Perhaps it takes another Brit to understand Greene’s perspective.
In this perception, the Americans come promising Freedom and Democracy but wind up bringing only Devastation and Death, yet remain unaware of the ironic outcomes of their actions since they cannot see past their own good motivations.Īs American novelist Robert Stone points out in his Introduction to the Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition, issued for Greene’s centennial in 2004: “ Americans embrace, professing to recognize in it a dead-on portrayal of the people they must endure as compatriots day after day.” While this is true, in Greene’s view these simpatico Americans are also dangerous buffoons, no better than the Beltway factotums whom they claim to despise. This popularity comes from the perception that the novel discloses the ironic yet fatal consequences that evolve from American intervention in overseas conflicts. Graham Greene’s 1955 novel The Quiet American enjoys a certain prestige with American readers who identify themselves as progressive.
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