10-15-2023, 02:23 PM
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
A view of the Vietnam war from a Viet Cong mole embedded with the Southern Vietnam military command. The novel starts right as the Vietnam war ends as the Southern leadership escapes with our friend the spy and they head to Los Angeles where the Vietnamese refugees plot their return to Vietnam. All the while the spy keeps spying and filing reports home.
Ultimately it's a sad tale as our spy, who is a half-Vietnamese and half European, struggles to fit but ultimately cannot because of his mixed blood. The situations everyone finds themselves in are all desperate. Eventually, the spy goes back to Vietnam with a group aiming to overthrow the new government. The group is quickly captured and sent to a reeducation camp.
I'm still trying to figure out the point of this story, especially some of the stuff towards the end. It becomes very metaphysical and I couldn't quite parse it. But better minds than did award this book the Pulitzer for fiction back in 2016
A view of the Vietnam war from a Viet Cong mole embedded with the Southern Vietnam military command. The novel starts right as the Vietnam war ends as the Southern leadership escapes with our friend the spy and they head to Los Angeles where the Vietnamese refugees plot their return to Vietnam. All the while the spy keeps spying and filing reports home.
Ultimately it's a sad tale as our spy, who is a half-Vietnamese and half European, struggles to fit but ultimately cannot because of his mixed blood. The situations everyone finds themselves in are all desperate. Eventually, the spy goes back to Vietnam with a group aiming to overthrow the new government. The group is quickly captured and sent to a reeducation camp.
I'm still trying to figure out the point of this story, especially some of the stuff towards the end. It becomes very metaphysical and I couldn't quite parse it. But better minds than did award this book the Pulitzer for fiction back in 2016
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm