The Sympathizer

Mar 16, 2015 Duy Nguyen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sympathizer

Being an English major from UCBerkeley and an Artistic Director of Asian American Theater Company for 3 years, I've run across a lot of Asian American works. Though my heart is always with these stories, they've often lacked style. Viet Nguyen has style. He's really funny, in a smart unpredictable way. And I think he's is going to get a lot of awards and all that when word really gets out. Deservedly so because it touches all the big points of Vietnamese American history while never getting bogg ...more

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Feb 11, 2015 Elyse rated it it was amazing

Shelves: netgalley

Another Update (2nd update)--- I've been reading through my Kindle book again the last few days of this book --looking over my notes -taking new ones.--Our local book club is meeting to talk about "The Sympathizer". 25 of members from around the Bay Area are attending....with 25 others on the waitlist.
For people who live in our area -- this is an important topic. Americans and Vietnamese/Americans live closely together here.
The Vietnamese culture thrives in our city. Right after I read this bo ...more

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Feb 08, 2017 Angela M rated it liked it

This is without a doubt an important story to tell. " ....thousands of refugees wailed as if attending a funeral, the burial of their nation, dead too soon, as so many were, at a tender twenty- one years of age." The writing is as good as I found in The Refugees but I wasn't immediately drawn in and had a difficult time trying to understand what was happening during the evacuation, but I'm guessing that it reflects the reality of what it must have been like. Our narrator, the Captain , a double This is without a doubt an important story to tell. " ....thousands of refugees wailed as if attending a funeral, the burial of their nation, dead too soon, as so many were, at a tender twenty- one years of age." The writing is as good as I found in The Refugees but I wasn't immediately drawn in and had a difficult time trying to understand what was happening during the evacuation, but I'm guessing that it reflects the reality of what it must have been like. Our narrator, the Captain , a double agent, introduces the reader to his dual allegiance when he says " I am simply able to see any issue from both sides. I flatter myself that this is a talent..." I was reminded of the mixed feelings that people had about this war. I was very moved by some of the scenes. The old woman and others angry and grieving throwing their shoes . Also heartbreaking was how the Captain's friend Bon loses his wife and child. In addition to the chaos of the evacuation scene the gut wrenching torture scenes towards the end stands out in my mind as well.

The essay and an interview at the end of the book were also enlightening and so very relevant for the issues at hand today and gave me a better understanding of the novel. In the essay , the author says : "The tendency to separate war stories from immigrant stories means that most Americans don't understand how many of the immigrants and refugees in the United States have fled from wars - many of which this country has had a hand in." But he doesn't put the full blame there . In the interview, he says : " The Vietnamese are at least partially responsible for what they did to themselves. I didn't want to put the blame squarely on the Americans or the French, although that blame is there. I wanted this to be ver specifically a moment of Vietnamese-on-Vietnamese confrontation and responsibility because, again, this is in part how we claim our subjectivity: we aren't just victims but victimizers as well. This is a part of our history that we all find very hard to confront." These comments give the novel some perspective and I wish I had read them first.

The wonderful writing I found in The Refugees prompted me to read this book. If that wasn't reason enough, this was a buddy read with two of my very good Goodreads friends, Diane and Esil. However, I have very mixed feelings about the book. There were too few moments when I felt an emotional connection to the Captain and at times it was a struggle to continue reading. I wish I could articulate it in a better way, but there you have it . 3 stars and 3.5 stars after reading the essay and interview, but these were not the novel, so it remains 3 stars. It won the Pulitzer Prize and there are so many others who have rated it 5 stars, but it just didn't get to me as much as The Refugees which I rated 5 stars.

Thanks , Diane and Esil! Let's do this again sometime. ...more

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Mar 16, 2015 Ron Charles rated it it was amazing

Shelves: war-fiction, 2015-favorites

Forty years ago this month, after a long, deadly release of flatulence from American politicians, the United States evacuated its personnel from Saigon in an operation appropriately code-named Frequent Wind. Whether you were alive then or not, the images of those panicked Vietnamese crushing the U.S. Embassy are tattooed on our collective consciousness.

In the opening pages of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s extraordinary first novel, “The Sympathizer,” that terror feels so real that you’ll mistake your beat ...more

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Feb 12, 2017 Diane S ☔ rated it liked it

Pulitzer Prize winner and I don't always agree, and such is the case here. A very worthy book, a book with so many truisms, such as this one "booted hard by the irony of how revolution fought for independence and freedom could make those things worth less than nothing." The tone is ironic, often satirical but it gets to be too much, wearing on me as I was reading. Almost became a chore to shift through some of this to get to the parts that meant something to me.

I little remember the Vietnam War ...more

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Dec 20, 2016 Adina rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, mystery, asia, spy-stuff

I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces. Perhaps not surprisingly, I am also a man of two minds.

With these words Viet Thanh Nguyen decides to start the novel and these two sentences were enough to get me hooked. They managed to intrigue me, to want to know more and set the basis for what will prove to be one of the main theme, the interior conflict of the narrator.

The Symphatizer is a book about the Vietnam War and its aftermath. The book is about loyalty, identity and the difficul I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces. Perhaps not surprisingly, I am also a man of two minds.

With these words Viet Thanh Nguyen decides to start the novel and these two sentences were enough to get me hooked. They managed to intrigue me, to want to know more and set the basis for what will prove to be one of the main theme, the interior conflict of the narrator.

The Symphatizer is a book about the Vietnam War and its aftermath. The book is about loyalty, identity and the difficulty to adjust to a new culture and reality. It written from the point of view of the Vietnamese and does not always put the Americans in a positive light.

This novel is a perfect companion to the Quiet American by Graham Green (a masterpiece ), the only other book about the Vietnam war that I read. Actually, the Quiet American is mentioned a couple of times in the Symphatizer. One theme that I found in both books is about the “innocent” and idealized intentions with which the Americans entered the Vietnam War and their failure to admit ant wrongdoing. “They believe in a universe of divine justice where the human race is guilty of sin, but they also believe in a secular justice where human beings are presumed innocent. You can’t have both. You know how Americans deal with it? They pretend they are eternally innocent no matter how many times they lose their innocence. The problem is that those who insist on their innocence believe anything they do is just. At least we who believe in our own guilt know what dark things we can do.” A similar idea I selected for my review of the Quiet American: "Innocence is a kind of insanity” “Innocence always calls mutely for protection when we would be so much wiser to guard ourselves against it: innocence is like a dumb leper who has lost his bell, wandering the world, meaning no harm.”

