The Quiet American

De: Graham Greene

Narrado por: Joseph Porter

Alden Pyle, an idealistic young American, is sent to Vietnam to promote democracy amidst the intrigue and violence of the French war with the Vietminh, while his friend, Fowler, a cynical foreign correspondent, looks on.

Fowler's mistress, a beautiful native girl, creates a catalyst for jealousy and competition between the men and a cultural clash resulting in bloodshed and deep misgivings.

Written in 1955, prior to the Vietnam conflict, The Quiet American foreshadows the events leading up to the Vietnam War. Questions surrounding the moral ambiguity of the involvement of the United States in foreign countries are as relevant today as they were 50 years ago.

©1983 Graham Greene (P)1993 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Reseñas de la Crítica

"There has been no novel of any political scope about Vietnam since Graham Greene wrote The Quiet American." ( Harper's)
"Greene is a superb storyteller. He evokes the most actual streets, the most vivid skies, and individuals who can have a lacerating reality as they search the labyrinth of their lives." ( Newsweek)

Interesting story, poor performance

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I would like to have known more of Phoung, her thoughts, her views, her decision making process.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Vigot, as he is torn between friendship and duty is one of the more interesting characters.

How could the performance have been better?

My major critique is that many of the American accents by the reader sounded very similar to each other. As such, there in a passage where the Americans were speaking with each other, it was hard to follow who was who.

Love Triangle as Allegory

This is a famous book. It is supposed to be about the American despoilation of Vietnam in the pursuit of 'hearts and minds.' To my mind it is one of Greene's lazier efforts and a scrim for his anti-Americanism. The story is a love triangle between an ageing cynical British journalist, a naive American CIA agent and Phoung, a beguiling totally sexist/racistly draw Vietnamese woman who is the source of the key conflict in the story but who is really just a stand-in for the whole of Vietnam, with the tussle between the two men a field for Greene to let go with both barrels on American perfidy, ruthlessness and ignorance. When I first read this book in the 1960s it resonated. Now it seems dated, but there is no doubt that Greene can turn a phrase and the underlying issues are certainly worth exploring. Just with not such a ham hand.

Kudos — My Applause

This is my foray into Greene’s prodigious body of work. I am heartened with his brilliant writing and story telling craft. It took a long bit to acclimate to the reader’s style. Three quarters in I adjusted sufficiently to appreciate it. I will read my way through Greene’s work.

Salute

Narrator so terrible, distracts from story

This is a wonderful and fascinating story. Unfortunately, this reading is so bad as to be nearly on listenable. The accents are simply awful. They are so awful that it makes it hard to concentrate on the actual story. I am shocked that there is not another option available to purchase.

Great story, okay audio

Fantastic book which only gets more impressive the more you learn about the time the author wrote it and why. The audio quality was less than desired but good enough to enjoy the story.

Excellent Book and Fine Narrator

People need to take it easy on the narrator. His upper crust British accent is perfect for the material. His "American accent" is a bit distracting at first, mostly because of all of the horrible reviews it got. It isn't that big of a deal. He uses it relatively rarely throughout because the book contains much more narrative than dialogue. The writing is exquisite.

Not Green’s best work...

which is often the case when an author exposes his political and nationalist biases so overtly. Being said, the narration with it’s distractingly poor attempts at various accents, the worst being his stab at Bostonian American, but nearly as appalling his french and Vietnamese English...I couldn’t wait for this narration to finish!

Classic Graham Greene

What made the experience of listening to The Quiet American the most enjoyable?

The performance was impeccable. I was amazed by the historical significance of the novel -- Greene described, in 1955, -- the political forces that would shape the US involvement in Vietnam in the next two decades. No word was misspoken. This is a reminder we all need to pay attention to the rapporteurs and witnesses to events that may seem local, but are global in import.

Interesting Historical Perspective

What did you love best about The Quiet American?

When one considers that this was written before the US officially entered the Vietnam War, this book is a powerful statement. We can learn from it with today's events too.

Greene as powerful as ever...narration lacking

Graham Greene is a tremendous writer. The narrator leaves something to be desired. With bad narrators, I often try changing the speed a little bit and it usually helps. Sometimes tremendously. I sped this one up .1.
Graham Greene is amazingly intelligent and talented. He is extremely cynical, but his lifetime experiences seem to have cultured this viewpoint. Every book you read by Greene is an education. He has led an incredible life and you get a 1st hand view from the ground on some very powerful episodes of 20th Century history.
This book is written about Vietnam in 1955. Hard to believe that things were horrible there that far back. I served there in 70 and 71 and I had no idea what was actually going on other than my 19 year old naive view of things.