The Quiet American

I saw the film version of The Quiet American years ago.  As a result, I had Michael Caine's voice in my head for the entirety of the book.  Even in my mind, my Michael Caine impreasion is shit, so it actually ended up being pretty distracting.  Despite all of this, it's a pretty good read.

Graham Greene's novel tells the story of Fowler, a cynical British reporter, and the death of his friend Pyle, your standard wided eyed young American in over his head in Vietnam after World War Two. Told throguh flashbacks, the pair naturally both fall in love with the same woman but somehow maintain their friendship. Their political differences are slightly more troubling and ultimately lead to Pyle's murder- Fowler's possible involvement in which forms part of the narrative.

The political situation is interesting, my knowledge of Vietnamese history and limited to the one war- which is clearly being built up to in the novel.  I won't go into it too much, as my understanding of it all is almost certainly faulty. But it's always nice to see the death of American idealism. Greene juxtaposes this with Fowler's cynicism so the reader sees the whole situation to be as futile as he does.

I think part of the reason that I enjoyed The Quiet American is that is plays up to so many tropes. None of the characters are believable as humans because they are such stereotypes- Fowler is the man who has seen too much and trusts nobody but himself, Pyle is has the certainty of youth and believes he will save the country. Even if the book didn't start with Pyle dying it would be so clear what would happen to his character.  And then there is Phuong. She is a screen that the two men project their desires onto- for Fowler this is sex and a reprieve from loneliness and for Pyle it is the American Dream.

This isn't Greene's best book, but it is a good one. He is one of those authors who, while usually good, occasionally transcends into beauty. The moment in The Quiet American is just a sentence after a bombing in a market place- "Suffering is not increased by numbers: one body can contain all the suffering the world can feel."