The Quiet American

I do so love being pleasantly surprised.  Though, I shouldn't have been surprised, I suppose, because all of the Graham Greene novels I have read to date have been good.  It just so happens that The Quiet American is fantastic.  I'm sitting here wondering if it's better or as good as A Room with a View.  Would I say that it is also one of my new favorite books?  Yes.  Can I say which I liked more? Not at this moment, but perhaps as the whole story sinks in over the next few days I'll be able to answer that question at some point.

The good thing is that I have not seen the movie version of this book with Michael Caine, though I can totally imagine him playing the role of Fowler.  However, what strikes me most, having finished the book, is how similar Fowler is to Marlow in Heart of Darkness.  And yes, I'm quite sure that I'm not saying anything that much smarter and more astute literary critics have not said before me, but it's all new to me so I'll continue.  Without completing giving away the ending for those who might stumble by and haven't read the book, Fowler betrays his own ideals just as Marlow betrays his own ideals.  Marlow's big thing is that he hates nothing more than a lie, but in the end, he tells a lie.  Fowler's big thing--he refuses to become involved.  He sees himself as a reporter who has no politics, who does not choose sides, who does not believe in God and who only wants to die even while fearing death at the same time.  But in the end, Fowler does become involved, and it is his involvement and the actions it leads him to take that is the point upon which his entire character turns.  

The other thing that I'm sure I'm not the first to see is that The Quiet American is most definitely a metaphor for imperialism.  Pyle represents the idealistic, innocent, rising American imperial power, while Fowler is the jaded, declining, experienced British imperial power, and Phuong is the emerging "childlike" nation that must be conquered, colonized, ruled, and possessed.  Greene's statement upon imperialism is so much different than Conrad's and no doubt that has more than a little do with the fact that Heart of Darkness was written during the height of the British empire and The Quiet American was written during the period of decolonization. 

It's definitely a good read and I will definitely recommend it to people.  I'm sure I'll even rave about it to my diss chair, who happens to be a Greene fan.  Hopefully this time I'll be able to say something more intelligent than "it's just so beautifully written".  Actually, I need to tell him that the next time he teaches his 20th century novel and film class that he needs to do The Quiet American.  

I am now off to take some aspirin.  All this reading is giving me headaches.  I can't wait until September when I can hopefully get a new pair of glasses.  I think that would help with the headaches.