This is an eerily prophetic and, therefore, deeply disturbing book.
Ostensibly the story of a love triangle involving a naive American spook,
a jaded English journalist and a young Vietnamese girl, lurking just beneath
the surface is an allegory for the whole experience of America in Vietnam.
Alden Pyle, the Quiet American of the title, was based on Col. Edward
Lansdale, the renowned, or infamous depending on your politics, CIA operative
who was sent to Viet Nam in the 50's to subvert the Vietminh after a string
of successes in the Phillipines (he was also the model for William Lederer's
and Eugene Burdicks "The Ugly American"). Pyle is an innocent who
believes that others must surely share his ideals and pureness of motive.
He is convinced, based on his adherence to the writings of York Harding,
that there is a Third Way for Vietnam, somewhere between Communism and
the corrupt colonial government. He has come to Vietnam to foster
a group that will adhere to this Third Way. The journalist, Fowler,
a cynical world-weary man of much wider experience, realizes that Pyle
is a dangerous man because he is imposing his idealized vision on a group
that is merely power hungry. Meanwhile, Pyle has fallen in love with
Phuong, Fowler's Vietnamese girlfriend. And while Fowler can offer
her little because his wife refuses to grant him a divorce, Pyle offers
marriage and respectability and a life in America. As
Fowler loses Phuong to Pyle and Pyle's group begins a terror campaign,
Fowler finally abandons his neutrality and chooses sides, a choice made
all the more ambiguous because of his romantic rivalry with Pyle.
The prescient pessimism that pervades this book is it's most interesting
feature. Greene, writing well before we really got involved, seemed
to sense that Vietnam was a tar baby that we idealistic Americans would
not be able to resist embracing. Pyle's bloody blundering seems to
presage the well-intended but disastrous mess that we would make of the
entire country in the decades to come. One wishes that men
like Robert McNamara and the Kennedys had paid attention to this literate
warning.
(Reviewed:)
Grade: (A)
Websites:
See also:
Graham Greene (
6 books reviewed)
Thrillers
War
Graham Greene Links:
-(Henry)
Graham Greene (1904-1991)(kirjasto)
-ENCYCLOPAEDIA
BRITANNICA: your search: "Graham Greene"
-ESSAY:
'The Third Man' as a Story and a Film (GRAHAM GREENE, NY Times, March
19, 1950)
-Graham
Greene: THE CHESTERTONS (NY Review of Books, Jul 21, 1983)
-Graham
Greene: THE FBI AND PEARL HARBOR (NY Review of Books, Aug
12, 1982)
-Graham
Greene: YOU'RE WELCOME (NY Review of Books, Nov 8, 1979)
-Graham
Greene: INFORMATION WANTED (NY Review of Books, Sep 27, 1979)
-Graham
Greene: The Great Spectacular (NY Review of Books,
Jan 26, 1978)
-Graham
Greene: The Country with Five Frontiers (NY Review of Books,
Feb 17, 1977 )
-Graham
Greene Birthplace Trust, Home Page GGBT
-Anne
Sherry Graham Greene Page
-Graham
Greene (Biography, His Works, Other Web Resources)
-Graham
Greene
-Greeneland:
The World of Graham Greene
-(Henry)
Graham Greene (short bio, John D. Hamilton)
-OBIT:
Graham Greene, 86, Dies; Novelist of the Soul
-Featured
Author: Graham Greene With News and Reviews From the Archives of The
New York Times (NY Times Book Review)
-CATHERINE
WALSTON/GRAHAM GREENE PAPERS (Georgetown.edu)
-ESSAY:
Graham Greene's Vietnam (Tom Curry, Literary Traveler)
-ESSAY:
The (Mis)Guided Dream of Graham Greene (Robert Royal, First Things)
-ESSAY:
Why Greene fades on film (Quentin Curtis, UK Telegraph)
-ESSAY:
ëHe knew himself as no one else didí Novelist Shirley Hazzard talks
about her times with Greene on Capri (Desmond OíGrady, UK Telegraph)
-ESSAY:
An Edwardian on the Concorde: Graham Greene as I Knew Him (Paul
Theroux, NY Times Book Review)
-EXCERPTS:
from May we Borrow Your Husband?
-REVIEW:
The
Lives of Graham Greene (David Lodge, NY Review of Books)
-J.M.
