Central’s Brown Baggers book group met on August 15th to discuss “The Quiet American” (1955) by Graham Greene.  Set in 1950s Vietnam, the book starts with an investigation into the discovery of a dead young American (Pyle), whose body is found under a bridge.  The plot is told from the point of view of an aging British journalist, Fowler who befriends Pyle while they are both posted in Vietnam.  Fowler (who is married and has a wife in England) is already romantically involved with a Vietnamese woman Phoung, when he meets Pyle.  But soon Pyle is competing (& winning) Phoung’s affection, in part because Pyle is free to marry her.

We discussed the writing style as the book starts with the death of Pyle. The rest of the book fills in the back story of what happened between Pyle, Fowler and Phoung that brought us to the death of Pyle.  The book includes quite a bit of untranslated French, but most of us could figure out translations by context.

Our readers noticed the prevalence of opium use at the time and Fowler’s apparent addiction to it.  As a character, Fowler seemed more fully realized, with Pyle & Phoung acting as “foils” for the plot.  Phoung in particular, seemed a caricature of Asian women as depicted at that time.

We spent some time talking about Greene himself, his amazing life and some of his other books. For several of us,“The Quiet American” was the first book we’d read by Greene; and as with most books our club has read, we learned a lot. We found ourselves discussing and learning about the early US, French and British involvement in Vietnam well prior to the US- Vietnam War era.

And finally, we discussed the title.  Is the only “Quiet American” a dead American?

The Quiet American trivia quiz

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