The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Book Review
Well, I can see why this won a Pulitzer… such a unique and fascinating read!
This book came out in 2015, but I’m so glad I read it when I did. The parallels between the first few chapters and current events were truly uncanny.
While the Sympathizer is a work of fiction, its historical and political commentary is quite masterful. Beginning in 1975 at the tail-end of the Vietnam War (or the American War, as the Vietnamese refer to it), the book opens with our narrator and his “allies” fleeing to the airport in hopes of escaping Vietnam as Saigon falls to communist rule. After surviving numerous bombings at the airport and successfully fleeing to the United Sates aboard one of the last flights out of the county, our narrator - a communist spy serving as a captain in the South Vietnamese army - starts a new life in Los Angeles. Far from home, our protagonist is tasked with keeping an eye on the resistance as he maintains relationships with his fellow South Vietnamese refugees and reports back to the Viet Cong…. because “wars never die, they just go to sleep.”
I’ve read several Pulitzer Prize winning books that I enjoyed but didn’t necessarily feel were worthy of the most prestigious literary award. However, The Sympathizer deserves all the high praise. Not only does the book shed incredible light on the legacy of the Vietnam War in literature, media and politics, but it’s laced with humor and self-deprecating satire as well as difficult-to-read historical evidence that proves no party is ever innocent in war.
One of the most interesting parts of the book, for me at least, was the reflection on the US involvement in (and sudden withdrawal from) the Vietnam War. The author, a Vietnamese American, leaves no party unscathed in his critique on the war and American culture.
“After all, nothing was more American than wielding a gun and committing oneself to die for freedom and independence, unless it was wielding that gun to take away someone else’s freedom and independence.”
If you are remotely interested in history, politics, international relations and/or just excellent literature, this is a must read!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/5
TW: War, death of a loved one, torture, murder, rape, racism, xenophobia
