Name: Chris Dailey's review of The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Item: The Sympathizer
Rating: 5
Author: Chris Dailey

Viet Thanh Nguyen

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

The Sympathizer

The winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, compared by critics to the works of Graham Greene, Denis Johnson, and George Orwell,The Sympathizer is a blistering exploration of identity, politics, and America, wrought in electric prose. The narrator, a Vietnamese army captain, is a man of divided loyalties, a half-French, half-Vietnamese communist sleeper agent in America after the end of the Vietnam War. A powerful story of love and friendship, and a gripping espionage novel,The Sympathizer examines the legacy of the Vietnam War in literature, film, and the wars we fight today.

Christine Frisbie

The only problem with not talking to oneself was that oneself was the most fascinating conversational partner one could imagine. Nobody had more patience in listening to one than oneself, and while nobody knew one better than oneself, nobody misunderstood one more than oneself.

The emotional residue of that night was like a drop of arsenic falling into the still waters of my soul, nothing having changed from the taste of it but everything now tainted.

*** WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION 2016*** WINNER OF THE EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL 2016 WINNER OF THE CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION 2016 'A fierce novel written in a refreshingly high style and charged with intelligent rage' Financial Times It is April 1975, and Saigon is in chaos. At his villa, a general of the South Vietnamese army is drinking whiskey and, with the help of his trusted captain, drawing up a list of those who will be given passage aboard the last flights out of the country. The general and his compatriots start a new life in Los Angeles, unaware that one among their number, the captain, is secretly observing and reporting on the group to a higher-up in the Viet Cong. The Sympathizer is the story of this captain: a man brought up by an absent French father and a poor Vietnamese mother, a man who went to university in America, but returned to Vietnam to fight for the Communist cause. A gripping spy novel, an astute exploration of extreme politics, and a moving love story, The Sympathizer explores a life between two worlds and examines the legacy of the Vietnam War in literature, film, and the wars we fight today. 'A bold, artful and globally minded reimagining of the Vietnam war . . . The Sympathizer is an excellent literary novel, and one that ends, with unsettling present-day resonance, in a refugee boat where opposing ideas about intentions, actions and their consequences take stark and resilient human form' the Guardian 'Beautifully written and meaty' Claire Messud '[A] remarkable debut novel . . . In its final chapters, The Sympathizer becomes an absurdist tour de force that might have been written by a Kafka or Genet' New York Times 'This debut is a page-turner (read: everybody will finish) that makes you reconsider the Vietnam War ... Nguyen's darkly comic novel offers a point of view about American culture that we've rarely seen' Oprah's Book Club Suggestions

Doan Tran Minh Thanh

Follows a Viet Cong agent as he spies on a South Vietnamese army general and his compatriots as they start a new life in 1975 Los Angeles.

Chris Dailey

Part spy thriller, part philosophy, part satire, this novel covers the fall the Saigon through the Vietnamese diaspora and ends in grotesque irony with shades of David Lynch. Centered around an unnamed communist double agent implanted initially in the South Vietnamese secret police and then in Southern California as his former general plots a return. As the espionage simmers throughout the author dives into identity, home, friendship and ideology. The strongest scenes are either dark and bordering on inhuman or incredibly light given the overall mood. There are some loose end story-lines (the Auteur) that may not be necessary but generally this is a tour-de-force of an anti-war novel from a perspective that is usually not heard.

this was a slog for me. didn’t love it, didn’t hate it, wouldn’t read it again. 

Emma

I genuinely don't know how to rate this book because I am honestly shaking in my boots as I am writing this. The amount of times this book has horrified me is too many to count. But I will say that it suceeded in presenting me a new perspective on the events that happened in those times. 

Mirror

Sonia Grgas

maryam

I have so many thoughts. Don't know how to compose them yet.

I must preface and say the timing of this read could have been better as I started off the year with something heavy, essentially. But WOW! Viet Thanh Nguyen…wow. I scribbled all over the book — so many stunning images and sentences, coming from someone who really focuses on that when reading fiction. Cerebral and revolutionary. 

olivia olsen

WOWWWWWWW

I must preface and say the timing of this read could have been better as I started off the year with something heavy, essentially. But WOW! Viet Thanh Nguyen…wow. I scribbled all over the book — so many stunning images and sentences, coming from someone who really focuses on that when reading fiction. Cerebral and revolutionary. 

Deepika Ramesh

** spoiler alert **
           Trigger warning: This post contains mentions of rape, sexual assault, and violence.

I finished reading ‘The Sympathizer’ this evening, and I am struggling to process the last couple of chapters. Before I talk about what bothered me, I would like to state for the record that I found the book enlightening, and this is my first ‘Vietnam War Novel’, which I learnt is a genre by itself. The book made me look up, and read more about the Vietnam War, the fall of Saigon, and the draconian acts committed by all sides. Perhaps, the narrator would agree with me for including the expression ‘...by all sides’. The book was what the synopsis promised. In parts, it was a comedy, and in many parts, it was a tragedy. The writing burned with the fire of creativity. Until I started reading the last few chapters, I almost had no complaints. But what bothered me almost at the end was how a rape was written.