The novel kept me on the edge of the seat for the first 100 pages or so when the fall of Saigon is described and thorough the escape to USA of the main characters. When the setting moves to Los Angeles the pace slows down and my interest begins to gradually fall culminating with the making of the movie in Thailand. Those chapters were excruciatingly slow and the smart writing barely managed to make the experience bearable. My interest picked up after that and the last 20% of the book were as good as the beginning. I do not want to say too much about that except that it was the most disturbing part of the novel.

The book is cleverly written, I loved the author’s way with words. I did not expect to find humor among these pages, even less one similar to Vonnegut’s ( a realization I had while reading another review). I noticed a particularity of the writing style that I want to share with you. The author uses a lot of sexual metaphors when describing war scenes. Here are two examples: “stubby grenades resembling short, metallic dildos” and ”a parachute flare sputtering into spermating existence” . I wonder what the meaning behind them is. Is it because war, as sex is about power, control, performance and status? Is it because the two acts dehumanize us to some extent?

In the end I also want to let you all know that I will never look at a squid the same way ever again. The ones that read the novel know why.
...more

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Feb 14, 2017 Melki rated it it was amazing

Shelves: war, historical-fiction

My mother was native, my father was foreign, and strangers and acquaintances had enjoyed reminding me of this ever since my childhood, spitting on me and calling me bastard, although sometimes, for variety, they called me bastard before they spit on me.

I didn't realize how much I've gotten used to not needing to pay attention to the books I read. Reading this one was as much a chore as it was a joy. Words, sentences, entire paragraphs that required, no . . . demanded I pay heed. Here was inexpli My mother was native, my father was foreign, and strangers and acquaintances had enjoyed reminding me of this ever since my childhood, spitting on me and calling me bastard, although sometimes, for variety, they called me bastard before they spit on me.

I didn't realize how much I've gotten used to not needing to pay attention to the books I read. Reading this one was as much a chore as it was a joy. Words, sentences, entire paragraphs that required, no . . . demanded I pay heed. Here was inexplicably lovely prose about ugly subject matter: prostitution, war, and war's aftermath.

Now am I daring to accuse American strategic planners of deliberately eradicating peasant villages in order to smoke out the girls who would have little choice but to sexually service the same boys who bombed, shelled, strafed, torched, pillaged, or merely forcibly evacuated said villages? I am merely noting that the creation of native prostitutes to service foreign privates is an inevitable outcome of a war of occupation, one of those nasty little side effects of defending freedom that all the wives, sisters, girlfriends, mothers, pastors, and politicians in Smallville, USA, pretend to ignore behind waxed and buffed walls of teeth as they welcome their soldiers home, ready to treat any unmentionable afflictions with the penicillin of American goodness.

It rarely takes me over two weeks to finish a book, but this one had to be poured over, and savored.

What's crazy is living when there's no reason to live, he said. What am I living for? A life in our apartment? That's not a home. It's a jail cell without bars. All of us - we're all in jail cells without bars. We're not men anymore. Not after the Americans fucked us twice and made our wives and kids watch. First the Americans said we'll save your yellow skins. Just do what we say. Fight our way, take our money, give us your women, then you'll be free. Things didn't work out that way, did they? Then after fucking us, they rescued us. They just didn't tell us they'd cut off our balls and cut out our tongues along the way. But you know what? If we were real men, we wouldn't have let them do that.

Highly recommended - a tough, but worthwhile read.

The war's over, Ms. Mori said. Don't they know that? I wanted to say something profound as I stood up to say goodnight. I wanted to impress Ms. Mori with the intellect she could never have again. Wars never die, I said. They just go to sleep. ...more

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Feb 28, 2017 Michael rated it it was amazing

Shelves: social-commentary, california, fiction, espionage, racism, immigrant-experience, communism, vietnam-war, vietnam

If you ever struggle with your feelings and understanding about America’s role in the Vietnam War, this book could give you a useful framework to both widespread blaming and forms of forgiveness to both sides. There really was no right side to be on, and the Vietnamese people became a pawns in a larger struggle:
Our country itself was cursed, bastardized, partitioned into north and south, and if it could be said of us that we chose division and death in our uncivil war, that was also only partia ...more

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Mar 28, 2017 Roxane rated it really liked it

So clever and witty but also gripping.

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Sep 27, 2016 Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: around-the-world, pulitzer, international-book-club, location-vietnam, read2016

I read this book for many reasons - Pulitzer winner, and a book club pick for my in-person group. We discussed it last night, and I wanted to wait to weigh in until that discussion, but also until I had finished reading the author's non-fiction book Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War (on the long list for the National Book Award as we speak.)

When you read the two books back to back, it is easy to see how the eleven years of research that went into the non-fiction academic treatment I read this book for many reasons - Pulitzer winner, and a book club pick for my in-person group. We discussed it last night, and I wanted to wait to weigh in until that discussion, but also until I had finished reading the author's non-fiction book Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War (on the long list for the National Book Award as we speak.)

When you read the two books back to back, it is easy to see how the eleven years of research that went into the non-fiction academic treatment of a book on war and memory also provided the natural breeding grounds for a biting novel about the Vietnam War. Or, should I clarify, the war we refer to as the Vietnam War, or even more often, just "Vietnam." And I need to clarify because Nguyen is writing this novel from the Vietnamese perspective, not necessarily catering to what white Americans want to hear. The author claims status as a forever refugee, a product of war, his entire life trajectory a result of having to leave his home as a child. (A curious person can learn even more about the author's perspective in this illuminating interview.)

In case it sounds like I am saying this is a didactic novel, I would beg to differ. The different point of view is very effective, but also necessary. Why are we only seeing the story of a war in a country not our own through the lens of war movies we make? (If this topic interests you, definitely read his non-fiction work.) But the entire novel is also slowly revealed as a confession, written by a central unnamed character (I'm guessing his name is Viet) during his time in a Reeducation camp. These camps were real things, and the last 100 pages are a brutal account of psychological and physical torture and brainwashing.

So there is the point of view (powerful), the approach (confession), but the greatest element of the novel for me is the writing. Nguyen plays with the English language in a way I haven't seen. I don't think he would claim his background as the reason because he has been in the United States for most of his life, in fact is an English professor, among other duties. But I was constantly amused/surprised by his use of words, taking a word like perineum that is almost inclusively a body part and using it to refer to a time of day that is hidden from view, gross, and better slept through:

"...We followed our usual routine and drank with joyless discipline until we both passed out. I woke up in the perineum of time between the very late hours of the evening and the very early hours of the morning, grotty sponge in my mouth..."

