The Quiet American by Graham Greene
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A classic short novel about several shaky personal decisions in the midst of rather more shaky governmental and military decisions.

The story mirrors an affair between a Vietnamese woman and an older English reporter and a younger American attaché against the whole backdrop of the First Indochina War, mimicking the same indifference and passion and mistakes of a love-triangle writ large.

It's pretty damn awesome. :)

In a lot of ways, I was impressed to see so many carryovers between this and The End of the Affair. The theme was different, but the interplay was rather on-target and rather spooky.

Even so, on its own, it reads almost as if it should have been either a romance or a spy thriller. :) Maybe there really isn't a difference.


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