The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) (The Sympathizer, 1)

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The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
367 pages

What’s it about?
“I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces. Perhaps not surprisingly, I am also a man of two minds.” So begins this thoughtful, cerebral look at the Vietnam War. We see the conflict through the eyes of the narrator- a half French, half Vietnamese communist sleeper agent living in the U.S. after the war. This s a spy novel, a story of friendship, and a look at how a young man can be drawn into a political situation, and soon be in over his head.

What did I think?
I enjoyed this book. It was slower moving than most classic spy novels but it had so much to say about the conflict in Vietnam. No one is spared in the author’s analysis- not North Vietnam, not South Vietnam, not France, and certainly not America. It seems like we all had a part to play in creating a war that was both brutal, costly, and a training ground for future conflicts.

Should you read it?
So my first description of this book is cerebral and I will stick with that. This novel is a disturbing portrait of war, but also a disturbing portrait of what happens to individuals after a war. What happened if you were left in Vietnam and fought for the losing side? Equally, what happened if you were the victor? What kind of experience do those “lucky” enough to escape as political refugees face once they arrive here in America? All interesting and timely questions.

Quote-
“I laid out the charges against him of subversion, conspiracy, and murder, but emphasized that he was innocent until proven guilty, which made him laugh. Your American puppet masters like to say that, but it’s stupid, he said. History, humanity, religion, this war tells us exactly the reverse. We are guilty until proven innocent, as even the Americans have shown. Why else do they believe everyone is really Viet Cong? Why else do they shoot first and ask questions later? Because to them all yellow people are guilty until proven innocent. Americans are a confused people because they can’t admit this contradiction. 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.”

If you like this try-
The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson
​Matterhorn by Karl Marlinates
​

I remember visiting Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, taking in all the history, and all the many ways their countries and their people were exploited and destroyed by the US (and others), and I wondered why they welcomed us there or even allowed us in. Such a shameful part of our history that have lasting effects even now.
Nguyen brings it to light in even more stark detail, on a more personal, individual level, but also told with dark humor at times. He also does not let the Vietnamese people off the hook so easily, acknowledging that they were literally their own worst enemy at times.
I liked the running theme in the book of the conflicting identities of the protagonist in the story as a stand-in for Vietnam as a whole.
Very compelling and eye-opening book.

I read this for my September book club and I consider it one of the best books I've read in a while. The writing is witty and sardonic and the character development is rich and layered, delivered through the theme of duality throughout the novel. The protagonist is at once critical of capitalism, catholicism, communism, and other -isms and fond of certain aspects of each. He is self-aware in his contradictions and vocal about his character flaws or weaknesses. The book provides an important (and often overlooked) point of view about war in Vietnam and provides context, insight, and perspective from both sides of the conflict within the Vietnamese population. I found this to be informative, eye-opening, and particularly relevant regarding the recent American retreat from Afghanistan. I highly recommend this book.

I loved this book. I thought the narrative structure was so interesting. It was very dense, but still felt raw. The descriptions were like he was hiding even in his thoughts. Made me want to know everything about the Vietnam war (especially the parts that weren't taught in school). Best spy novel I've ever read just due to the psychology of the main character. The author made such smart choices consistently and that made the book feel unique.

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, or some kind of postmodern, ironically self-aware, tongue-in-cheek critique of political philosophy itself. I suspect it was actually supposed to be something at a meta-level one or two steps further removed from even those layers. And let me be perfectly clear: I could not possibly care one iota less. Like the protagonist himself, there were long periods of time where all I wanted was a pistol to put me out of my misery. But I finished it, if only so I could say with some credibility: You should not do the same.