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Graham Greene on Writing The Quiet American
"Perhaps there is more direct reportage in The Quiet American than in any other novel I have written. I had determined to employ again the experience I had gained with The End of the Affair in the use of the first person and the time shift, and my choice of a journalist as the "I" seemed to me to justify the use of reportage. The Press conference is not the only example of direct reporting. I was in the dive bomber (the pilot had broken an order of General de Lattre by taking me) which attacked the Viet Minh post and I was on the patrol of the Foreign Legion paras outside Phat Diem. I still retain the sharp image of the dead child couched in the ditch beside his dead mother. The very neatness of their bullet wounds made their death more disturbing than the indiscriminate massacre in the canals around." (from Ways of Escape)
The Quiet American (1955) by Graham Greene
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The Quiet American
by Graham Greene
A Spy Novel Set in Vietnam in the1950s
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Book Review
The Quiet American (1955)
by Graham Greene
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One of the truly great literary mysteries/ spy novels.

This heartbreaking tale of a dirty little murder brilliantly evokes the decadence and desperation of life in the Saigon, Vietnam of the early 1950s--a city on the brink of apocalypse. Note: Today, Saigon is called Ho Chi Minh City.

Most highly recommended to fans of literary mysteries and spy novels, especially those who enjoy John le Carre's Quest for Karla Trilogy and James Church's Inspector O Thrillers.

FYI. This novel was labeled anti-American when it was first published in the U.S. (at the very beginning of the country's military involvement in Vietnam) but time has cooled political tempers.
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