A “masterful . . . brilliantly constructed novel” of love and chaos in 1950s Vietnam (Zadie Smith, The Guardian). It’s 1955 and British journalist Thomas Fowler has been in Vietnam for two years covering the insurgency against French colonial rule. But it’s not just a political tangle that’s kept him tethered to the country. There’s also his lover, Phuong, a young Vietnamese woman who clings to … Vietnamese woman who clings to Fowler for protection. Then comes Alden Pyle, an idealistic American working in service of the CIA. Devotedly, disastrously patriotic, he believes neither communism nor colonialism is what’s best for Southeast Asia, but rather a “Third Force”: American democracy by any means necessary. His ideas of conquest include Phuong, to whom he promises a sweet life in the states. But as Pyle’s blind moral conviction wreaks havoc upon innocent lives, it’s ultimately his romantic compulsions that will play a role in his own undoing.
Although criticized upon publication as anti-American, Graham Greene’s “complex but compelling story of intrigue and counter-intrigue” would, in a few short years, prove prescient in its own condemnation of American interventionism (The New York Times).
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Damning, dark, haunting. I re-read this book the last time I was in Saigon. This is an amazing novel, as dark as Conrad or McCarthy.
I’m a Vietnam-era veteran and, being something of a “retread,” a post-9/11 veteran as well. So, as I watched the evacuations from Afghanistan, I can still easily recall the hurried evacuations from Vietnam. It seemed to a good time to read The Quiet American, Graham Greene’s cautionary tale about America’s foray into a Southeast Asian war.
Written in 1955, just a year after the French lost its war to maintain control over Indochina and two years after the U.S. fought the Korean War to a stalemate, The Quiet American was meant as a warning to Americans not to become embroiled in a war in Vietnam. Obviously, America didn’t listen.
The story is narrated by Thomas Fowler, a middle-aged British journalist and ex-pat who travels the countryside reporting on French military victories against the Viet Minh, Vietnamese nationalists trying to force the French out of Indochina. Fowler knows these “victories” are mostly pyrrhic and that a French defeat is inevitable. Still, he is content with his job and his apartment in Saigon where he lives with his 20-year-old Vietnamese mistress, Phuong.
Fowler’s contentment begins to fall apart when he meets Alden Pyle, a quiet, young American trade official whose actual job as a CIA agent is a well-known secret. Too young to have fought in WWII and having missed the slaughter of the Korean War, Pyle is idealistic to a fault. He fully believes in the concept of American exceptionalism and, despite having only just arrived in Vietnam, believes he knows how to win the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese. His naivety leads him to ally himself with General Thé, a corrupt and deadly warlord. It also leads him to fall in love at first sight with Fowler’s mistress. Just as Pyle believes America is best for the Vietnamese people, he also believes he is best for Phuong. Eventually, he does win her over.
The characters of Fowler and Pyle, of course, are stand-ins for England, the great colonial empire that the post-war sun is setting upon, and America, the new, energetic empire builder. Phuong is Vietnam, a country that just wants to survive.
In the end, Pyle’s naivety and idealism leads to his death. No spoilers here; the book begins with his death. Fowler’s narration describes the events brought about by Pyle—and, it is hinted, by Fowler himself—that ultimately leads to Pyle’s death—a death that, now in retrospect, represents not only America’s ultimate failure in Vietnam, but also the 55,000 Americans who died there.
Read 5.11.2019
A very sad book – war is horrible, especially when it is not war.
I will admit that I did not know about France’s “war” with Vietnam [it went on when the US was busy with Korea] and this book just made me realize I was glad about that. It was the precursor to the US being there and as we know, there was no happy ending there either.
An important book, it is very sad and a big reminder that there are no winners in war, even when you think you have won.
Few authors have such a ruthless, careful way with language that one can read the entire book and never trip over a single word. Every sentence, every syllable is chosen and placed perfectly, packed with power, necessary or it wouldn’t be there on the page. This is how I feel when I read Greene. I wonder how many revisions he needed to achieve this sharp and glittering art. Part of me knows the number must be in the dozens; part of me believes he penned it from his soul exactly like this.
I was born in 1986 and sadly throughout the time I was in school, the farthest in history my teachers got us was through the civil war. This book opened a new world to me with a global perspective on the war in Vietnam. I love spy novels, but this book was priceless because it makes one evaluate an era through multiple countries’ perspectives. I was beginning to learn French as well, and this book helped with my knowledge, as well as the history and culture of the language.
Classic Graham Greene. Well constructed characters with human faults interacting in a complex time of history. Typical of these periods of history, there is plenty of moral ambiguity. The book is set in Viet Nam as the French are preparing to depart and the US is beginning to ramp up their presence. The characters capture the complex political scenes and alliances that were the backdrop of the war and the enthusiastic naïveté the US brought to the show.
Very well-written, thought-provoking.
A frank appraisal of American naivete in southeast Asia. A very pleasant and thought-provoking read.
This book was written in 152, and takes place in Indochina, modern day Viet Nam. Predicts the various Vietnamese groups fighting the French colonialists. Prescient info about the US’s involvement in Viet Nam.
A nicely descriptive book that illuminates the rest of the world’s views on the arrogant prudery of Americans. This Vietnam War era story is a wonderful metaphor for the newly ascendant US’s bumbling discharge of its imperial power. Greene exposes the American hubris with perfect English drollery.
A brilliant political story of flawed characters, not to love or to hate, but to absorb slowly and inexorably like a drink of fine Scotch.
This author is excellent. He sometimes takes a different, but perceptive outlook on life.
Pyle, a well meaning young American, gets involved with forces he does not understand in Saigon. Taken under the wing of Thomas Fowler, a seasoned foreign correspondent, he betrays that trust by stealing Fowler’s mistress Phuong. The older man finds himself struggling with a conflict of interest which becomes deadly for one of them. Suppressed emotions, old fashioned control, broken pride and jealous hearts. Epic Greene which will both horrify and thrill you.
I love almost everything Graham Green had written. He has a wonderful
feel for his characters and good insight about what he is writing. The Quiet
American was sad but a very realistic look at a war torn country and at
ourselves and our part in it.
Actually would not recommend his book. The author is a wonderful writer and I was drawn in the first few chapters because of this and finished the book because of his outstanding writing, but in the end it was trying too hard to not be egocentric/ethnocentric and didn’t try hard enough to not be sexist. Did not enjoy it.
Set in the era of French controlled Vietnam, this is an excellent read. Brings to life so much of what we, as Americans, should have understood about Vietnam and stayed out of it.
Graham Greene foreshadowed America’s Vietnam tragedy in The Quiet American. Ignore the movie made from this book, they screwed it up as badly as we did Vietnam.
One of the best books by the best English novelist of the middle 20th century. Informative about the roots of American involvement in Vietnam. But more importantly, about the destructive potential of American “innocence.” Even more centrally, about the desirabilityof making the “wager” on personal commitment vs. the safety of withdrawal.
although the plot is amazing and incredibly relevant to the world situation even 65 years later, it really wouldn’t matter what the topic is. If you admire tight evocative prose, this is a treat!
I found this so quiet (oblique) and dated that I quit early on.