That is an example of me stopping, putting the book aside, looking up the word, asking, "Do we use that word that way?", finding we don't, but deciding we should because obviously it works. It is this clever crafting of words that kept me reading, more than the events, more than the unnamed agent antics of the central character ("a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces....")

I really love the last three pages, but I will leave those for the reader to mull over. ...more

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May 23, 2016 W Perry rated it it was amazing

Shelves: amados-libros

Powerful Personalization of Vietnamese and Vietnam War's Fallout [Winner of 2016 Pulitzer Prize in Literature]

This novel profoundly personalized for me the Vietnam War and the Vietnamese in a way no movie or book has. It is written as the first person account of a South Vietnamese captain who was born a "bastard" to a Vietnamese mother who was seduced and impregnated by his father, a Catholic priest, who fails to recognize the captain as a son. The narrator/captain is a sympathizer to the commun Powerful Personalization of Vietnamese and Vietnam War's Fallout [Winner of 2016 Pulitzer Prize in Literature]

This novel profoundly personalized for me the Vietnam War and the Vietnamese in a way no movie or book has. It is written as the first person account of a South Vietnamese captain who was born a "bastard" to a Vietnamese mother who was seduced and impregnated by his father, a Catholic priest, who fails to recognize the captain as a son. The narrator/captain is a sympathizer to the communist overthrow of Vietnam (and reports certain activities in southern Calif. in the years after the overthrow), yet no one should get the impression that this tsunamic novel is in some way sympathetic to communism or communists. The idea crossed my mind before reading the book.

Author Viet Thanh Nguyen, Assoc. Prof., USC

Instead, this novel, full of levity and humor, is a substantial, captivating and intellectually stimulating novel that actualizes, in human terms, an indictment of the USA's treatment of the Vietnamese during and after the war (all here in the States) but it much more harshly denounces communism and the post-revolutionary communist leaders of Vietnam (asking, both implicitly and explicitly, what does the revolutionary do when the revolution triumphs?, and why do those who call for independence and freedom take away the independence and freedom of others?).

The Animal Farm will always stick with me on the evils of communism, particularly in Russia. Now The Sympathizer has scarred a slice of my soul with the devastating effects on a country and its countrymen of a communist regime (and makes the point that many of the former revolutionaries saw the error after it was too late). Moreover, the book examines of the more general evils corrupting men/women in power, all ideas of government aside.

This novel brings to mind a quote I ran across about a year ago from an Argentine-Canadian man of letters named Alberto Manguel, who so poignantly stated about good literature:

Books may not change our suffering, books may not protect us from evil [or] tell us what is good or what is beautiful, and they will certainly not shield us from the common fate of the grave. But books grant us myriad possibilities: the possibility of change, the possibility of illumination.

This novel seems perfect for high school and college students studying the Vietnam War and the era surrounding it, particularly from the point of view of the Vietnamese.

A highest recommendation. ...more

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Oct 17, 2016 Philip rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical-fiction, pulitzer, 2015-releases, top-5-2015

4.5ish stars.

At times hilarious, at others disturbing, and sometimes both at once, this is a story about war, identity, friendship, loyalty and understanding.

I'll admit to not having the most extensive understanding of the Vietnam War. It was before my time and if I was ever taught about it in school (I'm sure it had to have come up at some point, right?) it's lost on me now. My background knowledge basically comes from watching Apocalypse Now (which is the obvious inspiration for a movie in t 4.5ish stars.

At times hilarious, at others disturbing, and sometimes both at once, this is a story about war, identity, friendship, loyalty and understanding.

I'll admit to not having the most extensive understanding of the Vietnam War. It was before my time and if I was ever taught about it in school (I'm sure it had to have come up at some point, right?) it's lost on me now. My background knowledge basically comes from watching Apocalypse Now (which is the obvious inspiration for a movie in the novel to which our narrator lends his perspective) which is hardly an exhaustive resource. After reading, I feel like I can both sympathize with and condemn all of the parties involved in the War.

Our nameless narrator is a "man of two minds" continuously caught in the middle of several parties. He's half-Vietnamese, half-French, and American by assimilation although none of his countries accept him. Add to that his communist sympathies as a Vietnamese refugee in America, reporting on the goings-on to his superiors who are reading his hidden messages more closely than we realize. I've read plenty of stories where the hero is from multiple worlds without being fully accepted by any of them, but never done more masterfully than in this novel. As the narrator sympathizes with nearly everyone he meets, we can't help but sympathize with the tragedies he experiences, even the ones brought by his own hand.

There are shades of Kurt Vonnegut (particularly Mother Night) in the black humor and the clever use of language that is simultaneously profound, provocative, and comical. The author somehow finds a way to use a woman's cleavage as metaphor in such an insightful way it's a little bit embarrassing. He makes light of several events in ways that are just cringe-worthy (squid? coke bottle?) it's hard to read but even harder not to.

For a debut author, Viet Than Nguyen is astoundingly assured in his writing. His prose is beyond impressive. The pace is inconsistent and some parts felt like I was slogging through (except for in a few parts, this is hardly the thriller it claims to be) but overall an informative, beautifully written historical novel. Highly recommended.

Posted in Mr. Philip's Library
...more

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Oct 14, 2015 Rowena rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical-fiction, asia

"I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces. Perhaps not surprisingly, I am also a man of two minds. I am not some misunderstood mutant from a comic book or a horror movie, although some have treated me as such. I am simply able to see any issue from both sides. Sometimes I flatter myself that this is a talent, and although it is admittedly one of a minor nature, it is perhaps also the sole talent I possess. At other times, when I reflect on how I cannot help but observe the world in s "I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces. Perhaps not surprisingly, I am also a man of two minds. I am not some misunderstood mutant from a comic book or a horror movie, although some have treated me as such. I am simply able to see any issue from both sides. Sometimes I flatter myself that this is a talent, and although it is admittedly one of a minor nature, it is perhaps also the sole talent I possess. At other times, when I reflect on how I cannot help but observe the world in such a fashion, I wonder if what I have should even be called talent. After all, a talent is something you use, not something that uses you. The talent you cannot not use, the talent that possesses you – that is a hazard, I must confess. But in the month when this confession begins, my way of seeing the world still seemed more of a virtue than a danger, which is how some dangers first appear."- Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer

I attended a panel last year where Roxane Gay, Marlon James, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Shilpi Somaya Gowda were discussing the theme of home in their writing. For immigrants home can be a touchy subject but clearly it can produce great literature.

And this one example: only a person who is from the culture, or who has a connection to the culture, could write something like this with such nuance and insight. I find it intriguing how satire and humour is used to tell tough stories and I am impressed by how well Nguyen does that in this book.We all know about the Vietnam war and have probably seen some horrific images from there, but Nguyen uses satire to tell us the story and it works really well in a way I can’t quite put into words right now. I laugh at Nguyen calling 1975 Vietnam a “jackfruit republic that served as a franchise of the United States”, though I can see how awful that reality must have been.

