonialism) or a well meaning but paternal provider (Pyle's New World Imperialism.) At no point is there any serious consideration that she may choose a third course: her own.

Inevitably, Greene cannot avoid oversimplifying extremely complex forces and motivations, not to mention history. In a mere 200+ pages, Greene presumes to present & comment on a situation involving several countries over several decades. Greene renders a compelling sketch but makes no real effort to provide details. He, like Fowler, is a cynical pundit.

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I Read it while in Vietnam! What are the chances?

I was in Vietnam for Vacation, and I came across this novel in a market store in Saigon. I remember there was a movie, but I had never seen it. I will have to say for a small little simplistic novel there was much to be enjoyed. The novel is narrated by Fowler, the British "OLDER" reporter who loves the space and madness occurring in 1950' Vietnam. Fowler is met by Pyle, an American on humanitarian mission to feed the war ravaged citizens of Vietnam. Pyle admits that he is in love with Fowler's Asian Girl friend and would like to steal her away. From this point on Greene continues the playful bantering back and forth between these two characters, but the novel soon becomes dark and more sinister as we learn these characters' deep dark secrets, they are not what they seem. Graham Greene has created an enjoyable novel that amounted to a love story, adventure story and Mystery all in this nicely written novel. I liked The Quiet American.

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