In this novel Greene depicts with a great deal of realism the end of the French mistake in Vietnam and the beginning of the American one. I've read that many people view the book as anti-American, but the scenes and situations align well with what one reads in, for example, Stanley Karnow's Vietnam: A History. My main gripe, as an American, is the cardboard nature of the American characters, i.e. Pyle, Joe, and Granger. In fact, and come to think of it, none of the characters in the novel, aside from the narrator Fowler, are very well developed. The treatment of Pyle is striking because of the shallowness that his character is given in comparison to his deeds and importance to the plot. Pyle and the other characters all seem to be developed just sufficiently to allow Greene to make his, admittedly important, socio-political points. Effective, but not great, writing. Just a word about Joseph Porter, the narrator of the audiobook version I listened to. He definitely had the flat, jaded voice one might associate with Fowler, but he also applied the same tone to the other characters. It left me with the feeling that Mr. Porter had better things to do than to narrate this novel. ( )

Fab book - Greene captures the situation in Indo-Chine expertly. The English reporter, Fowler, is a flawed narrator, but this only makes him more of a realistic character. The books starts with the news of the death of Fowler's rival for his mistress' affection, an American called Pyle. Pyle is a seemingly green American, who is up to something and his relationship with Fowler is anything but clean cut. Predating the official involvement of Americans in Vietnam, this book is just as relevant in the political situation of today.

Well written book, with human characters.

If you liked this, read A Gun For Sale (also by Greene). ( )

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. ( )

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. ( )

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. ( )