![]() ![]() ![]() Phuong knows he cannot marry her or take her away from Vietnam but he provides her some safety and security in an unstable nation. It has become an act of self-preservation to shut off this part of himself and to live a life where very little is required of him. Once he was filled with emotions, had passionate affairs, cared about things. The overall impression given of Fowler is of a man numbed by his own past. Fowler spends much of his personal time in an opium-induced stupor and cares very little for the events unfolding in Vietnam around him. He lives with a young Vietnamese woman, Phuong, who he cares about but is unable to marry because his Catholic wife in England refuses to divorce him. He’s a middle-aged man, with a history behind him. ![]() As a Brit, Fowler is somewhat more distanced from the politics involved and as a journalist he does his best to stay neutral.įowler has been in Vietnam for some years and has no plans or desire to return to England. This is Vietnam at the end of French colonialism, French rule breaking down and the beginnings of American involvement that would eventually lead to what we know as the Vietnam War. The Quiet American was first published in 1955 so this isn’t the Vietnam that many of us in the West might think of. The narrator of this novel is Fowler, a British journalist, stationed in Vietnam. This is not Graham Greene’s best work but even subpar writing from Graham Greene will have something worthwhile to it. The Quiet American – Graham Greene (The Viking Press, 1967) ![]()
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