Rating: 
Summary: Greene's Plea for Action
Review: Graham Greene's novel The Quiet American is an expressive illustration of the interconnection of personal agendas and politics into an action. This action would later be transformed into none other than history itself. Focusing on the events of the earlier part of what would become the Vietnam War, Greene delves into what not many other of his colleagues at the time would dare. He informs the public in such a brilliant way of what exactly is going on, raising the more general question- `Is it possible to be completely unbiased and detached from a situation whose images are repeatedly shown to you on a daily basis?'
The reader is immediately introduced to three characters Fowler, Phuong, and Pyle. Greene does an especially brilliant job in creating these three characters to be paralleled to their respective countries. Fowler plays the part of the neutral observer, and embodies the British attitudes towards the Vietnam. He is especially firm to stand by his feelings of being absolutely unbiased towards the situation. Phuong is presented as a submissive, naïve, and delicate woman of Vietnam, the general attitude America held towards the country itself. Pyle epitomizes America through his aggressiveness and the air that can only be defined as a WASP. He is very well educated though it is made extremely clear not at all knowledgeable of consequence. Greene, using these parallels, is able to sculpt a story of the personal conflict of love, the greater conflict of war, and the ethics involved in a choice which will ultimately lead into an action affecting more than oneself.
Greene unravels his story in such a fashion to give the reader information concerning each life involved. He does not give a one sided account covering up the destruction of a nation, speaking about a peaceful involvement to end Communism as the greater American government would have liked him to. He asks the reader to take a step back in his or her own life and truly reconsider his action, or lack of action.
Through the course of the novel the reader views Fowlers transformation from innocent bystander to active involvement in something greater than himself. Fowler's step to action is admirable, but we're also questionable of his intention. Greene uses Fowler as a prime example that our larger decisions which will affect a world are not always as pure as we would like to believe. He shows that regardless of how genuine and selfless we wish to be at any point in time, we all are still guilty of that droplet of our personal agenda underneath it all. History is not made from reaction to raw facts, rather the physical social interactions between people.
The Quiet American is a necessary read, especially during this period of history. As America continues conflict in Iraq, the ideas provoked by Greene's words are crucial in the understanding of what the American government might again be failing to thoroughly express to the greater public. More importantly, The Quiet American shows the significance of understanding the full story, rather than one nation's view of that story. Rather than simply watching the news every once in awhile, or picking up the paper every Sunday to exclusively read the front page stories, Greene begs for the interaction of the individual and his own history.
Simply stated, The Quiet American is a must read for anyone who wishes to take the challenge of stepping back, listening, understanding that everything you've been fed may not be the entire story, and that the full story may only be attainable through personal inquiry and action.
Rating:
Summary: A Quiet Masterpiece
Review: Graham Greene's success has always rested on his ability to create real, three-dimensional characters and set them in the most precarious of situations. THE QUIET AMERICAN is among the best of Greene's works because it utilizes this strategem the most fully.Set in Viet Nam in the mid-1950s, the atmosphere is one of confusion and forboding. The French invasionary forces in the country are suffering sorely because of native resistance, and things in general seem to be teetering on the verge of explosion. Englishman Thomas Fowler, enjoying his opium-induced haze, is a tough-as-nails but aloof war correspondent observing the chaos. His native-born and beatiful mistress, Phuong, is obviously caught up in the activity. Both are awaiting the arrival of the American, Alden Pyle. When he arrives, several fuses, some quite literally, are lit. Pyle brings with him a kind of ingenuous patriotism for the U.S.A. and part of his mission is to spread the good news about democracy. Along the way, he falls in love with Phuong and, more importantly, he falls deeper into the quicksand of Vietnamese policy and belligerence. As other reviewers have commented, it is quite amazing that Graham Greene wrote this novel in the mid-1950s because he prophesized, in a way, the depths to which America's involvement in Viet Nam would be pulled for the next twenty years. But THE QUIET AMERICAN is not an allegory about European/American entanglements in southeast Asia (although some of that is decidedly there). It is a story about real characters trapped in a milieu that is about to explode. And that makes THE QUIET AMERICAN a gripping, suspenseful novel and is one of Greene's masterpieces.
Rating: 
Summary: forgettable
Review: I know I'm supposed to revere this book, but for me a careful reading was insufficient to reveal its merits.
