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A review by mshusky
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
This dark, challenging Pulitzer prize winning novel explores the Vietnam war and the war's many legacies (public and personal) from the point of view of a unamed Vietnamese spy as he writes his confession (to whom and for why is not clear until the last few very dark chapters). The protagonist (as expected with a character experiencing the duality of being a spy, an unreliable narrator) is forever the outsider, the illegimate child of a French Catholic priest and young teen housekeeper, sent to the US (where he gets a university education and proves his prodigious intellect) and on his return becomes an aide to a General with ties to the CIA while being a mole for the communists.
This is a sprawling book. The fall of Saigon and the frantic wait for a plane to leave the country could have been a book on its own. Or the gently paced section in the 80s and 90s settling into immigrant life in California with its fascinating asides into how even Vietnamese food is not quite right with Chinese ingredients, or the blinkered racism from a university professor, let alone the movie shoot section (both incredible and WTF part of the book), that could also be another novel or two. The last section, where The Captain goes back with his closest friend (one of the few named men in the book) to help the communists and then subsequent capture and torture them - is just difficult, dark and heartbreaking. It took me a considerable amount of time to finish the last few chapters.
This is a sprawling book. The fall of Saigon and the frantic wait for a plane to leave the country could have been a book on its own. Or the gently paced section in the 80s and 90s settling into immigrant life in California with its fascinating asides into how even Vietnamese food is not quite right with Chinese ingredients, or the blinkered racism from a university professor, let alone the movie shoot section (both incredible and WTF part of the book), that could also be another novel or two. The last section, where The Captain goes back with his closest friend (one of the few named men in the book) to help the communists and then subsequent capture and torture them - is just difficult, dark and heartbreaking. It took me a considerable amount of time to finish the last few chapters.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Torture, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death
Minor: Bullying