Nguyen’s protagonist was interesting too, as a half-French half-Vietnamese communist agent, who was both an insider and an outsider. I appreciated the perspective of someone who doesn’t quite belong anywhere, who, because of his peripheral position in society, gives such insight to both Vietnamese and American culture. It brought to mind the unique perspectives minority writers bring to their writing, the nuances they can pick up that others might not be able to:

“Ah, the Amerasian, forever caught between worlds and never knowing where he belongs! Imagine if you did not suffer from the confusion you must constantly experience, feeling the constant tug-of-war inside you and over you, between Orient and Occident. ‘East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet’, as Kipling so accurately diagnosed”.

Nguyen picks out racial microaggressions and western hypocrisy without naming them as such, and then proceeds to show us how ridiculous they are. He makes observations that are incisive and hilarious:

"When he interviewed me, he wanted to know whether I spoke any Japanese. I explained that I was born in Gardena. He said, Oh, you nisei, as if knowing that one word means he knows something about me. You’ve forgotten your culture, Ms. Mori, even though you’re only second generation. Your issei parents, they hung on to their culture. Don’t you want to learn Japanese? Don’t you want to visit Nippon? For a long time I felt bad. I wondered why I didn’t want to learn Japanese, why I didn’t already speak Japanese, why I would rather go to Paris or Istanbul or Barcelona rather than Tokyo. But then I thought, Who cares? Did anyone ask John F. Kennedy if he spoke Gaelic and visited Dublin or if he ate potatoes every night or if he collected paintings of leprechauns? So why are we supposed to not forget our culture? Isn’t my culture right here since I was born here? Of course I didn’t ask him those questions. I just smiled and said, You’re so right, sir. She sighed. It’s a job."

It’s really a fascinating novel that deserves all its accolades.

Something I remember from the panel is that Nguyen was discussing censorship in Vietnam and how a publisher in Vietnam wanted to translate the book into Vietnamese. As Nguyen said, “I’d be surprised to learn that I’d published a novella!” His great sense of humour was what led me to read this book and I’m so glad I did. ...more

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May 19, 2016 Snotchocheez rated it liked it

3.5 stars

I can see how The Sympathizer, Viet Thanh Nguyen's complex novel focusing on the post-Vietnam War experience, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction this year. It's plenty thought-provoking and weighty, uncompromsing in its candor. It has a snarky sense of humor. It provides a underrepresented (to contemporary fiction, anyway) viewpoint of the Vietnamese diaspora here in the United States. Would it, though, have gotten my vote for the Pulitzer? Nope. I can think of several titles more dese 3.5 stars

I can see how The Sympathizer, Viet Thanh Nguyen's complex novel focusing on the post-Vietnam War experience, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction this year. It's plenty thought-provoking and weighty, uncompromsing in its candor. It has a snarky sense of humor. It provides a underrepresented (to contemporary fiction, anyway) viewpoint of the Vietnamese diaspora here in the United States. Would it, though, have gotten my vote for the Pulitzer? Nope. I can think of several titles more deserving. Even one of the runners-up for the Prize, Kelly Link's bizarre short story collection Get In Trouble was more deserving, in my opinion.

Long-time GR friends will probably be tired of my ongoing grousing about authors that dump quotation marks. A (very) select few authors can get away with it (Colum McCann is one) and that's only because he's been able to shuck quotation marks in such a way that is not confusing or disruptive to the reading experience. Mr. Nguyen, a relative unknown to the literary world prior to his Pulitzer Prize win, does not get an exemption from me. I'm all for creative license, but not when it serves to obfuscate or confuse. Nguyen's choice to dump quotation marks only gave me a headache, trying to parse who said what. One can argue that there isn't much dialogue in this book to warrant my vitriol, but I stand behind it. (Authors: thumbing your nose at convention (by dumping quote marks) is not creative license. It's an affectation. It addles. It confuses. Give. It. A. Rest.)

It's a shame, too, as there were quite a few good (even, great) things about this novel: I really enjoyed the (spot-on) descriptions of mid-to-late-'70s Southern California and its Vietnamese post-war enclaves: Westminster, Long Beach, Monterey Park et.al. The idea that as reprehensible as the United States' actions were, there were plenty of Vietnamese that were not beyond reproach, either. The hilarity of the unnamed protagonist (once a captain in the Vietnamese army, turned refugee) getting a job as a cultural advisor with an "auteur" filmmaker (a very thinly veiled FF Coppola, a very thinly veiled "Apocalypse Now"). The nutso idea of a Vietnamese army general with the bright idea of rallying his fellow expatriated boat people who'd fled to the States to foment an insurrectionist movement to topple the communists whilst in the desert north of Los Angeles.

Just a lot of great things to recommend the book (though many of them undone by overly obvious efforts to be "creative") make what should've been (and indeed was deemed) a winner fall a little short of perfection in my estimation.. ...more

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Feb 12, 2017 Esil rated it liked it

Shelves: must-get-to-in-2017

I loved The Refugees. I loved the writing and I loved Viet Thanh Nguyen's perspective on the experiences of Vietnamese refugees in the United States. So I was excited to read The Sympathizer, Thanh Nguyen's Pulitzer Prize winning novel. Unfortunately, I didn't love it in the way I loved The Refugees. I'm conflicted as to why:

-One of Thanh Nguyen's strengths is his incredible writing -- at times playful, often cutting elegantly to the heart of the matter and always strong and intelligent. For tha I loved The Refugees. I loved the writing and I loved Viet Thanh Nguyen's perspective on the experiences of Vietnamese refugees in the United States. So I was excited to read The Sympathizer, Thanh Nguyen's Pulitzer Prize winning novel. Unfortunately, I didn't love it in the way I loved The Refugees. I'm conflicted as to why:

-One of Thanh Nguyen's strengths is his incredible writing -- at times playful, often cutting elegantly to the heart of the matter and always strong and intelligent. For that reason alone, I would read anything he writes.

-One of Thanh Nguyen's other strengths is his insight into his characters and their mixed motivations. He is a master at brilliant moments of reflection.

-Having said this, at times The Sympathizer felt like too much work, almost like the cleverness got in the way of the story. Thanh Nguyen has created a very complex first person narrator who tells a complex shifting shifty story. The unnamed narrator comes to the United States amongst a group of Vietnamese refugees, but his allegiances still lie ostensibly with the Viet Cong in Vietnam. His story is one of conflicting allegiances and inner conflict. It's a fascinating topic, but somehow the delivery felt almost too clever. The narrative string pivoted relentlessly. It was a bit dizzying and sometimes felt like form was giving over to substance.

