The Quiet American By Graham Greene (Reviewed by R.L Hill)

Set in Saigon in early 1950s French Indo-China, Greene analyses the post-war decline of European imperialism, the rise of anti-colonial insurgency and the Cold War chess games that are played out in this era of Asian decolonisation.  Published in 1955, this story precedes, predicts and uncannily forebodes the involvement of the USA in South East Asia that was to eventually become the Vietnam war.

Pyle, the Quiet American of the title, arrives in Saigon with naive, pre-conceived and romantic notions of promoting US style capitalist democracy in the region by channeling funds to a 'Third Force', represented by the renegade General The.  Via his cover as part of the US Legation's medical mission Pyle attempts to strengthen the hand of a group that is neither the crumbling French imperial government or the purportedly Communist Vietminh. 

Fowler, an embittered and cynical English journalist is in situ as the foreign correspondent of a London newspaper covering the insurgency. Estranged from his wife, who won't grant him a divorce, and dreading the loneliness that would come with a home posting Fowler uses opium and battlefield journalism as both escape from and connection to the reality of his life.

Though these men seemingly have nothing in common they find themselves linked by a sometimes inexplicable friendship and more so for their love of the same Vietnamese girl, Phuong.  The lives of all three intertwine as the novel unfolds with the tug of love (or possession) of Phuong acting as an analogy for the struggle to win the heart and mind of Vietnam itself.

This book should be required reading for any White House, Department of State or Department of Defense staffer in the US administration who may have ideas or delusions of nation building and the exporting of democracy to so-called developing or failing states.

In a little under 200 pages Greene explores the shared European and US mindsets of paternalism, what can only be described as institutional racism and self-serving ideas of superiority.   Greene also cleverly juxtaposes and contrasts the Cold War and decolonisation era differences of the European need to hang on to past imperial glories and US desire to shape a global future in its own image.

Strikingly, Greene manages to explore this palimpsest of political perspectives in a novel that is essentially an old fashioned story of love, desire, need, conflict and betrayal.

Monsignor Quixote by Graham Greene

 Written by arguably the best author to have never won a Booker, Greene's story of two unlikely travelling companions is a fascinating read.

Set in post Franco Spain the travels of the eponymous Monsignor and his Communist, ex-Mayor sidekick serve as backdrop to a discourse between the heroes of this tale.  A discourse that draws on the writings of Marx and Lenin on one hand and the teachings of the Catholic church on the other.  A discourse that allows both men to build and strengthen a friendship built on mutual respect of intelligence, integrity and deed.

In addition to the philosophical discussion that runs throughout the book Greene draws parallels with Cervantes' epic story of the Knight Errant and his companion; so much so that the Mayor is nicknamed Sancho, the priest's battered old Seat car is named Rocinante, his ecclesiastical vestements become his armour, his books of Catholic academe are his books of chivalry.

Humour runs through this story as the friends find themselves in a number of adventures and scenarios that test their beliefs, their friendship, their respective mettles and serve to cast the men as outsiders in the eyes of the civil and church authorities.  A night hiding from the Guardia Civil in the refuge of a brothel, a run in with an armed bank robber, causing a riot during  a rural  town's feast day procession, a kidnapping sanctioned by a Bishop, a case of mistaken identity and the priest's first ever visit to a cinema where the title of the film 'A Maiden's Prayer' is a little misleading for this man of the cloth.

Greene keeps the pace of the story lively and eventful with discussions of moral, social and political philosophy always accompanied by much consumption of the wines of the regions they pass through.  Great questions of social justice, the nature of corruption, hypocrisy and power juxtaposes with a story that is part 'road', part 'buddy' and part 'parable'. 

Oh, and there's a great description of the English in there that had me giggling.

Reviewed by Robert Hill