Graham Greene - The Quiet American: Text and Criticism

Pros: characters; gripping story; description; dialogue

Cons: switching from present to past from chapter to chapter might confuse some

The Bottom Line: Fowler writes of another American: He was like an emblematic statue of all I thought I hated in America--as ill-designed as the Statue of Liberty and as meaningless.

Review: Maybe you know this already, but people who disarm (or annoy) you with their quiet, innocent, polite ways may be the most dangerous kind of people you meet. If that doesn’t make sense to you, I’ll give you an example with the astute help of ...

Pros: Everything:the characters, the writing,the plot,the conclusion, the effecting portrayal of a rich moral dilemma.

Cons: requires more than basic knowledge of Vietnamese politics

The Bottom Line: This is another To Kill a Mocking Bird another book that will change your perspective. Its message will change your life. It will never leave you.

Review: Graham Green’s The Quite American is one of those rare, indescribable pieces of literature that works its inexplicable magic on the reader leaving him or her with a lasting sense of having experienced, not just read, something truly great. The ...

Pros: Excellent foreshadowing of America's later involvement in Vietnam.

Cons: The chronology of the book can be somewhat confusing at times.

The Bottom Line: Even if you have absolutely no interest in Vietnam at all, this novel is an interesting read for its characters and plot. I strongly recommend The Quiet American

Review: The Quiet American by Graham Greene is a terrific novel that ties together the political situation in Vietnam in the early 1950s with an involving fictional plot. There are three main characters in the book. Thomas Fowler is a middle-aged British...

Pros: Excellent expose of the motivations which guided American policymakers in the Vietnam conflict

Cons: This is not an obvious statement of intentions, but a well-written study of psychological impetuses.

Review: Graham Greene provides a scathing and accurate assessment of the psychology of America's involvement in the Vietnam conflict. Although this work is a fictional one, Greene has captured the utter blindness with which American policy makers approached our...

Pros: Complex...How others mirror ourselves...how we are fickle with our fears of loneliness.

Cons: None really. It's not a thriller, but is masterful and understated.

Review: This book will lull you into a detached necessity to read......Excellent, forlorn thoughts and observations from ex-pat reporter in troubled Vietnam.....Decadent, empty, lonely and cynical feelings articulated towards the age gap.....his wisdom of ...

Pros: A rich and clever plot eerily foreshadowing the Vietnam and Irak wars.

Cons: The second remake of this movie with Brendan Fraser and Michael Caine was exceedingly disapointing.

The Bottom Line: A_most_interesting_and_compelling_read_if_you: 1)are interested in Vietnam; 2)are interested in knowing what Americans are busy doing in Irak; 3)want to read an absolute classic.

Review: "The mysterious is always attractive. People will always follow a vail" (Jarrett, The House of Gold). Exoticism is mystery, seduction, escape... the unknown. In Graham Greene's novel, The Quiet American, exoticism is expressed through people, places, ...

Pros: It is a rather short novel.

Cons: Hard to get into without a background in the subject.

The Bottom Line: While this is great book to read, I would only recommend it to those that are particularly interested in history.

Review: This review reveals major details about the book's plot.

Graham Greene's The Quiet American, is a view of life in Vietnam during the French-Indochina War. Greene's points throughout the novel focus on man's disregard for other human...

Pros: Well written and involving

Cons: Best read on location

Review:

The Quiet American is a classic novel that is best read "in situ", that is in the present, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)to get its full meaning, flavor and significance .It is set in the period of the French colonial involvement in...