-There is an underlying sarcasm to the narration. It may reflect self-loathing or the emotional distance the narrator must keep from everyone in order to maintain his role as a "Sympathizer". This makes for clever prose, but it does create an emotional distance between reader and narrator. While there is a pretence that the narrator is bearing his soul, is he really? The last two chapters shift the ground a bit, but not enough to change the overall effect for me.

-My 3 star rating reflects my personal experience reading The Sympathizer. However, there were definitely many 5 star passages -- for example, instances when the narrator reflected on his childhood or his conflicted role that were truly brilliant.

Based on the writing alone, sign me up for Thanh Nguyen's future books. But The Sympathizer is definitely not for everyone.

Thank you to GR friends Diane and Angela for reading this one in sync with me. It was my first buddy read. It was a great experience, and certainly helpful to get your insights while not feeling alone in my struggles with this one. ...more

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Jan 09, 2017 Liz rated it liked it

I’m so disappointed with this book. It started off so strong but then lost me as it went on. A book about the end of the Vietnam War and the Vietnamese refugees that come to America . The narrator, the unnamed Captain, however, is not pro-American. He is a double agent for the Communists. Initially, he is tasked with working as an aide de camp for a South Vietnamese general. He leaves with the general and family to go to America. “I am a spy, a spook, a man of two faces.” He is a sympathizer, bu ...more

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Apr 19, 2016 Bam rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: i-own-it, historical-fiction, pulitzer-prize-winner, first-reads, 2016-aty-reading-challenge, 2016-reading-challenge

*4.5 stars. Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as several other awards! Pretty impressive for an author's debut novel. I was the fortunate winner of a goodreads giveaway for this book and I heartily thank Grove Atlantic for their generosity.

What is a sympathizer? "To be in sympathy intellectually; to feel or show support for or approval of something."

The narrator of the story, who remains nameless throughout the book and is only known to us as 'Captain,' is writing his confes ...more

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Dec 30, 2016 orsodimondo rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: americana, spy-story, vietnam

GOODBYE VIETNAM
Sono una spia, un dormiente, un fantasma, un uomo con due facce. E un uomo con due menti diverse, anche se questo probabilmente non stupirà nessuno.
I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces. Perhaps not surprisingly, I am also a man of two minds.

E per essere una buona spia la prima regola è non dire bugie, ma verità che possono significare come minimo due cose.
È risultare illeggibile.
È essere un uomo sincero che crede in tutto quello che dice anche quando mente.

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È vero, ...more

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May 14, 2016 Stephen P rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: Lovers of the Vitality of Experience

Recommended to Stephen by: Proustitute

Shelves: favorites

So now what is there to do? Still awake and it is four fifteen in the morning. These gales of endless emotions have ripped through these past three hours in my wordless torment and wonder. Devoting myself to whatever feelings swept over me I would not corral them with words. Roped to the mast of a ship I would endure. Waking late this morning there is little difference. Where is time and shouldn’t it being doing its chore to lessen by degree?

Time is one essence captured within the glass earthen
So now what is there to do? Still awake and it is four fifteen in the morning. These gales of endless emotions have ripped through these past three hours in my wordless torment and wonder. Devoting myself to whatever feelings swept over me I would not corral them with words. Roped to the mast of a ship I would endure. Waking late this morning there is little difference. Where is time and shouldn’t it being doing its chore to lessen by degree?

Time is one essence captured within the glass earthenware jar of this book. The book is pure experience which is why even labeling it as such narrows and empties it. The author, VIET THANH NGUYEN is not one to write but speaks. He speaks as himself, the narrator, in a personal, inviting manner. Despite an occasional analogy, metaphor falling flat (It is a first novel) there are few signs of writing, of literature. He was I and I were he. Not a crease to be found.

Saigon is falling. The Americans have left. The South Vietnamese, still consider Vietnam their country. But what is a Country? A negotiated score of boundary marks invisible in landlocked lines or an abstract concept that if manipulated properly will ignite others into patriotism, the willing to sacrifice, to die, to kill others. But Saigon is being over run by the North Vietnamese. As structures both physical and internal crumble it is time to flee. Fleeing isn’t easy. There are only so many planes and long lines. If you have money there is always the opportunity to bribe your way on board, or family members of friends and the powerful find their way.

Now in America the politically powerful, the generals strung with medals across their uniforms, are immigrants indistinguishable by the American eye. Though legal they are now invaders who will vie for jobs, will vie for their culture or craftily assimilate themselves into their surroundings. Yet for some it is not that easy. What, to give up one’s identity? If their identity remains their country isn’t it their duty to re-form and re-take it? Doesn’t it become more complicated if you are of the nature, a flexible identity or none at all, where you can see both sides and the possibility of the danger of helping each?

Paralysis is by far an interesting thing. My thought was that it’s nature was an instantaneous affair not the slow progress where it travels beneath quiet silken skin and leaves one stunned in a chair, exhausted, at one fifteen in the morning overwhelmed. Not in the abstract either. I should have seen it coming. Looking back it was there. All of it but released in ways that left me rapt not analytical of mind.

The Sympathizer is a work of art that does not strive to be a work of art. Far from artless it is an explication of a truth approaching purity. So many of the most important of human questions are delved into without a hint that this unbroken line of seat edge accounting is referring to such.

What I lived through, the narrator lived through, is unspeakable yet spoken. These events happened according to the studious and deeply documented sources the author amassed. He acknowledges his minor curating. A curating ever so slight that edges it into a reality of what was taken to be real.

I hoped that by writing this my paralysis might recede. Maybe partially but still not detectable. How can I read another book? If I could which? Dante’s Inferno? Something so different as a Borges story? Choosing takes strength, motion. It is always possible that a settling of the house, its foundation, might dislodge a book from my shelves and land in my lap. It could happen…in the abstract.

A multitude of thanks goes out to Proustitute for another thoughtful and powerful recommendation.
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May 04, 2016 linhtalinhtinh rated it it was ok

Shelves: other-lit

I see the value that this book contributes to American literature. I read New York Times review just a few minutes ago (didn't want anything to interfere with my understanding of the book), and for most part I'd like to agree.

Few years I go when I was still in college, I took this class in art history and the famous Vietnam Veteran Memorial came up. Let's not talk about the architecture's significance, but my young mind at that time was just full of surprise: "What about the South Vietnamese? Wh I see the value that this book contributes to American literature. I read New York Times review just a few minutes ago (didn't want anything to interfere with my understanding of the book), and for most part I'd like to agree.

