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Content snapshot
Flag an inaccuracy →What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.
Violence
Some
War violence; a market bombing that kills civilians is a pivotal scene
Language
Barely any
Mild language; period restraint
Sexual Content
Some
Adult relationships; Phuong is the object of both men's desire; handled with period discretion
Substance Use
Barely any
Opium use in the Saigon setting
Emotional Intensity
A lot
The moral weight of complicity; guilt; the devastating cost of idealism without knowledge
What this book is about
Thomas Fowler is a British journalist in 1950s Saigon, content to observe the war without taking sides. When Alden Pyle—a young, earnest CIA operative armed with dangerous theories about 'Third Force' politics—arrives and begins courting both Fowler's Vietnamese companion Phuong and a violent solution to the conflict, Fowler must choose between his detachment and his conscience. Greene's prescient 1955 novel predicted American involvement in Vietnam and the disasters of idealism applied with ignorance.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
A civilian bombing at the novel's center
Themes of Western imperialism and its costs
Deeply morally weighted ending
Reader Verification
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