by Graham Greene
A short, bittersweet masterpiece about a young American spy and the havoc his idealism creates in Vietnam. Set in Saigon in the waning days of the French colonial regime, and told by a world-weary, obstinately uninvolved British journalism, the novel follows an American spy's ham-handed attempts to create a Third Force in Vietnam, juxtaposed with the love triangle between him, the journalist, and a Vietnamese woman. Greene combines the tension of a thriller with the depth and weight of classical tragedy. The Quiet American is timeless in its exploration of the costs of emotional alienation. Sadly, it's also once again timely in its expose of thoughtless U.S. foreign policy (though the current crop of Quiet Americans seems less innocent than Greene's.)
A short, bittersweet masterpiece about a young American spy and the havoc his idealism creates in Vietnam. Set in Saigon in the waning days of the French colonial regime, and told by a world-weary, obstinately uninvolved British journalism, the novel follows an American spy's ham-handed attempts to create a Third Force in Vietnam, juxtaposed with the love triangle between him, the journalist, and a Vietnamese woman. Greene combines the tension of a thriller with the depth and weight of classical tragedy. The Quiet American is timeless in its exploration of the costs of emotional alienation. Sadly, it's also once again timely in its expose of thoughtless U.S. foreign policy (though the current crop of Quiet Americans seems less innocent than Greene's.)
--Tom
1 comment:
Great work.
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