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.
Rating:
Summary: Talk about premonition
Review: This is THE story about the beginnings of America's involvement in the mess that became the Vietnam War. Graham Greene had future vision and even in 1955 knew what would happen. He both explains and predicts the future in The Quiet American, a beautiful book set in Vietnam in the 50s. The book is told from the point of view of Fowler, an aging British journalist. Fowler's beautiful but opportunistic Vietnamese mistress, Phuong (who is herself a metaphor for the country itself), is coveted and for a while, claimed by a seemingly innocuous American named Pyle. Slowly, Pyle's real purpose in the country is discovered, and Fowler's servant upsets his determinedly neutral, uninvolved stance by saying, "There comes a time when you must choose sides."
Absolutely wonderful, profoundly thought-provoking, multi-layered book.
Rating:
Summary: A must-read book.
Review: 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.
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