Old Saigon told with class

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 Vietnam and covers the underground connections to the early U.S operatives in that country. Greene was savvy enough to recognize that significant mistakes were being made primarily regarding the misunderstanding of the intelligence, resourcefulness and cultural strength of the Vietnamese people. It can be viewed as a well crafted political novel ,or something more.

The novel was first published in 1955 well before the Vietnam War, and revolves around the relationship between Fowler an aging journalist, Phuong, his lover and the newcomer, Pyle. Greene writes the book in a fairly emotionless style, which only tends to accentuate what is smoldering beneath the surface . Political intrigue is not sort by the characters, it happens to them against there will. The Indo-china of this book is long gone, but it does give an involving account of how people lived, loved and played in this region.

If The Quiet American is read in Ho Chi Minh City( as with many books which accurately reflect an historical period) it takes on another dimension, you can walk the streets mentioned (all renamed) where the fictional events took place and the characters lived. The effect is overwhelmingly nostalgic. The novel is not just a political work , it is a love story and that relationship mentioned in the book also express’s something of the sad misunderstanding that was present in the colonial mentality of the era The opium addiction is still present in Ho Chi Minh City, as is the house of 500 whores, they have just had name changes.