The quiet American

by

180 pages

English language

Published 2004 by Penguin Books.

ISBN:
978-0-14-303902-0
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OCLC Number:
56808713

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5 stars (1 review)

This novel is a study of New World hope and innocence set in an Old World of violence. The scene is Saigon in the violent years when the French were desperately trying to hold their footing in the Far East. The principal characters are a skeptical British journalist, his attractive Vietnamese mistress, and an eager young American sent out by Washington on a mysterious mission.

32 editions

reviewed The quiet American by Graham Greene (Penguin classics)

My beloved, problematic Graham

5 stars

Vietnam, 1950s. Pyle is the quiet American, young, idealist, determined to bring democracy to Vietnam. Fowler is the disillusioned, cynical British reporter. Phuong is the Vietnamese woman they both want. As a novel, it is impeccable. It also offers an insightful, complex commentary on that war, and many other wars too. The portrayal of Phuong (as a flower, a victim, a child, a servant woman), the frequent use of sexual imagery to talk about the colonies and their inhabitants are very disturbing. Even if Greene seems to be aware of it, i.e. aware that everyone is making up their own Phuong to fit their story. Does it make it OK?

Subjects

  • Indochinese War, 1946-1954 -- Fiction
  • Triangles (Interpersonal relations) -- Fiction
  • Americans -- Indochina -- Fiction
  • British -- Indochina -- Fiction
  • War correspondents -- Fiction
  • Indochina -- Fiction
  • Vietnam -- Fiction