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The Quiet American (Modern Library)

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I can honestly say that I've spent more time thinking about the events of Graham Greene's THE QUIET AMERICAN than of any other book I've read in months. In short, this is the story of America's involvement in Vietnam, full stop. Astounding is the fact that this was written between 1952 and 1955, yet can serve as a metaphor for almost two further decades of US involvement in that region.

This is no simple tale, although it can be read as one. It works on many different levels. In its simplest form, this is a story about two foreigners in Indo-China: a middle-aged British reporter, and a young idealistic American. They involve themselves in two main plots: one concerning the French Army's battle with the Vietminh, and the second, concerning the two men's relationship with a native woman and the subsequent fight for her affections. On this level, THE QUIET AMERICAN works as an effective thriller. Who is the mysterious "third force" that Pyle, the American, is aiding? Why is he even there, and why is he providing aid to this group? Will Fowler, the British journalist, abandon his policy of neutrality and enter into the conflict? Who will end up with the girl at the end?

But there are all sorts of other subtexts and subtleties going on here. Pyle isn't just "the quiet American"; he is America -- at least as far as the US's involvement in Vietnam is concerned. And the difference in age between Pyle and Fowler is no random chance. Fowler is the older man; his country has already had its expansionist, colonial period. Fowler already knows what it's like to get one's fingers burnt interfering in other people's conflicts. But Pyle won't be told. He's the young inexperienced man who has to find out for himself -- to the detriment of everyone.

This isn't just a simplistic "America = idealistic, good-hearted, but naive" or "England = experienced, weary, and impotent" view of the world. While Greene builds on several stereotypes of the Old and the New Worlds, he goes much farther beyond that. Both men desire Phuong (the Vietnamese woman), but for starkly different reasons. The woman's own interests are kept to herself deliberately. We learn far more about Pyle and Fowler simply by the way in which they view the woman. On a purely personal level, the characterization is heart-wrenching. When looked at on a national level as far as what the two men represent, it is amazingly thought provoking.

After reading THE QUIET AMERICAN, I kept replaying and rethinking a number of its scenes and breaking down the characters as much as I could. There is a lot going on here, and much of what Greene wrote about wouldn't fully come into being for a number of years after the book's publication. There are many layers of subtleties occurring in this book's pages, and while I'm certain that I have not yet caught them all, it is not through a lack of interest. This is a very powerful book, and should be on everyone's "To Read" list.

Only the great Graham Greene could have written a story that is as wry and understated as it is prophetic. "The Quiet American" captures several different attitudes during Vietnam's transition from French colonial occupation to American "involvement". In this novel the French do what they do best, namely they undertake a hopeless struggle and experience painful defeat. The Americans enter the scene with grandiose plans, tons of money, and utterly no sense of reality. The Vietnamese are, of course, hard-edged and practical, while the lone Englishman-God bless him-is the epitome of dying yet dignified colonialism.

For those of you who haven't read the book, its both an odd love story and a metaphor for American involvement in Vietnam. The hero, Fowler is a washed up, middle aged, English war correspondent, content with his opium pipe and his Vietnamese mistress, Phuong. His world is gradually disrupted by the arrival of an American covert operative named Pyle who is both a zealous ideologue and a naïve optimist. Things get complicated when Pyle steals Phuong away from Fowler, yet attempts to remain friends with him. The normally indifferent Fowler soon becomes morally repulsed by Pyle's seemingly well intended terrorist activities, and gradually becomes politically involved. By the time Fowler helps to engineer Pyle's murder it is unclear even to him whether he is doing so to help the Vietnamese people or to win Phuong back.

"The Quite American" explores several different concepts. Like many of Greene's novels and short stories it examines the peculiar morality of love. Fowler and Phuong form a strange symbiosis. Fowler is estranged from is English wife, and is old enough to be Phuong's father. His affection for her is unabashedly sexual and certainly not made for day time TV in the U.S. Phuong's attachment to both Fowler and Pyle is based more on practical reasons than on love. Greene never passes judgement any of the trio. And when Fowler wins Phuong back in the end, he is left-like so many of us-with a lingering doubt about his motives and actions.

Equally interesting is Greene's exploration of the politics of Southeast Asia in the 1950s and particularly, the shifting balance of power from European colonialism to American military and economic involvement. Pyle, who is probably based on the real life American operative, Landsdale devoutly worships the books of an intellectual whose thinking bears strong resemblance to that of George Kennan. As the French wrap up their losing streak, the Americans enter the scene with blind stupidity, you can't help but cringe at disaster to come.