Few years I go when I was still in college, I took this class in art history and the famous Vietnam Veteran Memorial came up. Let's not talk about the architecture's significance, but my young mind at that time was just full of surprise: "What about the South Vietnamese? Where are their names?"

No, they were not recognized, and definitely no memorial for them. Not in Vietnam, sure. Not here in US, either. These soldiers were faceless and voiceless. The closest thing I came across is "The Other Vietnam Memorial" by Chris Burden in Chicago, but the names on the bright orange glasses are fake, generated by computer algorithm.

Sure, there are millions of North Vietnam casualities, many also nameless and faceless, but not as voiceless. There are memorials everywhere, there are praises in history textbooks, incense sticks lighted on the national veteran day. They have a place in history of the nation.

What about these south Vietnamese soldiers?

As I write this review I understand more the pain of the refugees. There is this nostalgia of a lost nation, rejected by the new regime in power. There is this effort to assimilate, but we all know Americans are pretty slow in accepting non-whites as full Americans. So they hover in between.

The book announces to the world about their existence.

But personally I'm not a big fan of the writing, just stylistically. And something's off. It doesn't feel real enough. It's a social criticism, of all sides of the war, which rings true many times. But it's not real for me on the personal level, on the psychological level. The war tragedies for families, for individuals, seem like a movie, sad and brutal, but I'm not connected. The political/social ideas that need to be expressed seem to be prioritized over the human stories. I don't even feel much for this character that we know the most, this unnamed sympathizer.

That's why it's a two star. Simply my taste.

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Apr 18, 2016 Matthew Quann rated it really liked it

Shelves: pulitzers

I’m not sure about the rest of Canada, but I didn’t learn much about the Vietnam War during my high school history classes. WWI and WWII were taught as highlight reel of major events, cliff notes on battles fought, assassinations of Archdukes, and the social fallout of the wars. Little time was spent in the years that followed, though there was usually a slide on the Cold War. Somewhere on that slide the Vietnam War would find itself a bullet point; part of a list rather than a horrid conflict.

T ...more

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Jan 21, 2017 Paula rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: historical fiction and military/war fans

Shelves: book-club, historical-fiction, cultural, e-book, pulitzer-prize, military-war, published-2015, edgar-award, read-in-2017

The Sympathizer, written by Viet Thanh Nguyen, is a sweeping novel of Vietnamese and American culture after the fall of Saigon seen through the eyes of a half-French, half-Vietnamese intellectual communist double agent. Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Price for Fiction, the author writes from different perspectives showing us the lives of Vietnamese refugees who settled in America after the war. With beautiful prose, and some humor, The Sympathizer is about war and its aftermath, friendship, and bet ...more

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Apr 20, 2015 Nancy Oakes rated it it was amazing

04/18/2016: This book just won this year's Pulitzer Prize Award for Fiction. Well deserved.

for plot, etc., click here to get to my reading journal. Otherwise, carry on.

The narrator of this novel, the titular "sympathizer," is definitely a "man of two faces," and faces a number of contradictions. In fact, this thought-provoking novel is so filled with contradictions that this "two faces" idea runs throughout the book. In the narrator's case, he is a man of mixed parentage, a fact that has help 04/18/2016: This book just won this year's Pulitzer Prize Award for Fiction. Well deserved.

for plot, etc., click here to get to my reading journal. Otherwise, carry on.

The narrator of this novel, the titular "sympathizer," is definitely a "man of two faces," and faces a number of contradictions. In fact, this thought-provoking novel is so filled with contradictions that this "two faces" idea runs throughout the book. In the narrator's case, he is a man of mixed parentage, a fact that has helped to define his identity throughout his life, since in Vietnam, he grew up being reminded that he is a bastard, with a French father and Vietnamese mother. Metaphorically speaking then, he already understands what is implied in belonging in two different places, but the truth is that he is also not in a position to claim either as his. This idea is repeated again and again throughout the novel, and is one of the main thematic issues explored here, as is the reinvention of the self under less-than-perfect circumstances. He finds himself with different and often-conflicting loyalties, and above all, he is haunted by ghosts. It is truly a masterpiece of a novel that also examines not only American perceptions of the Vietnam War, but America's perception of itself in the war and those of the Vietnamese people as well.

I read a reader response of The Sympathizer that said it should be required reading for every US politician, a sentiment I heartily endorse, especially considering what's going on in the world regarding refugees right now. But there's so much more here -- it is a novel just filled with contradictions which make for a great satirical look at the promises of the American dream, at America's place in the world, etc.; it also points out among other things that unlike most historical accounts, the history of the Vietnam war has been the provenance of the losers rather than that of the victors. It also examines the realities behind revolutions and the effects of the postwar diaspora from the point of view of the people who were given promises that were never intended to be kept.

A couple of things: first, when I finished it, I sat in my chair absolutely stunned for probably about half an hour. I noted somewhere that even after it was over my jaw was still pinned to the floor; it took me a day or two to get over that feeling. Second, I want to throttle the dustjacket blurber who says this is a "gripping spy novel" -- people who decide to read this book based on that phrase are bound to be somewhat disappointed since this book goes well beyond the boundaries of a mere spy novel. Third, The Sympathizer is one of the most original books I've read this year, well deserving of any award its author receives. I have been very frustrated lately and at the point of despairing over "same old, same old" in recent novels. There are exceptions, of course, including but not necessarily limited to three of my favorite books this year -- A Brief History of Seven Killings, The Buried Giant, and a book published by Pushkin by Peter Froberg Idling called Song for an Approaching Storm about Pol Pot in his pre-genocide days -- but The Sympathizer offers hope that the mental wells of writers haven't yet run dry.

