The setting is Vietnam in the early 1950’s, just before the United States formally declared war on the Communists. The “”quiet American is Alden Pyle, an earnest young idealist with no practical experience assigned to the American Embassy. Fowler, a cynical journalist who has been based in Vietnam for many years, watches Pyle’s antics with some bemusement and humour, until Pyle confesses that he has fallen in love with Fowler’s young live-in mistress, Phuong.
Fowler’s wife won’t grant a divorce so he can’t offer Phuong security. When Fowler is informed that he is being transferred to a desk job back in England he looks ahead to a bleak life alone and unloved in a country now alien to him. He becomes increasingly suspicious of Phuong and Pyle, knowing that she should logically chose Pyle.
As the war between the French colonial power and Vietminh freedom fighters escalates, Fowler’s network of contacts indicates that Pyle is putting his theory of a “good third force” into action. As Pyle becomes more deeply involved in the war, supplying explosives to a local warlord, General Thė, Fowler feels he should take action, with devastating consequences.
I read this classic when I was fifteen and enjoyed it. Re-reading it in my mature (okay, old) years, with more knowledge of the history of Vietnam, I got a lot more out of it. It’s rather depressing to see that nothing changes: western nations are still interfering in the politics of troubled countries in support of ideology and causing devastation.
This is a book of beautiful prose with not a word wasted.
Highly recommended by Janet
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