"The Quiet American" is not perceptive enough to be a political novel, not intimate enough to be a romance novel, and not arranged well enough to be a thriller. Heck, Greene (at least here) isn't even enough of a wordsmith to convincingly evoke l'Indochine in the 50's, so it's not even much of a travel book. I found myself doing much of the work in that regard.
Obviously, the characters as "representative" of their nation's philosophies (the Brit as cynic, the American as idealist, etc.) is well-taken, though I thought the device was heavy-handed and unproductive.
Another thing that, I think, had this book rolling on a flat tire was Greene's "in medias res" beginning, in which he reveals Pyle's death, etc. Although this intially seemed competent, in retrospect it robbed the rest of the story of whatever interest or suspense it would otherwise have had.
Rating:
Summary: A Glimpse Into American Empire
Review: I was challenged in reading this book to think about how America's best of intentions are often times poorly received in the parts of the world we intend to help. Greene's book is echoed in part by Niall Ferguson's Collosus, a book that argues that the idea of American empire is slightly unrealistic given the fact that Americans are unwilling to relocate and get dirty in the same way Englishmen were. The act of colonialism is not compatible with American culture, a fact Greene explores in this wonderful fictional work.
Rating: 
Summary: Forget the Vietnam angle for a second.
Review: Ok, so, seeing as how 70 something people have already offered their "review" of the book (i.e. a synopsis and a rambling dissertation on US-Vietnam-Iraq analogies), I would like to offer instead some tips for reading:
1. Don't get hung up on Greene's "prescience" about the course of the Vietnam war. Greene flirted with Communism his whole life, and in his later life started a full fledged affair with it. For some unfathomable reason, he saw the US as more of a threat than international Communism, and that is the angle he wrote from. To be fair, this angle is very slight in comparison to the norm among the self-appointed intellectual elite.
2. That being said, even if you are pro-American and conservative (as I am) it is still a fantastic book. Greene's anti-Americanism doesn't obsess him, and his criticisms are more or less true and can be taken constructively. Greene's strength lies in his incredible insight into human passions both sexual and political, NOT in his analysis of Cold War policy.
3.When you read this book, look for God as a hidden character, or rather as the unstated main subject of the book. This is probably the last of Greene's books as a real Catholic.
Rating:
Summary: It Leaves You In A Quandry!
Review: Set during the French War in Vietnam, "The Quiet American" is a multifaceted story told in the words of Thomas Fowler, a cynical British correspondent and one of the novel's two main characters. The story involves a struggle between Fowler and Pyle, an American undercover operative and Fowler's romantic rival. Pyle and Fowler hold opposing views of the war, love, God and democracy. Whatever matters to man, they disagree about. Fowler, whose vision of reality stifles his belief in ideals, emerges as a romantic and ideological rival of Pyle, whose ideals blind him to reality. America's Cold War policy in Southeast Asia is critically presented in the person of Pyle. Masterfully written, Graham Greene confronts us with two flawed, stereotypical characters and leaves us to determine the hero and the villain. I still have not made up my mind. A work which can leave the reader in such a quandary is a great work of art. Read and form your own conclusions.
Rating:
Summary: It Leaves You In A Quandry
Review: Set during the French War in Vietnam, "The Quiet American" is a multifaceted story told in the words of Thomas Fowler, a cynical British correspondent and one of the novel's two main characters. The story involves a struggle between Fowler and Pyle, an American undercover operative and Fowler's romantic rival. Pyle and Fowler hold opposing views of the war, love, God, democracy, whatever matters to man, they disagree about. Fowler, whose vision of reality stifles his belief in ideals, emerges as a romantic and ideological rival of Pyle, whose ideals blind him to reality. America's Cold War policy in Southeast Asia is critically presented in the person of Pyle. Masterfully written, Graham Greene confronts us with two flawed, stereotypical characters and leaves us to determine the hero and the villain. I still have not made up my mind. A work which can leave the reader in such a quandary is a great work of art. Read and form your own conclusions.
Rating:
Summary: A powerful book
Review: The Quiet American is a book on moral dilemmas and uncertain loyalties. Set in the early 1950s during the French war in Vietnam, the novel's central figure is Thomas Fowler, an aging British journalist who has promised himself never to take sides in a conflict. He has committed himself to neutrality, and is content to live in Vietnam with his young mistress, Phuong, who keeps his bed warm and prepares his opium pipe. Fowler's world is disrupted when he makes the acquaintance of Alden Pyle, a young, idealistic American whose presence in Vietnam has a darker purpose than Pyle initially lets on. The larger drama of war becomes confounded with Fowler's personal life when Pyle vies for Phuong's attention and when his connections are made clearer to the British reporter.