Very highly recommended, one of my few favorite novels of the year. Read it slowly. Take your time with it. Savor it. It's that kind of book.
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Jul 10, 2016 Peter Boyle rated it liked it

Shelves: pulitzer-winner

We've had many examinations of the Vietnam war from the American point of view, but here's one from the opposing side. Our narrator (the unnamed 'Captain') is an aide to an important General in the South Vietnamese nationalist army and also an undercover communist agent. The story begins at the end of the conflict, with the Captain engineering a breathless escape to California from a ruined Saigon, along with the General, several army officials and their families. One of his two closest friends, ...more

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Apr 19, 2016 Rae Meadows rated it really liked it

There has been plenty of fiction written about the Vietnam War, but this is the first novel I have read about the war's aftermath for the Vietnamese, particularly the refugees. The Sympathizer is a most impressive book--the prose dynamic, the pace exuberant, the themes fully realized. The main character explores duality in a myriad of ways, half Vietnamese, half French, sleeper agent for the communist North while infiltrating the South and its resistance, American influenced but not integrated, ...more

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May 23, 2016 Brian rated it it was amazing

Recommended to Brian by: Proustitute

At some level I have always been bothered a bit that the vast genre of American literature born from the Vietnam War has had very little representation from the people of that land. This isn't an indictment of those many works that are excellent additions to the world of letters - it is just, for me, that absence seemed to grow cavernous the more I read in that subject. The Sympathizer fills that void with such tremendous force that this work of art can't truly be called anything but an instant ...more

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Jul 20, 2016 BlackOxford rated it really liked it

Shelves: american-fiction

The Darkness of Democracy

When Donald Trump blasts "Make America Great Again", it may not be obvious that 'again' has a very specific historical reference: the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, the day the United States lost its first war. This event opens The Sympathizer. The Donald cannot mention Vietnam; it is still too painful and embarrassing a topic in American politics even after more than 40 years. There was no attack on a US ship in the Tonkin Gulf, there were no dominoes waiting to fall The Darkness of Democracy

When Donald Trump blasts "Make America Great Again", it may not be obvious that 'again' has a very specific historical reference: the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, the day the United States lost its first war. This event opens The Sympathizer. The Donald cannot mention Vietnam; it is still too painful and embarrassing a topic in American politics even after more than 40 years. There was no attack on a US ship in the Tonkin Gulf, there were no dominoes waiting to fall, there were no freedom loving people to defend. These were fabrications. The Vietnam War in the US has the same emotional significance as the First World War to Germany during the Weimar Republic. It is a reminder of not just defeat, and government deceit but of purported betrayal by one's fellow countrymen - hippies, liberals, draft dodgers, inconstant politicians. The fact that Trump arranged to have himself exempted from being drafted into the Vietnam War - through equivalent fabrication - makes him even more emotionally dedicated to ensuring his own past disappears into that period when America believed itself not just courageous, and honest but competent, and above all exceptional among nations. His recent attack on former Vietnamese prisoner of war John McCain as a 'loser' was not so much personal as a metaphysical rejection of Trump's as well as the country's own history.

This novel is acutely prescient not only about the archetypal American/Trumpian neurosis, which it satirises so mercilessly, but also about the political effects of that neurosis. The conflict in Vietnam has become an historical metaphor for what is happening in American politics as I write this review. The route from Weimar to National Socialism in the Germany of the 1930's, as many have already noted, has much the same scenery as the rise of Trump. The similarity is not congenial to many Americans. Nguyen's staging of the problem of America in Vietnam is therefore brilliant. That he doesn't provide a happy dénouement is simply prudence not lack of imagination. Many others who have studied the problem reach a similar impasse.

For example, in 1943, two weeks before her death, the young philosopher Simone Weil wrote a short essay 'On the Abolition of All Political Parties'. In it she distinguishes the meaning and practice of political parties in continental Europe and the Anglo-Saxon world of America and Britain. Both types involve the passionate espousal of a point of view on the shape and content of the general good. Weil likes neither type - the British because, although it dissipates passions, the result is compromise which everyone can accept but no one really wants. The continental, because it enflames passions to the point where Jacobin ferocity puts "one party in power and all the others in jail". Frustration with the former naturally leads to the latter. The slide from reason to controllable passion to Gnostic dictatorship in which each party accuses the other, not only of error but of the vile civil evil of treason is, she implies, inevitable. This she foresees is the real threat of and to democracy: the corruption of the souls and consciences of those who participate in party politics. It is difficult not to perceive in the recently held Republican National Convention precisely this slide from rational perception of one's personal interests to the ultimate demonisation of the other side as perverts, traitors and liars: "Hillary for Prison", "Hillary the Traitor of Benghazi".

The Sympathizer is in large part about Weil's inevitable slide into the abyss of party politics. The locus is not Cleveland (although much of the book takes place in America) and the protagonist is not American (but significantly European/Asian). Nevertheless the not-so-hidden force of the narrative is American culture and American military and political power in the character of the mysterious Claude. One clue to the metaphorical intent of the book is that Claude (and his intellectual avatar Hedd) is apparently the only proper name in the book. The other characters are either roles - the Captain, the General, the Auteur, the Parisian aunt, the crapulent major - or veiled descriptors in languages other than English - Man, Bon, Sofia Mori. What the named character of Claude promotes is simply the creation and the continuing passionate hatred and conflict between the two historical factions of Vietnamese before during and after the war. He plots and meddles and tortures and encourages strife endlessly, not for any obvious ideology or advantage but just because he can.

Claude is America and what America does - not just to others but to itself. Not until halfway through the book, despite several hints, does it become apparent that it is actually about representative democracy not Vietnam: "Not to own the means of production can lead to premature death, but not to own the means of representation is also a kind of death." muses the spy-protagonist who is having a rather different kind of political awakening than he anticipated during his life in the West. The real question is how anyone can be politically represented. Neither liberal democracy nor the dictatorship of the proletariat makes a satisfactory solution to the problem. All politics fail from time to time. Perhaps not inevitably as Weil feared, but certainly when it comes under control by the Claudes of the world.

Donald Trump is the potentially fatal flaw in American representative democracy. Clearly Nguyen knew nothing of Trump's prospective rise to political fame as he wrote. But he didn't need to. Trump is a type, the dark side of America that lurks constantly in wait to mug the entire country, and as much of the rest of the world that is within reach. It is this dark side which is so obvious to non-Americans, especially non-European non-Americans. And it is this side which Nguyen describes with such horrible accuracy. A timely reminder therefore of the real danger we face.