Here is some context: the nameless narrator of the novel fought with the Auteur (a filmmaker in the novel) with all his soul, about the inclusion of a rape scene in the movie that was being made on the Vietnam War. I found myself rooting for the narrator because I thought he made a valid point about the way the rape was portrayed in the movie, and above all, he questioned the need to include such a scene in the first place for mere shock value. While the narrator was a man of questionable character, his question was the most reasonable. So, what shocked me was the author, who —through the narrator — reprimanded Hollywood for exploiting wars, and their portrayal of the oppressed, and the survivors, included a chapter at the end in which a Communist agent was raped. As an involved reader, I didn’t find that decision of this author’s very different from the Auteur’s. I was appalled even more by that chapter in which the rape was narrated from a man’s point of view, and it was not much different from how the rape scene was shot for the movie. The chapter and the scene were classic examples of men’s one-dimensional understanding of rape.

I read many reviews, but there wasn’t any mention about this particular chapter. So, I extended my search using a particular set of key words, and I stumbled upon this article. https://www.publicbooks.org/rememberi...

Here is an excerpt:
The interviewer: ‘The Sympathizer’ ends with a rape scene. What are the ethics of including rape as a plot point in a novel?

The author: The novel is divided into two parts: the first part is the farce, and the second part is the tragedy. The farce ends with the making of the movie in the Philippines, which includes a rape scene. It’s filmed during that time period, but it’s a delayed mechanism in the novel: we don’t get to see that until later, and it’s also a foreshadowing of what’s going to happen in the narrator’s own mind. I wanted to put the cinematic rape in there because those things happen in the American imagination of the war, and I find them very problematic.

This exposes me to a reasonable criticism: if you found it to be so problematic in Hollywood films, why did you replicate it in your novel, both in terms of depicting it cinematically and in the plot of your own novel, in the narrator’s story as well? That’s a very good question, and a very good criticism. I felt that I needed to include those scenes because of the character that I had constructed, and because of the spy narrative that I had chosen. The Sympathizer is a first-person narrative from the point of view of someone who is very masculine, very misogynistic, very sexist. From his point of view, there would be no way to depict something like this that would offer a critical take on the rape, so the reader just has to see it happen.

Why did it have to be rape? Could I have chosen something else? Two-thirds of the way through the novel, I realized who my narrator was. I liked him a lot, even though he was a complicated character. But I also had to understand that he was misogynistic and masculine, and that I was enjoying that as a writer, which made me question why I was enjoying that as a writer. I wanted to show that the misogyny and the sexism that he takes pleasure in, which some readers presumably also take pleasure in, exists on a spectrum.

At one extreme of that is going to be the most atrocious expression of masculinity and misogyny, which is sexual violence. He had to be confronted with that, I had to be confronted with that, and readers who took pleasure in the objectification of women that he participates in had to be confronted with that. Once I had made certain formal decisions—spy novel, first-person narration, masculine and misogynist narrator—a rape was, I felt, the logical conclusion. If I didn’t go there, I would be making a mistake, and if I did go there, I would be making a lot of people uncomfortable—but that is actually what they should feel.

End of excerpt. 

There are quite a few problems with the author’s view. My main problem though is the readers, who are misogynistic, sexist, and masculine would forget the rape just like the nameless narrator who had conveniently pushed the memory to the darkest part of his mind. Even after encountering such a cruel act, during his time in the USA, he continued to objectify women, including his quasi love-interest Sofia, and the General’s daughter Lana. Despite being a witness of a woman being dehumanised, the character arc proves that the nameless narrator didn’t change for the better. His resistance to not include the rape scene in the movie, now I realise, was his feeble effort to absolve himself of the guilt that he was harbouring, and not because he found the portrayal of women problematic. So, the author’s decision to include the rape at the end comes across as an element included for shock value, and that makes me sad. As a reader, as a woman, I place a lot of faith in politically sensitive authors like Viet Thanh Nguyen, but they continue to fail me when it comes to representation. Like the nameless narrator who failed to get the right representation for his people in the movie that the Auteur made, the author failed as well.

Cody Degen

Overwritten as all hell but really good nonetheless

THIS WAS SUCH A FKN GOOD BOOK!!! Blurs the lines of real events/times/places with a storyline that DELIVERS! Y’all need to read before this comes out on HBO, bc it’ll bc so fkn good. 

