The Quiet American (The Quiet American - Graham Greene)

Member Name: nlingwood

Product:	The Quiet American - Graham Greene
Date:	16/08/00 (330 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A great read

Disadvantages: The only good American?

Set in the last years of French Indo-China (Vietnam), this is a story of dangerous idealism and betrayal. Graham Greene's tired narrator, an English journalist, encounters a naïve American, Pyle, whose dangerous enthusiasms draw them into the conflict. A generation before the American experience in Vietnam, it foreshadows the terrible price of commitment and intervention.

The narrator has much in common with Greene's characters from other books. Tired, cynical and middle-aged, he is content to seek his own peace amid the conflict. But this complacency is shaken on meeting the young, idealistic Pyle, working as a liaison from the US embassy. This quiet American, by his support of local warlords and affection for the journalist’s mistress, forces him to become involved.

The blend of tropical surroundings, dangerous idealism and world-weary cynicism is classic Greene, and this is one of his best. He experienced the situation himself, and ably depicts all its details.

Summary: