"The Quiet American" by Graham Greene tells a story of a jaded and cynical British journalist Thomas Fowler in his mid-50ies who is covering French colonial war in Viet Nam in mid-1950-ies and his love for a beautiful young vietnamese girl Phuong. She stays with Fowler for safety and security. Fowler cannot marry Phuong because his wife in England is Catholic and would not give him the divorce. Yet Phuong leaves him to marry an idealistic young american Alden Pyle. Unlike Fowler, who prefers to passively observe the events, Pyle, who just came to Viet Nam, is full of ideas as to how to change it for the better. He starts to clandestinely support one of the anti-government and anti-communist groups. This support eventually leads to the group staging several massive terrorist attacks in Saigon. Fowler identifies Pyle as the facilitator and, ostensibly shocked by the horrors of the explosions, finally gets involved and aids the communists in killing Pyle. The book is considered Greene's most significant achievement. It is popular with the critics across the ocean and was adapted into a movie twice. Americans, however, are incensed with their unflattering portrayal in the book so it is virtually unknown in the States. The Soviets liked the book and used it in their anti-american propaganda. "Quiet American" became somewhat of a cliche for CIA agents there. I liked the book but I have a totally different interpretation of it from the classic one so please bear with me. In this book, Greene draws on his experiences as an SIS agent in Sierra Leone and as journalist in Viet Nam. Fowler is essentially a stand-in for Greene's own experiences, thoughts and feelings. Everybody else in the novel is two dimensional and even cartoonish. However, I feel little but contempt for Greene and his hero. Fowler, and Greene I presume, is wreaked by a severe mid-life crisis. His job is futile: his reports to England are censored locally and then delivered to the readers who do not really care about the war that is going on. He deserves respect for learning the language and the culture of the place, going to the war zones and actually attempting to sort out what is happening. Greene tries to portray Fowler as a sophisticated thinker and an intellectual. However, the hero can only be as smart as the writer. When Fowler and Pyle are forced to spend the night in a watchtower hiding from a Viet Mingh attack, they talk politics. Fowler's understanding of the situation in Viet Nam turns out to be rather shallow and superficial. His cynicism is just a cover for his impotence and mental cowardice. Fowler resigned to drifting along living with a beautiful girl whom he cannot marry. By the way, it is amusing how often middle-aged authors work young beauties into their novels as love interests for their main characters. Fowler's love for Phuong, if it can even be called that, is possessive and selfish. He tags along with a French patrol in a war zone without caring much for his safety or even giving a thought as to what would become of Phuong if he is killed. Moreover, he does this not out of the sense of journalistic duty, but as a way to calm his internal torments and anxieties. Fowler treats Phuong as a convenience in his life. When Fowler realizes that Pyle is going to take Phuong away from him, his first thoughts are of himself. How old he is and how he does not have the strength to start looking for another woman. Greene's and Fowler's racism is rather annoying. The vietnamese culture and people are described as "different" but it is not difficult to see that Greene/Fowler treats them as inferior. Phuong is made out to be quite unsophisticated yet predatory. She spends her time reading British fashion magazines and shopping. She confuses British and American landmarks. She has little idea of the world outside of her daily routine. She is not passionate about Fowler. She fills his opium pipe, kisses him and spreads her legs for him with equal automatic proficiency. She abruptly leaves Fowler for Pyle as soon as she realizes that Pyle is a better deal. When faced with mortal danger during the Viet Mingh attack, Fowler collapses in a heap of self-pity and misery while Pyle has the presence of wit and fortitude to go get help and save Fowler. However, Fowler's most pathetic moment comes when he chooses to use the hands of the communists to kill Pyle. The critics put forward these ideas that Fowler has been forced into action after seeing the aftermath of the terrorist attacks. However, to me it sounds very much like intellectual claptrap that Fowler is using to cover up his own cowardice. Neither he nor Greene have the guts to admit that Fowler is acting out of his own selfish and, pretty lowly as they now are, interests. Actually, I think I would be a lot more sympathetic to Fowler if he were more truthful to himself and admitted that he is a cruel bastard and he is going to kill Pyle, even though Pyle saved his life. If Fowler confessed to himself that he is getting rid of his rival to get Phuong back. This would be a compelling story and a love deserving admiration. That's my take on Fowler. Let me talk about Pyle now. Greene's bile and snobbism towards Americans is palpable throughout the book and is rather irritating. Pyle's character is cartoonish so that it would be easier for Greene to make Fowler Pyle's superior. So I am going give Pyle a bit more realism. I like the character. He is a bumbling meddler in vietnamese affairs and very much a precursor of the upcoming horrid American war there. Yet he is chivalrous to Fowler and tender to Phuong. Pyle is not easy on the uptake. He does not notice Fowler's rage and disdain towards him. Instead, Pyle considers Fowler to be his friend and mentor. The scene where Pyle shows up at Fowler's apartment, offers hand-and-heart to Phuong and uses Fowler to translate from English to French is amusing. Greene wrote this scene to show what a simpleton this young American is (oh, and he is a virgin too) and how he considers love to be a mere transaction: when Pyle offers marriage to Phuong, he describes his and his family financial means. I have a different interpretation: the poor fellow is head-over-heels in love with the girl whose language he cannot even speak. So he is using any means he can, even her lover, to get her. However silly this character is, I find him endearing. The ending of the book is an unbelievable Greene's fantasy. Pyle is killed. Fowler's wife, all of a sudden, grants him a divorce. His heartless editor decides not to recall him back to London. Phuong moves back in with Fowler. Yeah, right. And they lived happily ever after and died on the same day. Allow me to conceive a couple of more realistic endings if you will. Let us assume that Pyle is not killed and he takes Phuong back to his home to Connecticut(?) and marries her as he planned to. Phuong, abruptly thrown into the culture she has little idea about, suffers tremendously. She is not terribly bright so her abilities to adapt to it may be rather limited. She may flip and run away back to Viet Nam. Or, Pyle, a magna-cum-laude Harvard graduate, may get over his infatuation and see that Phuong and he have little in common. The consequences would probably be rather sad. Or, who knows, maybe they would work out a modus vivendi, have two and a half kids, a house with a white picket fence and live a not unhappy life together. I am a romantic so let me hope for the best. Let us now assume that Phuong stays with Fowler. Fowler understands that bringing Phuong with him back to London would be devastating for both of them. So he goes on living with Phuong in Saigon. The American war starts and things go South. Being a weakling that he is, Fowler does nothing. Realizing this, Phuong dumps him and leaves the country with a better prospect. Heartbroken and wretched, Fowler indeed sees the things in Viet Nam for what they are, joins the communists in their never-ending struggle against foreign invaders and is killed on an anti-American mission. How about that for a happy ending? ------------ Hey, I just watched the quiet american. I am glad it's not hollywood. I like Brendan Fraser in the role of Alden Pyle though. The movie is less equivocal. Fuong is made out less predatory than in the book. Pyle is more evil, less naive and more of an indiana-jones style gun slinging Vietnamese speaking block-headed CIA operative. Fowler a.k.a. Michael Caine is less whiny, pseudo-intellectual and is more sympathetic. However, the complexity of his character is still preserved. He is also made to love Viet Nam more than he did in the book. He and Fuong, however, do not speak French in the movie so it loses a bit of authenticity. A nice touch that in the movie the communists are less ruthless. The ending is also more realistic.