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Jul 10, 2017 Tim Park rated it really liked it

...this was a challenging and demanding novel for me... i had to refer to the dictionary seemingly every few pages to look up words, and the lack of quotation marks and proper paragraph use added to the difficulty... but there was a reason for that i guess, which becomes apparent as you read...

the story itself was fascinsting, but for me slow to start... i had to reread the first 30 pages or so... it really started to hook me around page 50 and for most of the book thereafter i was deeply engag ...more

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May 06, 2016 Trish rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, literature, war, asia, totally-unexpected, politics, foreign-affairs, history, funny, debut-author, america, immigration, film, race

“War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothin’!”
—from “War” by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, Motown, 1969

Nguyen uses the trope of a spy to articulate the experience of “the immigrant” or “the other” in American society. But that’s not all. Nguyen wades into the nature of rebellion, revolt, war, governance, literature, novel-writing, self-examination and -actualization, the duality of human nature, and our essential aloneness. Despite the anguished cry of our unnamed narrator, our “Captain”

“War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothin’!”
—from “War” by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, Motown, 1969

Nguyen uses the trope of a spy to articulate the experience of “the immigrant” or “the other” in American society. But that’s not all. Nguyen wades into the nature of rebellion, revolt, war, governance, literature, novel-writing, self-examination and -actualization, the duality of human nature, and our essential aloneness. Despite the anguished cry of our unnamed narrator, our “Captain”, at the end of the novel, what Nguyen has given us is not nothing. As the novel draws to a close we in fact wonder if the narrator isn’t talking about the author himself in the process of “writing what he knows” in a novel: the “confession” our Captain gives to his interrogators is the long, discursive narrative this author has crafted from imagination and experience straddling two countries with [sometimes violent] overlapping histories, forcing upon him some truths which cumulatively might seem like 295 pages of “nothing.” The hilarity of his despair might have seemed the author’s alone, but his skill is such that we readers know exactly what he means.

”The absurd often has its seed in a truth.”

Nguyen is uniquely positioned to see into the essential differences and similarities in the Vietnamese and American experience, and as a writer he cannot not write about it. Our boon is that the author is so exquisitely talented in uncovering and expressing our essential humanity, something which should give us all pause. Humanness is an imperfect, often anguished state, Nguyen seems to be saying, but it can also be very funny. In order to appreciate the joke, however, we have some self-examination to do.

”Life’s a suicide mission.”

Captain is writing his “confession” to Man, his lifelong friend and now a commissar in the Viet government after the “fall” of Saigon—a loss of innocence in every regard. Captain lives in the United States, and has returned to Vietnam to make sure his other lifelong friend, Bon, doesn’t die in an ill-conceived attempt to destabilize the new Vietnamese government. Bon is a former Phoenix operative with endless Vietcong kills to his name. The Captain’s boyhood friendship with Man and Bon was sealed when the boys cut their palms and shook hands, mixing blood. Thereafter, the gesture for hello or goodbye revealed the stigmata of their friendship. What are they fighting for again?

”Not to own the means of production can lead to a premature death, but not to own the means of representation is also a kind of death.”

Don’t worry: this novel is not heavy on political theory. You will just want to move slowly through Nguyen’s world. He is telling us something that we need to hear, like why film roles for Vietnamese actors are filled by Filipinos, Koreans, or Japanese actors. The Captain became involved in the making of a film about the Vietnam war in order to give strength and credibility to the portrayal of the Vietnamese people but he was disrespected, uncredited—literally blown off the set—and he never did manage the optics on perceptions of Vietnamese. Nyugen's recounting of the shooting of The Hamlet in the Philippines was such a magisterial set piece (and yet its visualizations link everything in the novel) that it will be resurrected endlessly whenever mention of this book comes up.

A debut novel so packed with insights into the human experience—how we justify our choices and how we try to spin outcomes—doesn’t lead us to expect that Nguyen would write with such verve, perspicacity and humor. Everything is illuminated in this novel, down to the very nub of the author’s own perceptions about women. It was perhaps too long a book (not every word counted), but because the book is a debut, the author had no reason to expect he’d get another chance to write all he has learned. This novel is a spectacular overload filled with all kind of fancy pyrotechnics that recall America's most revered writers.

In an interview with Angela Chen, writing for The Guardian Nguyen tells us he did not pander in this novel to Western ideas of immigrants. This is true, but he did use a Western instrument—the novel—to illuminate for Westerners the Eastern, the immigrant experience. And he wields it better than most Westerners. What sweet success it must have seemed when he was acknowledged with the Pulitzer Prize, awarded April 2016.
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Feb 20, 2015 Jill rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

It’s been decades since the Vietnam War has been declared over and still, many of us wrestle with why we were ever there to begin with. Now a very talented author brings new grist to the table with one of the most astoundingly original voices I’ve had the pleasure to read.

“I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces,” confesses the unnamed narrator in the opening line. Indeed he is – the offshoot of an affair between a French Catholic preach and an underage rural mother, a secret agent fo It’s been decades since the Vietnam War has been declared over and still, many of us wrestle with why we were ever there to begin with. Now a very talented author brings new grist to the table with one of the most astoundingly original voices I’ve had the pleasure to read.

“I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces,” confesses the unnamed narrator in the opening line. Indeed he is – the offshoot of an affair between a French Catholic preach and an underage rural mother, a secret agent for the Viet Cong who professes loyalty to the General (the head of the South Vietnamese National Police).

But Viet Thanh Nguyen’s purpose here is not to revisit “who was right and who was wrong”, retell the battles, or provide manipulated substance for moral outrage. He focuses very much on the absurdity of it all as his character wryly and sardonically “confesses” stories of his life as he bides his time in a prison.

Our narrator is at his most piercing when he uncovers the preening and pretentiousness of both American imperialists as well as the educational and Hollywood communities. A scathing look at a Hollywood movie (the narrator is a consultant) that captures the Americanized idea of the Vietnam War without ever giving any Vietnamese a speaking part is worth the entire price of the book. (Presumably the movie was Apocalypse now). “This was the first war where the losers would write history instead of the victors, courtesy of the most effective propaganda machine ever created…”

And he is his most poignant when he astutely reflects on how, at the end of the day, we abuse our grand ideals: “When it came to learning the worst habits of our French masters and their American replacements, we quickly proved ourselves the best.” At the same time, we lose our sense of proportion: “I had no doubt that in the Auteur’s egomaniacal imagination he meant that his work of art, now, was more important than the three or four or six million dead who composed the real meaning of the war.”

In some ways, this is an existential work and in other ways, it is precisely the opposite; a work that pulsates with a desire to form connections despite the absurdity that keeps us from doing so. Viet Thanh Nuguyen’s character aptly shows that it is, indeed, possible to hold two conflicting viewpoints and to not be tethered to either. I am quite sure that at the end of 2015, this book will be on my personal “top ten” list.

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topics	posts	views	last activity
The History Book ...: * WE ARE OPEN - JUNE 2017 - THE SYMPATHIZER - GLOSSARY THREAD (Spoiler Thread)	27	55	Jul 03, 2017 08:24PM
21st Century Lite...: The Sympathizer - Whole Book, Spoilers Allowed (June 2016)	54	225	Jun 22, 2017 06:57PM
21st Century Lite...: The Sympathizer - First Half, Chapters 1-12 (June 2016)	27	74	Jun 14, 2017 11:55AM
Pomona College Bo...: * "I am a man of two minds"	4	23	Mar 31, 2017 04:51PM

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