The Quiet American

By: Graham Greene

Narrated by: Simon Cadell

Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

Into the intrigue and violence of Indo-China comes Pyle, a young idealistic American sent to promote democracy through a mysterious 'Third Force'. As his naive optimism starts to cause bloodshed, his friend Fowler finds it hard to stand and watch.

©1955 Graham Greene (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

A great book

A great book well read. The accents are right and it reveals predciently America's role on the world.

A truly great classic of English literature

Generally I prefer non-fiction, but came to this novel by reading that it received a lot of negative reviews in the US. That aroused my curiosity and I wasn't far into the book before it was abundantly clear why Greene and this book were unpopular in certain quarters. That apart, it is a great novel - Greene perfectly depicts the setting, and captures the atmosphere, the politics, the characters, and his command of language and cutting observations are simply superb. Men's attitudes towards women, especially Vietnamese women (as exemplified by Fowler and Phuong) and racism in general, strike a jarring note to the modern reader, but that's the way it was. Some have noted Greene's prescience with respect to the Vietnam war which was about to be unleashed, but it didn't take foresight or genius to work that out. Simon Cadell puts in a masterful performance. He has the exact voice and accent of a well-bred Englishman of the 1950s - he even sounds like Graham Greene. Not only is he a narrator par excellence, he knows French so his performance is not marred by mispronunciations.

haunting and profoundly beautiful

As with many great novels, there is in "The Quiet American" more than one perspective from which the narrative can be appreciated.
In particular "The Quiet American" foretells some of the events that were coming to pass in the battle between ideological forces in Indo-China. The story is narrated by a man who says he has "no politics", but whose narrative brings the personal and the political together.
On a personal level it can be seen as a meditation on war and love, a duel to the death between the leading male characters as they vie for possession of the beautiful Vietnamese girl "Phong". One of the most sad and poignant things that Greene says in this novel relate to war and love, perhaps the two central themes. He writes that they have always been compared, and that "we get involved in a moment of emotion", and then "we cannot get out".
Simon Cadell as narrator was well chosen to read "the Quiet American". His voice has that blend of worldliness and cynicism which enhanced this story for me. I listened to it as a way of winding down as I came off of nightshift; half asleep and half awake, and loved it. Often after listening for a while and drifting off, there was the feeling of a haunting, swirling mystery. It was completely engaging and never intrusive. I recommend it to anyone who loves mysteries, or who wishes to rediscover great literature.

Foreshadowed the US involvement in Vietnam

Thomas Fowler is a middle-aged British journalist who has been living in Saigon for a number of years to report on the French Indochina War. He's left behind a wife in England from whom he's been separated for a long time, though she refuses him a divorce on religious grounds. This shouldn't be a problem for his current lover, twenty-year-old Phuong, who doesn't ask for anything and is content to live with Fowler and prepare his opium pipes, but Phuong's older sister wants her to get married to secure her future. Then a young idealistic American called Alden Pyle appears on the scene, makes friends with Fowler, and also falls in love with Phuong and decides to ask her in marriage. When the novel opens, Pyle has been found murdered, and Fowler proceeds to recount his relationship with the young man and their conflicts, both political and personal, which have somehow led to the young man's death. I can't say I was taken with this novel. It's tone was very serious and it had quite a plodding pace. The love story, such as it was, was obviously on the forefront of the narrator's mind, but the real story was about the war and the conflict between the French colonists, the communists who wanted to oust them, and the foreigners who were either there to report the war and bent on not getting involved, like Fowler, or on the contrary, invested in bringing about change according to their own agenda, like Pyle. My own disinterest in politics is to blame for my lack of appreciation here, as I can objectively say it's a very good novel, but it didn't quite satisfy this reader.

This tidbit from wikipedia was quite interesting: "The book draws on Greene's experiences as a war correspondent for The Times and Le Figaro in French Indochina 1951-1954. He was apparently inspired to write The Quiet American in October 1951 while driving back to Saigon from the Ben Tre province. He was accompanied by an American aid worker who lectured him about finding a “third force in Vietnam”. Greene spent three years writing the novel, which foreshadowed US involvement in Vietnam long before it became publicly known. The book was the initial reason for Graham Greene being under constant surveillance by US intelligence agencies from the 1950s until his death in 1991, according to documents obtained in 2002 by The Guardian newspaper under the US Freedom of Information Act."

What insight Graham Greene has

Stuff happens, sometimes it is meaningful, other times just pedestrian, but what makes Graham Greene so good is his ability to get into his characters thinking, perhaps even soul. Great writing that takes you on a journey even when nothing much is happening, action wise. Love his writing. When I read him at school I thought 'how boring' perhaps experience and time has made me wiser. He is very good and Simon Cadell is excellent at narrating this book. Well worth the listening to this book both for technical style and for real emotions portrayal.

Brilliantly read, brilliantly poignant

The best audiobook narrators, PARTICULARLY in stories written in the 1st person such as this, walk that fine line of an engaging clear read and an actual PERFORMANCE that isn't distracting, or doesn't betray the text. And Simon Cadell's tired & cynical tone as Fowler is absolutely pitch perfect. 'The Quiet American' is a modern classic. You'll learn more about why Afghanistan & Iraq have become quagmires for us in the West by listening to Fowler & Pyle hiding out one night in a watch-tower in the Vietnamese jungle than you will listening to any pundit on cable TV :) Highly recommended.

Great story and narration - terrible audio quality

The story was great and the narration was perfect, but unfortunately the audio was awful quality. Most annoyingly, the volume kept changing and would often be too quiet to hear, and then very soon after be too loud!