Kyra Cracchiola

Josh Warner

Prashanth Srivatsa

The Sympathizer packs its best punch in the dingy, suffocating interrogation chamber where the heart of revolution is laid bare. But Viet, in this unforgettable debut, builds up to that moment with equal bits funny and tragic moments. He casts a new light upon Vietnam, makes us grimace at the gritty, but admired Apolcalypse Now through satirical Hollywood sets, simplifies love, and gives us perspective on what it means for the people of a country to be driven out by their own. It's the anatomy of a revolution, of communists, and of those stuck between the two. And it's brilliant!

Siya S

This year I plan to read as many international authors (someone who aren't white American males), and I think this is a very good start for me, cause I've learned so much from this alternative perspective already. An amazing book that explore the subject of politics, cultures and identities. East vs. West, both in and outside the warridden Vietnam circa 1975 (the story begins around the time where The Fall of Saigon took place). 

I did think that the story was dragging....greatly actually. It took me a whole month to finish this book (man, that's long). But then again it spoke my mind on multiple occasions, especially when the narrator was analyzing his obscure identities caused by his multiracial background, so I guess it's worth the struggle. He talked about social expectation and belongingness. He was a man torn between two contrasting worlds, something in which I can sympathize with (haha) very much actually, though of course I wasn't born to a multiracial family or anything (but I'm a multiculturalist and a huge fan of anything related to cultures and a clash of cultures and so on). And then the story took him to explore in many aspects related to cultures and societies, something as simple as food and films, oh man, it was really an interesting read. 

I love the way the narrator criticized America and Vietnam with a great sense of black humor, as dark and bitter as Vietnamese coffee. He really does have his way with words. The book equipped a large amount of dead-panned sarcasm (the best kind), that shows horrific contrasts between left and right, east and west, rich and poor, yellow and red, and so on.

As a Thai, I love how this book helps me understand more about our neighbor country, what they've been through, what makes them the way they are. I always believe that we the Thais and the Vietnamese are so different from each other, like black and white, but this book has shown me otherwise, that in the end we are all the same, coming from the same Southeast Asian womb of the world. 

A great book for both orientals and occidentals and those who care about world history, politics and the making of a nation. Highly recommend.

Dweedle 

A wonderful look at the Vietnam war from all sides, where no one is really a hero.

Dana Kraft

The best part of this book for me is that it’s such a unique perspective that I haven’t heard or read before. I generally enjoyed the story and I liked that nothing is black and white. Everything and everyone is part good, part bad at different times and from different perspectives. I found that to be very realistic and believable. I can’t say I enjoyed the last third or so of the book. I don’t really care for torture scenes in books because the author always tries to pack too much “truth” into them. 

I liked the writing style and laughed out loud a good amount, but at times I got tired of all the metaphors - like I was reading a Dennis Miller rant.

Ethan Hill

I’m gonna need to stare at the wall for the next few hours

Fraser Simons

DNF 60% into it. I just can’t get into the voice. It’s so mechanical and monotonous. There’s some really great commentary and observations about America and western society, but this character is so dry and boring. Plot beats aren't even boring. It's just hard to care.

Obviously, I am massively in the minority, so I didn’t give it 1 star. Maybe it’s the narration, maybe it’s just my current mood. Who knows. Either way, I’m pretty sure it’s a case of it’s me, not the book, with the reviews I’m seeing.

B.H. Pitt

Charlie Beckerman

Frederik Van den Bril

Very funny and imaginative, both satire and thriller. What a ride! Thoroughly enjoyed it, and made me look at "Apocalypse Now" in an entirely new light. Looking forward to the HBO series directed by Park Chan-wook. 

Laura

I just finished it and Im thinking "wow it was really that good." I have got to be honest, I hated the first few chapters. But once I got into this book I was hooked. Because the story is told through the perspective of a spy in America it is able to give critiques of the United States that would be more difficult in other contexts. Overall the writing is very smart and wonderful. So thankful I got into this.

Ava Shaffer

i didnt really like this at all, mainly because it was sexist and i don’t like war books. also i had to read it for school. the beginning was better than the ending because the end got very jumbled and was hard for me to understand

Nguyen is a truly gifted writer, and this book reflects his talents. It develops like a slow-moving train, picking up steam as it goes, and not letting up until you've turned the last page. 

That's not to say it's action-packed. The first few hundred pages are filled with incredible nuance and an understanding of human frailty that underpins every decision. The macro and micro are intertwined in such a way (connected by that same frailty) that it reminds me of Tolstoy, in a way. 

I didn't know much about the Vietnam War before I picked this up. I didn't know much about the Vietnamese as a people, about Americanism viewed through an Oriental lens, about the specific cruelties of North Vietnamese communism. I know a fair deal more about those things now, and that's all I can really ask of a book.

Michael Hessling

Holy shit. This book was hard to read, but super rewarding. I wanna know who the hell thought it was a good idea to invade Vietnam.

Doan Tran Minh Thanh &
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

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