The book has an overall tone of muted sadness and deep, gray feeling. The details are woven in deftly; each scene is so vivid. Graham Greene has a deep understanding of human morality and motives, and also gives us a good idea of what Vietnam was like in those years.
Rating: 
Summary: Graham Greene's Open Ended World Policy Bible / Mystery
Review: The Quiet American is an interesting story starting with the narrator being told of the murder of a young American friend in a pre-war Vietnam. Fowler, the narrator, then flashes back to the events leading up to the death, gradually revealing to the reader that there is more going on than what meets the eye.
Like many other highly acclaimed novels (Crime and Punishment, The Heart of Darkness), The Quiet American is actually two things: a story and an idea. Don't mistake this story for a weak plot that Graham Greene has used to make his thoughts more palatable, such as the movie Waking Life. This murder mystery stands on its own two legs and could make a great read if that's all that is being sought after. The plot is somewhat formulaic: average Joe puts the moves on the narrator's girl, but then he turns out to be something he's not and the narrator wants him dead. Sounds simple enough, but the massive roles that each character plays makes this novel rise above the other stories that have been fashioned in similar ways. The character development is excellent, letting the reader visualize the people as human beings with varying and sometimes hypocritical ideas and personalities. As the book progresses, these characters grow into complex beings with misunderstandings and an ignorance that can only be described as human. Each character reflects a different opinion about the then current state of Vietnam and what should be done, although it is obvious that Graham Greene has made Fowler as his personal representative in the book. The characters' ideas are what really make this book stand out. Throughout the story, Fowler declares that he is a completely unbiased bystander; just observing the future of Vietnam as it plays out before him. His insistence of this is only rivaled by the amount of times he acts hypocritically to the idea. Fowler is as biased as they come, and even worse, his ignorance of his biased state of mind reassures him that he is always in the right, because how could an innocent bystander be in the wrong? The only character who he can compare himself directly to is Pyle, the quiet American. Unlike Fowler, Pyle is passionate enough to seriously act upon his believes, which are just as uninformed and stubborn as Fowler's, but at least Pyle is not lying to himself and others. All Pyle thinks about is the sorry state of Vietnam and how he can help it become the world power that it could be. He has good enough intentions, but Pyle has not lived in Vietnam for very long and does not understand Vietnam the way that any of the Vietnamese do, making his good intentions into bad decisions. Fowler thinks he knows how Vietnam works and since he considers himself unbiased, he thinks he has all the answers. The situation is ironic though, because Pyle believes that a third, unbiased party (besides the Communists and the French) needs to step in and steer the country out of its slump. Fowler thinks of himself as a third, unbiased party that knows what would be good for Vietnam. If Pyle and Fowler really talked it over, Fowler could have become America's perfect third party Vietnamese president. Pyle and Fowler's ideas were almost identical, they just had different ways of acting them out: Pyle wanted to save the country as a whole, Fowler wanted to save the country by helping individuals. Obviously, both of the ideas are flawed enough and too extreme to work, so it is possible that if they worked together, a happy medium could have been reached. The Quiet American is a great novel that should be held in a higher regard. Its ideas are timeless, especially comparing America today with the America of the 50's and how each interacts with the rest of the world. America definitely could learn a thing or two about foreign policy from this book.
Rating:
Summary: Two and-a-half stars is probably more accurate
Review: This is my first ever book by Greene. I did not care for his writing style -- very dry, and he did not make the characters come alive for me.
It is hard to read literature without having current events impact on what you're reading. For me, this has been especially true post-9/11. This book was filled with anti-American sentiment, which really bothered me.
I only read this book because I wanted to see the movie with Brendan Fraser. Of the actors working today, Fraser is my second-favorite actor after Tom Hanks (way, way second, because Mr. Hanks is of course far superior), but second-favorite nonetheless. The movie was actually in some ways better than the book, except Caine was too old for the role, and Fraser was also miscast, IMO.
But back to Greene. Despite my very lukewarm response to this book, I will still read one other novel by him. I never give up on anybody who is considered a major novelist without at least reading two books by him or her.
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