Status Updates From The Quiet American

Zadie Smith’s intro could’ve been two pages…I’ve already confused Pyle and Fowler in the first chapter. I’m rewriting Phuong as I read.

Book is a doozy!

"Wouldn't we all do better not trying to understand, accepting the fact that no human being will ever understand another, not a wife a husband, a lover a mistress, nor a parent a child? Perhaps that's why men have invented Go - a being capable of understanding."

"Perhaps to the soldier the civilian is the man who employs him to kill, who includes the guilt of murder in the pay-envelope and escapes responsibility."

"I never met a man [country] who had better motives for all the trouble he caused."