I loved this book for its intelligent grasp of love and politics. Like many of Greene's other works, this one contains a genius for characterization.

Graham Greene wrote this novel in 1955. It's set in the early fifties when Vietnam was still Indo-China and there was a war raging between the French and the Vietnamese. It's obvious he's worried about the future and American involvement, and this theme resonates throughout the book as well as gives an eerie foreshadowing of what we all know happened later. At only 188 pages, it's a seemingly simple story of mystery, adventure and love. But it's also a story of a people, a place and a time as well as a warning about the future.

Thomas Fowler, the narrator, is a hardened British war correspondent. He in a relationship young Vietnamese woman named Phuong, enjoys his opium pipes, and manages to get along with his fellow correspondents. Suddenly, a young naïve American, named Alden Pyle, arrives in Vietnam, supposedly as an aid worker. When he declares his love for Phuong, the plot thickens. But this is just one facet of the story as both men are thrust into the war, viewing the meaningless deaths around them and coming very close to death themselves. Pyle's mission to Indo-China becomes increasingly suspect, and as Fowler discovers one clue after another, the conclusion is inevitable.

I was immediately drawn into the story, which sets up a mystery and keeps the reader wondering until the very end. At the same time, the three main characters are deeply developed, not only as to their individualisms, but also as to their national character. The British correspondent takes a caustic view of the world; the American is effusive and idealistic, and the Vietnamese woman is stoic. They move around in a Vietnam where the French are fast losing their hold, and everyone knows that change is going to happen.

I loved this book. Every word reverberated with a truth that existed when it was written, and which proved to be a prophesy of things to come. It also enriched my understanding of the dark period in history that followed. Highly recommended.

I'd heard of this book for years just as "Greene's Vietnam novel," without knowing when it was written or anything else about it. So when I saw it in a bookstore in Saigon at the conclusion of a three-week tour of Vietnam in 1997, it seemed appropriate to snap it up, and I started reading it in a cafe not too far from the street where Fowler had his flat (now renamed, of course, but I don't remember what the new name is). So maybe that's why it had such an intense effect on me, but I was absolutely stunned by it. It really pulled me into a feeling of what it might have been like to be in Vietnam in 1954, and the characters were clearly portrayed (if not always nice). Among the fascinating things is the (relatively) sympathetic treatment of Pyle. Greene makes it clear that by any measure of "private" morality, Pyle is a much better person than Fowler, but in his political actions he is utterly, totally, completely wrong -- not from bad motives, but because he does not know what he is doing. AFter I finished it I looked at the copyright date and was stunned again to see that it was written in 1954, before the French got out of Vietnam. Hell, yes, it's a prophecy of what would happen with the US involvement there. I'd love to get my hands on whatever crystal ball Greene was using, and I wish he was still around so he could write an Afghanistan novel.

'The Quiet American' is a well-written novel about a love triangle set against the background of the French and American involvement in Vietnam. The narrative voice is that of Thomas Fowler, a disillusioned, middle-aged English correspondent with few professional and personal prospects who tries to keep at the margin of the incidents around him--or, as he says, who tries to report those incidents without taking sides--until he is comfronted with the dilemmas represented by Alden Pyle, a naive American who has learned politics only by reading books. Those dilemmas are, on the one hand, personal, and, on the other, political: Pyle takes away Phoung, Fowler's Vietnamese girlfriend, while at the same time is engaged in shady dealings with a dubious Vietnamese general to restore 'democracy' in the country and stop the 'spread of communism'. Should Fowler continue with his life of non-engagement and let Pyle get away with his girlfriend and the havoc he is wreaking among Vietnamese civilians with his monolithic political views? As one character in the novel says, 'one has to take sides. If one is to remain human.' And Fowler, after a senseless terrorist act in which Pyle is involved (although Pyle himself thinks that it was for 'the benefit of democracy'), is forced to act. The personal and the political merge in Fowler's difficult decision--but the reader is left uncomfortable as to what Fowler's ultimate motives are.

The novel flows effortlessly from the first page to the last, both in its structure and in its prose. One often finds incisive comments and humor, and one cannot cease to be amazed at how prescient Greene's views are on the disastrous American involvement in Vietnam (the novel was written between 1952 and 1955). My only complaint about the novel is that Pyle's naiveness, although reflective of the American political position at the time, is almost caricaturesque at times, and thus detracts from his credibility as a character. Despite this, I thoroughly recommend it. It might even be an excellent tool in a political-science classroom.