Cameron: On Graham Greene (NY Review of Books)
-Book
club discussion questions: End of the Affair (Warren Pages)
-REVIEW:
of The End of the Affair Mr. Greene's Intense Art (GEORGE
MAYBERRY, NY Times, October 28, 1951)
-REVIEW:
of Heart of the Matter (July 11, 1948, WILLIAM DU BOIS, NY Times
Book Review)
-REVIEW:
of The Quiet American (March 11, 1956, ROBERT GORHAM DAVIS, NY Times
Book Review)
-REVIEW: of The Quiet American by Graham Greene (C. P. Farley, Powell's)
-REVIEW:
John Bayley: God's Greene, NY Review of Books
The Captain
and the Enemy by Graham Greene
Graham
Greene by Neil McEwan
A Reader's
Guide to Graham Greene by Paul O'Prey
-Michael
Shelden: GREENE & ANTI-SEMITISM (NY Review of Books, Sep 21, 1995)
-Richard
West: Graham Greene and 'The Quiet American' (NY Review of Books, May
16, 1991)
-J.M.
Cameron: On Graham Greene (NY Review of Books, May 30, 1991)
-REVIEW:
John Bayley: God's Greene (NY Review of Books)
The Captain and the Enemy
by Graham Greene
Graham Greene by Neil McEwan
A Reader's Guide to Graham
Greene by Paul O'Prey
-REVIEW:
Joan Didion: Discovery (NY Review of Books)
Finding the Center: Two
Narratives by V.S. Naipaul
Getting to Know the General:
The Story of an Involvement by Graham Greene
-REVIEW:
Jonathan Raban: Innocents Abroad (NY Review of Books)
J'Accuse: The Dark Side
of Nice by Graham Greene
Monsignor Quixote by Graham
Greene
-REVIEW:
Robert Towers: Cautionary Tale (NY Review of Books)
Doctor Fischer of Geneva
or the Bomb Party by Graham Greene
-REVIEW:
Conor Cruise O'Brien: Greene's Castle (NY Review of Books)
The Human Factor by Graham
Greene
-REVIEW:
V.S. Pritchett: Rogue Poet (NY Review of Books)
Lord Rochester's Monkey
by Graham Greene
-REVIEW:
Conor Cruise O'Brien: A Funny Sort of God (NY Review of
Books)
The Honorary Consul by Graham
Greene
Collected Stories by Graham
Greene
-REVIEW:
Karl Miller: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (NY Review of
Books)
Midnight Oil by V.S. Pritchett
A Sort of Life by Graham
Greene
-RESPONSE:
Graham Greene: GREENE'S MEANING (NY Review of Books)
-REVIEW:
Denis Donoghue: The Uncompleted Dossier (NY Review of Books)
Travels with My Aunt by
Graham Greene
Blind Love, and Other Stories
by V.S. Pritchett
-REVIEW:
V.S. Pritchett: A Polished Dissenter (NY Review of Books)
Collected Essays including
The Lost Childhood by Graham Greene
-REVIEW:
Sybille Bedford: Tragic Comedians (NY Review of Books)
The Comedians by Graham
Greene
-REVIEW:
David Lodge: The Lives of Graham Greene (NY Review of Books)
Graham Greene: The Man Within
by Michael Shelden
Graham Greene: The Enemy
Within by Michael Shelden
The Life of Graham Greene
Volume II, 1939-1955 by Norman Sherry
Graham Greene: Three Lives
by Anthony Mockler
Graham Greene: Friend and
Brother by Leopoldo Duran and translated by Euan Cameron
The Graham Greene Film Reader:
Reviews, Essays, Interviews & Film Stories
-REVIEW:
of Green on Capri by Shirley Hazzard (DORIS BETTS, NANDO)
-REVIEW: of The Life of Graham Greene; Volume III: 1955-1991
by Norman Sherr (FRANKLIN FREEMAN, Touchstone)
Book-related and General Links:
-Vietnam
Veterans Home Page
-Imagining
Vietnam (Robert Templer, Richmond Review)
-Literature
and the Vietnam War (student website)
Comments:
Orrin welcomes reader comments on his reviews.
Add yours here.
"...it has often been suggested that the rough-and-ready Colonel Ed Lansdale was the primary model for Pyle, the evidence suggests otherwise. Lansdale ... came to Vietnam two years after Greene had begun writing The Quiet American....In the 1960s and the 1970s Greene tried repeatedly to correct reports that Pyle was based on Lansdale, but no one wanted to believe him, especially since Lansdale was famous as the model for the protagonist in a book with a similar title, The Ugly American" (pg 399 -400.Graham Greene: The Man Within by Micheal Shelden. Mandarin Paperbacks, Minerva Edition 1995)
- roseanne mayer
- Apr-11-2004, 17:19
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