The Sympathizer

A Novel

paperback, 384 pages

English language

Published July 10, 2016 by Grove Press.

ISBN:
978-0-8021-2494-4
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4 stars (28 reviews)

The Sympathizer is the 2015 debut novel by Vietnamese American professor Viet Thanh Nguyen. It is a best-selling novel and recipient of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Its reviews have generally recognized its excellence, and it was named a New York Times Editor's Choice.The novel fits the expectations of a number of different novel genres: immigrant, mystery, political, metafiction, dark comedic, historical, spy, and war. The story depicts the anonymous narrator, a North Vietnamese mole in the South Vietnamese army, who stays embedded in a South Vietnamese community in exile in the United States. While in the United States, the narrator describes being an expatriate and a cultural advisor on the filming of an American film, closely resembling Platoon and Apocalypse Now, before returning to Vietnam as part of a guerrilla raid against the communists. The dual identity of the narrator, as a mole and immigrant, and the Americanization …

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Review of 'The Sympathizer' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Nothing!

I so wanted that word, perhaps repeated a few times, to be my whole review--the word that torture enlightens us to because when faced with it we just want everything to go away. Still, consciousness is the problem and nothingness the solution and a sympathizer, especially one who is educated and intelligent has way too much consciousness, suffering not only for himself but for others, the objects of his sympathy. Instead he is repeatedly forced to choose sides and sometimes kill those he sympathizes with, or at the very least doing nothing to stop those on his side from doing so.

The secret of fighting a war is to be unsympathetic. Ideology needs to replace sympathy; the ideology of people who are like you. Unfortunately, no one is like the Captain, the confessor, the bastard, the unnamed narrator. He fits in nowhere, he is accepted by no one. This …

Review of 'The Sympathizer' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

A beautifully written work of art with thought-provoking symbolism and complex characters awaits those of you who choose to pick this one up. It is many stories, tragic ones, told from a point of view that I haven't experienced before. Nguyen inserts humor into some of his descriptions that acted as comic relief for me, and just when I thought the plot would get slower, along comes a bombshell...

The Sympathizer is both a captivating and challenging read. I recommend it.

Review of 'The Sympathizer' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Five full stars.

Why?

Because it contains great writing.
Because it tells an epic story.
Because it sheds light on Vietnam, which was never clear to me.
Because it holds ALL players equally guilty.
Because Americans are generally too high-minded to accept responsibility.
Because it is about the inhumanity of humanity.
Because it gives a perspective that allows us, (everyone), to better understand ourselves.
Because it is important.

Review of 'The Sympathizer' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

The Hegelian concept that no conflict is ever right against wrong, but right against right, is a mainstay of any freshman philosophy class, and maybe 19-year-old me would have had my mind blown by this novel. As it was, it came across as an overlong explanation of the point that any view can be right or wrong depending on the way you frame it, and the ability to sympathize with individuals on either side is the key to seeing both viewpoints. If this point had been the basis of a more interesting plot -- it REALLY dragged in the middle -- or characters I actually cared about, maybe I would have liked it better. The story up until they leave Saigon is fascinating, and setting the novel entirely in Vietnam would have been a better choice. I also found the prose and lack of quotation marks (yes, I know that's …

Review of 'The Sympathizer' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

A page-turner that manages to fit a political thriller, a unique perspective on 1970s post-war L.A./Thai/Vietnamese history, and a clear-eyed critique of one of cinema's landmark movies into one book. If you grew up in Los Angeles in the 1970s as I did, this book will provide some very valuable perspective into the Vietnamese-American experience.

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