ABOUT THE URBAN SOALCE BOOK CLUB:

The Urban Solace Book Lovers' Club for started in 2010 as a result of a meet-up of writers whose stories were published in the book "Chicken Soup for the Indian Teachers Soul" inspired by the energy of this experience "The Urban Solace Book Lovers' Club was born. From there it has grown from strength to strength hosting its monthly meet on the second Sunday of every month. Over the years the club has hosted over 50 published authors to discuss their writings and these the best writers from Bangalore, India and around the world who have sought us out to experience this dynamic of our club. Today The Urban Solace Book Lovers' Club has a set of loyal supporters and a sterling reputation of being the longest book club in the city in a cafe setting and is sought after by several writers from Bangalore and across the country to be featured in our experience.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

The Quiet American is a 1955 novel by English author Graham Greene.

Narrated in the first person by journalist Thomas Fowler, the novel depicts the breakdown of French colonialism in Vietnam and early American involvement in the Vietnam War. A subplot concerns a love triangle between Fowler, an American CIA agent named Alden Pyle, and Phuong, a young Vietnamese woman.

The novel implicitly questions the foundations of growing American involvement in Vietnam in the 1950s, exploring the subject through links among its three main characters – Fowler, Pyle and Phuong. The novel has received much attention due to its prediction of the outcome of the Vietnam War and subsequent American foreign policy since the 1950s. Greene portrays Pyle as so blinded by American exceptionalism that he cannot see the calamities he brings upon the Vietnamese. The book uses Greene's experiences as a war correspondent for The Times and Le Figaro in French Indochina 1951–1954. He was apparently inspired to write The Quiet American during October 1951 while driving back to Saigon from Ben Tre province, accompanied by an American aid worker who lectured him about finding a "Third Force in Vietnam".

It was twice adapted for film, in 1958 and in 2002.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Henry Graham Greene OM CH (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century.[1][2] Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquired a reputation early in his lifetime as a major writer, both of serious Catholic novels, and of thrillers (or "entertainments" as he termed them). He was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature several times. Through 67 years of writing, which included over 25 novels, he explored the conflicting moral and political issues of the modern world. He was awarded the 1968 Shakespeare Prize and the 1981 Jerusalem Prize.

He converted to Catholicism in 1926 after meeting his future wife, Vivien Dayrell-Browning. Later in life he took to calling himself a "Catholic agnostic".[7] He died in 1991, at age 86, of leukemia,[8] and was buried in Corseaux cemetery.

ABOUT THE CURATOR:

Vijay Kumar has over thirty years of experience in Sales and Marketing, working with a Tata Group Company. His current focus is on Communication and use of Behaviourial Science in influencing choices. His reading includes Thaler, Ariely and Rory Sutherland. He is also revisiting old masters such as Graham Greene in a burst of nostalgia. Been a regular at Urban Solace since its inception.