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The Sympathizer (The Sympathizer, #1)

Viet Thanh Nguyen

Start date: November 15, 2021

Finish date: December 1, 2021

Discussion: Reading List

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What Members Thought

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

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

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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Nov 14, 2021 spoko rated it did not like it

Shelves: espionage, history, book-club, fiction, politics

I really, really did not enjoy this book. Frankly, I think I only finished it as some kind of act of defiance. It’s a mildly interesting story, populated mostly by characters that I couldn’t care less about, written in a plodding style that makes every minute of reading feel like ten. To make matters worse, it’s stuffed full of long pseudo-politico-philosophical passages, where the only question I could grapple with was the meta-question of whether this was supposed to be a serious exploration, ...more

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Jan 14, 2021 Clifford rated it it was amazing

Shelves: novels, audiobooks

Offensive on some levels, but also very moving, disturbing, thought-provoking, compelling--everything I want in a novel. (Before someone asks, as a white American, I do take some offense at the narrator's racial generalizations, which I understand fit his character and his experiences with Americans, particularly white Americans. I am not offended by his being anti-American, given what my country did to Vietnam.) ...more

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Jun 14, 2020 Loretta rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is a hard book in many ways. It's very readable, that's not what I mean by hard. And it doesn't start out hard. But the story told, which more or less starts with the fall of Saigon, is unrelenting and honest and brutal in its depiction of war and the effects of war on all who live through it; it is both indictment and compassionate portrayal of cruel and vicious people, who are also the people who suffered the evils of war.

I'm having a hard time trying to review this, but I gave it five s ...more

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Mar 29, 2017 Joe Mossa rated it it was amazing

I rarely say that I can t put a book down but I am saying that about this book. I love to learn while reading. I learned about refugees, communists, soldiers, men women and children. I learned of culture and philosophy and all the while I was entertained while doing so. His short stories are just as great although I could tell he had become a much better writer in THE SYMPATHIZER. I am going to read his non fiction..DREAMS NEVER DIE.

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Nov 20, 2021 Katy rated it liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, fiction, politics

Interesting, unusual, and provocative was my initial teaction as I began reading this book. The story was shocking, brutal, and honest. I had not thought of the Vietnam war in terms of the people of Vietnam as they were exploited by the French and then by the Americans. I saw it more politically, questioning US involvement, and especially drafting young men to go halfway around the world to fight for what? A terrible episode in our history.
The Vietnamese protagonist is the son of a Catholic p ...more

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