The Quiet American
Their abstract read: "'God save us from the
innocent and the good' Looking at Graham Greene's novels a century after his
birth, we see a cool analyst of human venality and corruption -- who warned us
long ago about the terrible effects of America's naive meddling in other
nations' affairs."
...His marriage is ruined, but his Catholic wife will not allow him a divorce, so he is unable to offer marriage to Phuong, who would clearly love to escape from the war to another country.
...Pyle arrives as a young and idealistic American foreign aid worker, but turns out to be an idealistic American CIA operative, seeking to promote a third alternative to the French and the communists.
...His marriage is ruined, but his Catholic wife will not allow him a divorce, so he is unable to offer marriage to Phuong, who would clearly love to escape from the war to another country.
...Pyle arrives as a young and idealistic American foreign aid worker, but turns out to be an idealistic American CIA operative, seeking to promote a third alternative to the French and the communists.
Salon.com had a recent article on Graham Greene and especially his book
of the subject title. Their abstract
read:
"'God save us from
the innocent and the good'
Looking at Graham Greene's novels a century after his birth, we see a cool
analyst of human venality and corruption -- who warned us long ago about the
terrible effects of America's naive meddling in other nations' affairs."
Conveniently, a 2002 movie was made of this book,
again with the same title, so I rented and viewed it right away. Turns out I had
previously seen at least some of the movie, perhaps on an airplane or other odd
moment, so that my appreciation of it was very incomplete.
It's a somewhat dark and melancholy story, but fascinating, all the same. It's a stretch to say, as some reviewers do, that Greene had in this book foreseen much of what came later in Vietnam, but one should perhaps read the book to decide on that. He clearly did appreciate in 1955, when this was written, that Americans were beginning to take a deep interest in southeast Asia and the problems between the French and the Vietnamese communists. And perhaps he saw where it would lead. Certainly he depicts the arrival of Pyle as a hugely disruptive influence on lovers Fowler and Phuong, perhaps an allegory of its effects on Vietnam as a whole.
Fowler is a British war correspondent who is self-conciously neutral, but caught up in an affair with the young Vietnamese girl, Phuong. His marriage is ruined, but his Catholic wife will not allow him a divorce, so he is unable to offer marriage to Phuong, who would clearly love to escape from the war to another country. Fowler devises extensions of his assignment to Vietnam.
Pyle arrives as a young and idealistic American foreign aid worker, but turns out to be an idealistic American CIA operative, seeking to promote a third alternative to the French and the communists. Falling in with Fowler, he falls in love with Phuong, much to Fowler's distress. Pyle's alternative is a brutal and dictatorial leader who is not shy about killing the innocent, and his interests in Phuong destroy her relationship with Fowler. But Pyle is destined to be targeted for assassination, and Fowler can hardly avoid complicity.
Politics is very personal, sometimes, as it was for many Americans during the Vietnam war, and continues to be today.
It's a somewhat dark and melancholy story, but fascinating, all the same. It's a stretch to say, as some reviewers do, that Greene had in this book foreseen much of what came later in Vietnam, but one should perhaps read the book to decide on that. He clearly did appreciate in 1955, when this was written, that Americans were beginning to take a deep interest in southeast Asia and the problems between the French and the Vietnamese communists. And perhaps he saw where it would lead. Certainly he depicts the arrival of Pyle as a hugely disruptive influence on lovers Fowler and Phuong, perhaps an allegory of its effects on Vietnam as a whole.
Fowler is a British war correspondent who is self-conciously neutral, but caught up in an affair with the young Vietnamese girl, Phuong. His marriage is ruined, but his Catholic wife will not allow him a divorce, so he is unable to offer marriage to Phuong, who would clearly love to escape from the war to another country. Fowler devises extensions of his assignment to Vietnam.
Pyle arrives as a young and idealistic American foreign aid worker, but turns out to be an idealistic American CIA operative, seeking to promote a third alternative to the French and the communists. Falling in with Fowler, he falls in love with Phuong, much to Fowler's distress. Pyle's alternative is a brutal and dictatorial leader who is not shy about killing the innocent, and his interests in Phuong destroy her relationship with Fowler. But Pyle is destined to be targeted for assassination, and Fowler can hardly avoid complicity.
Politics is very personal, sometimes, as it was for many Americans during the Vietnam war, and continues to be today.
Posted: Sun - October 24, 2004 at 04:52 p.m. | |
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Published On: Sep 01, 2005 06:35 p.m.
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Published On: Sep 01, 2005 06:35 p.m.