The Andrew Extravaganza

I have been aware of this book for a long time, but it wasn’t until I read John Irving’s novel A Widow For One Year that I became aware of Graham Greene. While at the Magnolia Public Library to get Irving’s A Son of the Circus, I decided to grab The Quiet American and see what Greene is all about; I wasn’t disappointed.

Unnecessary, but interesting history (briefly):

France took control of Indochina (which includes Vietnam) in the mid 1800’s through a series of wars. Japan took control of Indochina during WWII, but allowed the Vichy French government to remain as official administrators. Vietnam declared independence from France after the Japs surrendered. Charles DeGaulle wanted to maintain colonial authority over Vietnam, so war begins.

It wasn’t this simple, but to oppose the communist forces of Ho Chi Minh, the U.S. reluctantly helps the French finance the war. In 1954 the French famously get their ass handed to them at Dien Bien Phu. Soon after they withdraw and the Geneva Peace Accord grants independence to a divided North/South Vietnam.

Written in 1955,The Quiet American takes place in the early 1950’s as the French army is clearly beginning to lose control, but before Dien Bien Phu and more overt American involvement and escalation.

End history, begin book report:

The narrator is Thomas Fowler, a cynical, atheist, middle-aged British journalist. Fowler keeps a young Vietnamese mistress, Phuong. A newly arrived young American named Alden Pyle arrives to staff a vague position at the embassy and quickly befriends Fowler. Pyle is naïve and idealistic, believing in the goal of democracy in Vietnam and preaching the Domino Theory; his ideology comes from a bible like book written by an American intellectual.

The story has two main plot lines: A love triangle between Fowler, Phuong, and Pyle; and Fowler’s war journalism leading to him discovering Pyle’s secret mission to arm a Third Force in Vietnam (as prescribed in his ideological bible). After a bombing by Pyle’s Third Force goes terribly wrong on a city street, Fowler must finally abandon his journalistic detachment and make a tough moral decision.

Written 20 years before the fall of Saigon, this novel is insightful, but far too short (188 pages) and well paced to delve deeply into the political situation. The Quiet American is a story, told well through a few great characters, that manages to point out some of the flaws in the competing ideologies in Vietnam. I definitely recommend this book.

I also thoroughly enjoyed this book, more so because I read while studying abroad as an idealistic, and quiet American in SE Asia. Though I do not admit to any bombings. You should check the movie out too, it's well-acted (despite the prominent involvement of Brendan Fraser) and portrays all the moral conflicts very fairly.