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The Quiet American by Graham Greene
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The Quiet American

by Graham Greene

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Showing 1-5 of 36 (next | show all)
A hard book for me to read. Being on an assignment at the moment and having been for the last 23 years of my life, this book telling an assignment of somebody outside his home land got to me.

So very well written, only somebody on the road can reliate to this kind of life, and only can read underneath the hardship of outside our comfort zone.

Well done, one book that will follow me now, wherever I am going next. ( )
  labelleaurore | Nov 25, 2009 |
This was a very well written, short book that packs much in its pages in spite of its length.

Additionally, this is actually my first book I've read by Greene as well, which seems to be taking things backwards.

It has been a while since a work of fiction has kept me so intrigued that I truly could not wait until I was back into it. I truly felt that in under 200 pages we were really able to get a feel for the time in history as well as its place in history(Vietnam). Additionally, we are not simply given the story of a complicated love triangle or of figuring out how another character died, but are able to follow both simultaneously without having to lose the other. By starting with the end, we are left trying to understand what happened between these two friends that one would end up dead while the other got their lover.

By no means is any of this story a cheap thrill or a stereotype, but an enjoyable journey of understanding the lives of these two people that met up in an unusual way. ( )
  jd234512 | Oct 19, 2009 |
A gorgeously written novel that can be nearly any type you choose to read it as: an espionage thriller, a satire of two countries naively attempting to impose their wills on a country they both choose not to understand (Fowler as Britain cynically attempts to remain objective while Pyle, the apparently ineffectual American tries to save Phuong and Vietnam from herself), a war novel infinitely more personal and thoughtful than any by Hemingway, or a text that directly addresses language and how it shapes and colors the meaning we attempt to express through it. It can be anything except what it first appears to be: a love story. Phuong is as much an object as she is a mystery to both men, and this is integral to reading the novel. ( )
1 vote drewjameson | Sep 16, 2009 |
Written about the War in Indo-China (Vietnam) before the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. The story revolves around two characters: Fowler, an experienced and jaded British journalist and Pyle, a young idealist sent out by Washington on a mysterious mission to Saigon. Pyle's naive political blunders (a metaphor for the rising US influence in the region) devolve into needless bloodshed that ultimately moves the cynical Fowler to action.

I found it to be an interesting read about the second to the last chapter of Western colonialism in Southeast Asia. ( )
1 vote zenitsky | Sep 15, 2009 |
I was expecting more from this. It is often taught in Australian high schools, and students I know often have a lot to say about it. However, I was disappointed. This was one of those books in which the high point comes and goes in a page and you have to read it a couple of times to make sure there isn't something more to it. So an innocent young American comes to Vietnam during the war, gets caught up in misguided efforts to bring a better world, realises the war and the problem is bigger than he can fix, that he has become a puppet, and that unscrupulous people will use him for their own ends. I found myself asking 'So what?'. ( )
  notmyrealname | Aug 19, 2009 |
Showing 1-5 of 36 (next | show all)
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People/Characters
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Awards and honors
Epigraph
This is the patent age of new inventions
For killing bodies, and for saving souls,
All propagated with the best intentions. -- Byron ---
I do not like being moved; for the will is excited, and action
Is a most dangerous thing; I tremble for something factitious,
Some malpractice of heart and illegitimate process;
We're so prone to these things, with our terrible notions of duty. -- A. H. Clough
Dedication
First words
After dinner I sat and waited for Pyle in my room over the rue Catinat; he had said, ‘I’ll be with you at latest by ten,’ and when midnight struck I couldn’t stay quiet any longer and went down into the street.
Quotations
innocence is like a dumb leper who has lost his bell, wandering the world, meaning no harm.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Wikipedia in English (2)

CIA in fiction and the movies

The Quiet American

Book description

Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 0140185003, Paperback)

Starring Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser, The Quiet American is already gaining incredible buzz -- including a Golden Globe nomination for Caine (Best Actor, Drama). This enchanting film is directed by Phillip Noyce (Rabbit-Proof Fence; The Bone Collector; Clear and Present Danger) and is adapted from one of Graham Greene’s best-loved novels. Into the intrigue and violence of Indo-China comes Pyle, a young idealistic American sent to promote democracy through a mysterious “Third Force.” As his naïve optimism starts to cause bloodshed, his friend Fowler, a cynical foreign correspondent, finds it hard to stand aside and watch. But even as he intervenes he wonders why: for the sake of politics, or for love.

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:19 -0400)

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