- Paperback: 192 pages
- Publisher: Vintage; New edition edition (14 Nov 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0099450054
- ISBN-13: 978-0099450054
- Product Dimensions: 19.9 x 12.9 x 1.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 169,323 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
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 naive optimism starts to cause bloodshed, his friend, Fowler, a cynical foreign correspondent, finds it hard to stand aside and watch.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Greene's Quiet American is a naive young man who believes in his own inherent goodness and his country's innocence; after all, unlike the French the USA isn't a colonialist power, is it?
So he sets about helping the Vietnamese find a third way between French colonialism and communism. It takes the already jaded Fowler to see that such idealism is not only misplaced, but cannot possibly coexist with the notion that the ends will justify the means.
Writing in the 1950s, as France struggled to hold Indo-China (or leave with dignity) Greene's is a contemporary story. Yet it reads as if the author's already been through the Vietnam War and witnessed the Quiet American's greatest folly.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Greene's best work and the best book ever on Vietnam's twentieth century wars (French and American). Works beautifully as fiction and also as a tour of the area and the era. I have re-read this book ten or twelve times and still find something new to enjoy and appreciate with each re-reading. As an American veteran of the second war (1968-69) I find this a particularly compelling book.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio Cassette
As a fan of Greene I couldn't wait to pick this book up. I often find this leads to disappointment, but not in this case.
This book embodies Greene's theme of man's blindness, his stumbling through life rather strolling down a chosen path. Fowler, the Foreign correspondent, who wallows through life and the American, Pyle, who is led by his naive allegance to democracy. Pyle's determination to spread the gospel of democracy to Indo-Chine bombards the ordinary Fowler with the extraordinary. In fact this highlights the true realism of Greene's writing and message of the novel: what does a Vietnamese peasant care of politics? His daily struggle is for a bowl of rice whether democratic or communist.
The colonial setting of Indo-Chine is potrayed with ease by Greene, not to mention the imagery.
All in all, this a spectacular read bringing home the absurdity, harshness and reality of the troubles in Vietnam.
This book embodies Greene's theme of man's blindness, his stumbling through life rather strolling down a chosen path. Fowler, the Foreign correspondent, who wallows through life and the American, Pyle, who is led by his naive allegance to democracy. Pyle's determination to spread the gospel of democracy to Indo-Chine bombards the ordinary Fowler with the extraordinary. In fact this highlights the true realism of Greene's writing and message of the novel: what does a Vietnamese peasant care of politics? His daily struggle is for a bowl of rice whether democratic or communist.
The colonial setting of Indo-Chine is potrayed with ease by Greene, not to mention the imagery.
All in all, this a spectacular read bringing home the absurdity, harshness and reality of the troubles in Vietnam.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Fantastic book
In the past I have not been a fan of the Graham Green books I've read. So I approached this with slight ambivalence. How wrong I was. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Late night reader
Understated and Powerful
Greene's take on the power struggle taking place in Indochina in the nineteen fifties, depicting the struggle between the French, the Americans and the native Third Way is... Read more
Published on 17 May 2009 by Mrs. K. A. Wheatley
Incrediably peceptive of history, one of my top 5!
As a novel this would be excellent anyway, but the understanding of the folles of 50's Indochina policy and its future is stunning- I couldn't believe it when I found that this... Read more
Published on 22 April 2009 by Book Monster
A curtain raiser to American involvement in Vietnam
How ironical that one of the characters in Graham Greene's tale of turmoil in post-war Indo-China should state that the old colonial powers of England and France `couldn't expect... Read more
Published on 4 Dec 2008 by Trevor Coote
Classic Greene novel reissued as film-tie-in...
This is an edition of Graham Greene's classic 1955 novel released to coincide with the cinematic release of The Quiet American- that has been sitting on the Hollywood back-burner... Read more
Published on 23 Nov 2002 by Jason Parkes
What novel writing should be.
Great novel, simply and beautifully constructed. Not particularly eventful but a fine plot. The book (to my mind at least) deals with a whole range of human ideals except... Read more
Published on 2 Aug 2001
A GENUINE CLASSIC
For a long while this has been one of my favourite Greene books. The portrait of Saigon (especially)how it used to be under French rule. Read more
Published on 24 Nov 2000
Beauty and the Beast
Really got into this book. I was lookoing for a novel that would give me an insight into the Vietanm war. I got this and a whole lot more. Read more
Published on 15 Nov 1998
The greatest work of Graham Greene's career.
The Quiet American is the quintessential Graham Greene. This book succeeds on a myriad of levels: as a thriller, a romance, a political statement. Read more
Published on 10 Aug 1998
An excellent novel!
This may well be my favorite novel. Wise and deep on many levels-as a political novel, as a love story, as a pessimistic appraisal of the human condition. Read more
Published on 20 May 1998
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