Graham Greene wrote one of the best novels of the 20th century with "The Quiet American." His straightforward, elegant prose along with ample doses of irony and humor, make this novel a masterpiece. Greene's characters are extraordinarily complex and passionate beneath their seemingly quiet exteriors. Published in 1955, during the waning days of French colonialism and the beginning of American intervention in Southeast Asia, the book foreshadowed the America War in Vietnam.

Thomas Fowler, Greene's narrator, is a cynical, veteran journalist for a London newspaper based in Saigon in 1952. The dispassionate Fowler has "gone native." He has fallen in love with Vietnam and with the lovely Phoung, a one-time taxi dancer who is young enough to be his daughter. Despite the turbulent political climate, Fowler is content with filing an occasional story and living a pleasurable, carefree life. His dream is to convince his Catholic wife, back in England, to divorce him so he can live out his days idyllically with Phoung and an opium pipe in Saigon.

Enter Alden Pyle, a seemingly innocuous, naive American who is supposedly part of a medical assistance delegation sent by the US government. Pyle is a passionate advocate of an American foreign policy theorist named York Harding, who has proposed that the solution to the problems in French Indochina is a "third force," other than the French colonial government and the Vietminh insurgents currently battling for control of the country. Pyle has really come to Vietnam to foster this alternative third player - a Vietnamese strongman who would lead an American-backed government.

Fowler and Pyle meet and improbably, the jaded, world weary Brit and the earnest, patriotic American form a friendship - until Pyle intrudes in the relationship between Fowler and Phoung. Pyle falls in love with Phuong, almost at first sight. He seduces her away from Fowler with promises of marriage and a life in America. Initially, Pyle's innocence and decency were endearing to Fowler. However, with the potential loss of his lover and the increasing evidence that Pyle is involved in violent clandestine activities, Fowler's feelings toward Pyle begin to sour and the friendship becomes strained. Still Fowler strives to remain objective about the political situation and proclaims, "I don't get involved. I just report what I see".

After a car bomb in downtown Saigon kills several innocent bystanders, Fowler traces the contents of the bomb back to Pyle. He realizes that Pyle, in his fervent adherence to ideological theories, has lost his humanity. He sees Pyle as the quintessential innocent and too simplistic: "'...I had better look after Pyle.' That was my first instinct - to protect him. It never occurred to me that there was greater need to protect myself. Innocence always calls mutely for protection, when we would be so much wiser to guard ourselves against it. Innocence is like a dumb leper who has lost his bell, wandering the world meaning no harm." And finally, Fowler is dramatically forced to take sides. He can no longer be a passive observer to the growing conflict.

Graham Greene quotes Lord Byron on one of the pages preceding the novel, "This is the patent age of new inventions/ For killing bodies, and for saving souls,/ All propagated with the best intentions." This novel is at once a powerfully prophetic commentary and a riveting thriller. Beautifully crafted.

JANA

*The Quiet American* is a realistic story that uses what has become a classic theme: the innocent American abroad. The story is told from the point of view of Fowler, an English journalist, and a correspondent living in French Indochina, what is now known as Vietnam. There is a war going on: Communist Vietnamese are attempting to overtake the French colonials and their democratic Vietnamese underlings. As a Brit in this setting, Fowler is impartial, which suits his nature. He's not really for the French or the Democrats, but neither is he for the rebel Communists. Getting on in years, estranged from his wife who remains back in England, Fowler is a cynic with a fatalistic view of the world. He is detached and aloof from the actors in the war, and his perceceptions can be humorous, even in the face of the horrible circumstances of war.

Fowler lives with his young Vietnamese girlfriend, Phuong. He's just biding his time with her, neither eager to return to England nor interested in his job as correspondent. In fact he has even has his hired servant, Dominquez, to write brief journalistic correspondence for his home newspaper. Fowler is an opium smoker, a habit that enables him to remain in this limbo he's carved out for himself.

Enter Pyle, an American, whose zealous support of and belief in the burgeoning colonial democracy blinds him to the compexity of the causes of the war. Pyle sees the world in black and white: things are either good or bad in Pyle's view; one is either for the democracy or against it. His foil, Fowler, on the other hand, sees the gray shades of war; he understands the causes, even when they are absurd causes. In Fowler's view,war "heroes" are cold blooded killers, cowards survive, the brave are foolhardy, and whether a soldier lives or dies is purely accidental.

Pyle falls in love with Fowler's girl Phuong. Being an innocent, he approaches Fowler about it and declares his intentions. He says he can offer Phuong a proper marriage; Fowler cannot promise Phuong anything but the limbo he's created. Fowler cannot argue with Pyle's logical reasons for taking Phuong from Fowler, and though he hates Pyle for taking his girl, he has to admit she will be better off.

Pyle gets involved in distributing explosives to the democratic urban guerrillas. Pyle's activities in the war scenario parallel his actions in the love triangle with Fowler and Phuong: in the love triangle, he upsets Phuong and Fowler's relationship, taking her from Fowler. In the war setting, he enters the country and begins feeding war materials to the democracy, which uses the material in bombings in the city that kill innocent bystanders. In both of these scenarios, he's a blind intruder, seeing everything in black and white and oblivious to the subtle nuances of war or love. Fowler on the other hand sees these subjects and his role in them with much complexity. For this reason, he is the real hero of the novel. Though he is a cynic and resists choosing sides in the war, the reader appreciates his ability to accurately access the circumstances. His refusal to take sides is a personal choice and not the result of his not being able to see the situation clearly enough to choose sides. So it is in his love affair with Phuong: he detaches himself from her, letting her go to Pyle. He won't choose sides in the love affair either, even though he sees his relationship with her accurately.

This novel written between 1953 and 1955 has been made into a new film, which has been recently released by Miramax. This is the story about the early stages of the American involvement in Vietnam. Although simplistic, it captures the essence of the political turmoil of Vietnam in the fifties: the French trying to hang on to their colony, the Americans trying their hands in a new country, the "third force", the communists, the peasants, and so on.

It deals with an American idealist, Pyle, who without knowing its true colors tried to help the "third force" fight the communists in Vietnam. Fowler, a seasoned English reporter questioned Pyle's real motives. He suspected, like the British had done in Burma years earlier, the Americans would soon get tired of the involvement, leave the natives fight for themselves, and let them be slaughtered by their enemies. This was a fascinating prediction, which came to be true 30 years later. How Graham Greene could predict that event back then still puzzles me? The plot, however, thickened as Pyle tried to lure away Fowler's Vietnamese mistress.

I have to concede the novelist had more insight than many of our politicians. Since the novel raises important issues, it should be a "must read" book for many Americans.

So slim yet such a nugget of gold. Manages to analyze Vietnam and show the stupidity of America's involvement with it, while ostensibly telling a love-triangle crime & punishment story complete with a French Raskolnikov. After one reading, you can read it again, taking Pyle for America's government itself, Phuong for the Vietnamese people (they make dangerous bedfellows :), and Fowler for Greene himself. The magnificent use of a few words to characterize people and places is world class. This book is maybe the best novel of the 20th century, certainly of the '50s. Must-read for any literate American. Too bad it didn't mention that Vietnam had been fighting China for 1000 years and could never become its puppet in a 'domino theory'; all the Viets wanted was to get the colonialists out, and mistook America for such. A neutral unified VN would have been accepted by Ho Chi Minh, as McNamara now admits, but nobody knew to propose it, because the VN assumed everybody knew their history and never talked about it :) Even today, America is VN's natural ally against Chinese imperialism.

While Graham Greene's writing is noticeably without flashiness, it is also without flaws. Always subtle and graceful, with each novel he wrote he quietly established himself as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. The Quiet American is no exception. It is a perfectly balanced novel. Greene expertly juxtaposes the character of Fowler, the British journalist, with Pyle, the American aid worker. Fowler is older, more reserved, more experienced. Pyle is young, more ambitious, and seemingly more naive. Fowler lives his life by the journalist's number one rule - stay impartial, don't take sides, just report what you see. Pyle, by contrast, is passionate about making a difference in the struggle against communism in Vietnam. They serve as beautiful foils for one another, and together they guide the reader through a profound exploration of the importance of being committed to a cause. As Greene writes, one must eventually take sides in order to truly live. This book is also an elegant comparison of two different cultures. One learns lots about Vietnam within minutes of arriving, Greene points out. And it is also a tender love story, though not a traditional one. Greene masterfully blends this love story with a powerful and morally complex political scenario in a way that few modern writers could pull off. As with all of Greene's work, this is excellent fiction.