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Summary: Graham is a Great Writer
Review: The story is a fantastic master piece. It speaks about two men who are in love with a Beautiful, and Voluptuous Asian woman[Phoenix-Phuong]. The story takes place in the country of Saigon. It also deals with a war. It is Fowler who wins in the end and gets the girl, but Phoenix's heart is not his but Pyle's. Fantastic! A must for all readers who enjoy romantic love stories.
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Summary: A Prophetic Look at American Involvement in Vietnam
Review: The narrator of The Quiet American, Fowler, is a disengaged man whose credo is to remain neutral and take no side. Fowler confronts Alden Pyle, a young idealistic American blinded by his good intentions, who is involved in a murky scheme to save French-occupied Indochina from communism. With his child-like faith in the teachings of a scholar who spent but one week in Indochina, Pyle becomes immersed in a seemy plot to build a "Third Force," something akin to Hemingway's Fifth Column, that will fight for democracy in Indochina. Fowler watches as Pyle's ignorance and idealism wreak damage and destroy the lives of innocents- all in the name of democracy- and very soon Fowler is forced to engage and to take a side in order to stop Pyle from blindly wreaking more damage. Here, Fowler is a typical, stock Greene hero, cynical and jaundiced, who discovers that cynicism will only go so far and that at one point or another, he must take a larger step towards faith in an ideal or take some type of moral stand. Fowler may be a stock Greene hero, a little formulaic, but Greene uses the formula so well by fleshing out Fowler that we overlook the cliche. Pyle is a bit of oversimplification of what Greene sees as American idealism mixed with dangerous self-confidence, but Greene was trying to create a symbol of American arrogance, and the symbol works well enough to put aside a little irritation at the oversimplification. In addition, the story is infused with a detective motif as Fowler sniffs out the plot Pyle is wrapped up in and keeps us turning pages, eager to discover exactly what the innocent Pyle is scheming. This is a good read with excellent character development and plot twists.
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Summary: impossible to put down
Review: Graham Greenefs gThe Quiet Americanh is a scathing critique of American imperialism in the Cold War Era. The twists and turns of the plot make it impossible for the reader to put gThe Quiet Americanh down for one moment. An insightful look at relationships, religion and war, Greene also provides readers with a unique historical perspective on Americafs tacit involvement in French Indochina which later escalated into full-blown participation in the Vietnam War.
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Summary: Motivations
Review: What does Greene's personality have to do with whether the book is good or not? Greene's personality is irrelevant. Also irrelevant is whether certain readers interpret Fowler as sympathetic. I found him pretty repellant as a human being but thought his character was well drawn and totally believable. He doesn't have to be likable. I'm a bit confused when people use an author's personality or other people's interpretations as their reasons for liking or disliking a book. That seems pretty superficial. Judge the book on it's own merits -- if you thought it was well-written and interesting, give it five stars. If you didn't, pan it.
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Summary: What People See in This Book
Review: What amazes me so often is how many people think of Fowler as a heroic example of British dignity. The character is reprehensible: he is cheating on his wife, a Catholic woman, trying to force her to violate her faith to divorce him. He lies to the young Vietnamese girl with whom he is having an affair. He arranges for her true love to be assassinated, and I always read that Fowler represents the best and the American the worst. Some readers have a problem with seeing what actually is happening, and separating that from the standard refrain their college professors told them. As the author of A THINKER'S DAMN, the story about the making of The Quiet American into a film, I can tell you that Greene himself was nearly as petty as Fowler. Based on misinformation, Greene condemned the motion picture, its star, and its director, without seeing a script, seeing the movie, or waiting until the project was completed. The Quiet American is a fascinating book with an unreliable narrator--and the problem is that many readers cannot differentiate Greene from Fowler.
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Summary: the quite american
Review: Graham Green helps me fall asleep. His storys are ascetically pleasing until you think about them. Theroux likes him and I like Theroux, I dont like Green - sorry Paul. Also dont read this book if your planning to go to Vietnam -it wont help.
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Summary: As superbly written as it is insightful
Review: 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.
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Summary: You know classics, and this isn't one of them.
Review: Stop. The emporer has no clothes. There is something of a story and plot here to keep you, but the dialogue is horrendous. There are kids in high school lit classes that can write better dialogue that this. You will find hard to recollect when the last time you heard adults conversing like this, no matter what the intentions of the author. Yes, there are simpletons in this world, but characters like Pyle are too extreme to permit any believability. Next time I wont go from Hemingway to Greene.
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Summary: The Quiet American.
Review: "The Quiet American" is a skillfully written book, by one of the most underrated authors of our century. The characters are carefully created symbols of two ideologies--the weary veteran Brit and the idealistic gung-ho American. Wonderfully written, memorable characters, and a slew of powerful quotes...this novel comes hightly recommended. A++
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Summary: Story Behind the Story
Review: I just love Greene's book: it's complex, thoughtful, suspenseful. So, I was so happy to find another book that tells what happened while Greene wrote the book and what happened when they made a movie of the novel. It's called A THINKER'S DAMN by William Russo, and it was like reliving the novel from a different angle. Great fun. And you can get it right here on amazon.com
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