- Paperback: 192 pages
- Publisher: Vintage Books; New edition edition (Jan 2 2001)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0099286076
- ISBN-13: 978-0099286073
- Product Dimensions: 19.9 x 12.9 x 1.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 136 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,106,550 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"There has been no novel of any political scope about Vietnam since Graham Greene wrote The Quiet American." -- Harper's
Book Description
Into the intrigue and violence of Indo-China comes Pyle, a young idealistic American sent to promote democracy. As his native optimism starts to cause bloodshed, his friend Fowler, a cynical foreign correspondent, cannot stand aside and just watch.
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
You know classics, and this isn't one of them.,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Quiet American (Mass Market Paperback)
Stop. The emporer has no clothes. There is something of a story and plot here to keep you, but the dialogue is horrendous. There are kids in high school lit classes that can write better dialogue that this. You will find hard to recollect when the last time you heard adults conversing like this, no matter what the intentions of the author. Yes, there are simpletons in this world, but characters like Pyle are too extreme to permit any believability. Next time I wont go from Hemingway to Greene.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
What People See in This Book,
By
This review is from: The Quiet American (Mass Market Paperback)
What amazes me so often is how many people think of Fowler as a heroic example of British dignity. The character is reprehensible: he is cheating on his wife, a Catholic woman, trying to force her to violate her faith to divorce him. He lies to the young Vietnamese girl with whom he is having an affair. He arranges for her true love to be assassinated, and I always read that Fowler represents the best and the American the worst. Some readers have a problem with seeing what actually is happening, and separating that from the standard refrain their college professors told them. As the author of A THINKER'S DAMN, the story about the making of The Quiet American into a film, I can tell you that Greene himself was nearly as petty as Fowler. Based on misinformation, Greene condemned the motion picture, its star, and its director, without seeing a script, seeing the movie, or waiting until the project was completed. The Quiet American is a fascinating book with an unreliable narrator--and the problem is that many readers cannot differentiate Greene from Fowler.
5.0 out of 5 stars
It Leaves You In A Quandry,
By
This review is from: The Quiet American (Audio Cassette)
Set during the French War in Vietnam, "The Quiet American" is a multifaceted story told in the words of Thomas Fowler, a cynical British correspondent and one of the novel's two main characters. The story involves a struggle between Fowler and Pyle, an American undercover operative and Fowler's romantic rival. Pyle and Fowler hold opposing views of the war, love, God, democracy, whatever matters to man, they disagree about. Fowler, whose vision of reality stifles his belief in ideals, emerges as a romantic and ideological rival of Pyle, whose ideals blind him to reality. America's Cold War policy in Southeast Asia is critically presented in the person of Pyle. Masterfully written, Graham Greene confronts us with two flawed, stereotypical characters and leaves us to determine the hero and the villain. I still have not made up my mind. A work which can leave the reader in such a quandary is a great work of art. Read and form your own conclusions.
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