In 2015, a professor at the University of Southern California published his first novel called “The Sympathizer.” The story was a cerebral work of historical fiction and political satire cleverly infiltrated with cultural criticism. Although cloaked as a thriller, it didn’t fit neatly into that popular genre and could have slipped by as unnoticed as a good spy.Except that the author, Viet Thanh Nguyen, was too startlingly brilliant to ignore. “The Sympathizer” flushed color back into those iconi...

As with any war, the origins could be disputed. Was it their fault, whoever they were, because they had killed Sleepy? Was it my fault because I had nearly killed Beatles and Rolling Stones, who presumably belonged to the same gang as Sleepy’s killers? Was it their fault because they had attempted to rob me? Was it my fault because I had strayed out of my assigned place among the invisible Indochinese who never needed a visit from the Repressive State Apparatus, since we had learned to repres

“We were the unwanted, the unneeded, and the unseen, invisible to all but ourselves. Less than nothing, we also saw nothing as we crouched blindly in the unlit belly of our ark… Even among the unwanted there were unwanted, and at that, some of us could only laugh. The prostitutes scowled at us and said, What do you want? We, the unwanted, wanted so much. We wanted food, water, and parasols, although umbrellas could be fine. We wanted clean clothes, baths, and toilets, the squatting kind … “I am

I am a serious fan of Viet Thanh Nguyen: he is not merely a brilliant stylist and storyteller, he has an infallible moral compass. I savored every word of The Sympathizer and The Refugees, and I devoured The Committed. What makes him special is that -- rather like Colson Whitehead or Margaret Atwood or Ian McEwan -- he writes books that walk the tightrope between page turners and profoundly thoughtful books of ideas. The Committed is a perfect example of that: we have drug dealers, Paris, so muc...

A new book from the award-winning author of the The Sympathizer. Nguyen continues the story of the former Vietnamese soldier with no name who is now living in Paris with his blood brother Bon. As refugees, they hope France will be better to them than America was. After all France proclaims they believe in "liberty, equality, and fraternity...(but just not yet, at least for you.)" He is known to most in the immigrant community as 'the crazy bastard.' He IS crazy and he IS a bastard after all. He

The sequel to Pulitzer-winning The Sympathiser is a funny and thought-provoking read. We now see our unnamed protagonist in Paris among ex-pats and in-between identities. We meet many of these we recall from the first book and are treated to an acidic critique of the French and of Parisian society, even if there is a bit of love for the city of lights hidden in among the many violent and sad anecdotes. The discussion of post-colonization in Vietnam is fascinating and I also learned quite a bit o...

This is the second book in a series (admittedly I have not read the first book); however, I thought that I might enjoy this book based on the description: A former Vietnamese communist spy finds himself in Paris believing in nothing and resorting to drug dealing.This book fell flat and disconnected, soulless. It was similar to reading Nick - the main character observing without any feelings - and also the chaos and disorganization of Catch-22. Most of the time, I didn't know where the novel was

3 stars for a book that is overloaded with the tortured mind of a Vietnamese spy now in France. I decided to read this book because i had read and enjoyed 2 books previously by this author. The steam of consciousness writing, with an emphasis on the ideas of various philosophers is at times confusing and too much information. That, plus depictions of torture, detracted from the enjoyment of the book.On the plus side, there is some interesting commentary from the Vietnamese point of view on Ameri...

In the follow-up to his Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Sympathizer, Nguyen further follows the story of a Vietnamese refugee (who now claims the name in his passport is Vo Danh - but this only means "anonymous" in Vietnamese). Short recap: The protagonist fled Saigon during the 1975 spring offensive, used to live as a spy in the US trying to infiltrate Hollywood, ended up in a Vietnamese re-education camp where he, a communist, was tortured by his own allies, then spend time in an Indonesian r...

Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer was simply a stunning book, focusing on the absurdity of Saigon in the mid-70s from the perspective of an unnamed Vietnamese national. Our Sympathizer is blessed with the curse of sympathizing with conflicting perspectives, often uncovering the preening and pretentiousness of those involved. I read it with awe and couldn’t wait to be a first reader of its sequel.The Committed follows the dual agent, half-French Sympathizer as he arrives in Paris in the early 8...

3.5, rounded up. A sequel to Nguyen's Pulitzer-prize-winning The Sympathizer, with which it shares some of the same strengths and weaknesses. Instead of scathingly satirizing American exceptionalism and the unintended blowback from the Vietnam War, he pulls apart the scars of French colonialism in Vietnam and Algeria.In The Committed, the Sympathizer, aka Crazy Bastard, aka Vo Danh, has survived a Viet Cong reeducation camp, a harrowing experience as a Boat Person, and an Indonesian refugee camp...

DNF“Behind the register was the maître d’ and musical curator, Le Cao Boi, who, from looks to manners, was the typical romantic Vietnamese man: part poet, part playboy, and part gangster.”I enjoyed The Sympathizer, which precedes this and won the Pulitzer Prize in 2016, but I have slowed to a standstill at 39% in this one. Like ‘Le Cao Boi’, this seems to be made up of many parts, but mostly it's political, and it wore me out. I enjoy sarcasm and satire and humour, and there's plenty of that, to...

This book would make a great Tarantino film, horrifyingly humorous, with an intellectual edge. It's every bit as terrific as The Sympathizer, which should be read first. I read TS six years ago and my book memory isn’t great, but it all came back as I read this one. The protagonist/narrator is an existentially shattered Vietnamese double agent, released from a re-education camp in Vietnam and now a low-level, drug-dealing gangster in Paris. He’s a man of ill-fitting parts - a reluctant killer, a...

”We were the unwanted, the unneeded, and the unseen, invisible to all but ourselves. Less than nothing, we also saw nothing as we crouched blindly in the unlit belly of our ark. . . Even among the unwanted there were unwanted, and at that some of us could only laugh.”. Reading Viet Thank Nguyen’s The Committed brings to mind multi-layered Matryoshka dolls and the iconic scene in Orson Welles 1947 noir, Lady from Shanghai, with Rita Hayworth and Everett Sloane shooting at each other in a hall of

The Committed is the sequel to The Sympathizer and follows our nameless antihero who is no longer a spy as he stumbles into Paris and a life of drugs, crime, gangs, and politics. "We were the unwelcome, the unwanted, the ignored, invisible to anyone but ourselves": this is how this work begins. The protagonist of the new novel is still the young Captain of the South Vietnamese army who, in the "Sympathizer", after the fall of Saigon in 1975, flees to the United States and, unbeknownst to his fri...

As far as I’m concerned Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer is one of the most consequential American novels of the last quarter century. In terms of giving voice to a generally unspoken American ethnic experience, and in terms of translating theory into compelling and humorous narrative, it comes close to the surpassing excellence of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. We’re going to need another three or four decades to be sure, but it has a chance to stand as one of the major works of the century....

I read this right after reading The Sympathizer so I was still riding that high and I wanted to continue on with the Captain who is now a Crazy Bastard or just simply rather crazy.This one is a mix of crazy action and long philosophical asides. I must admit that I got rather lost in the 'asides' as Nguyen was in a dialogue with philosophies, ideologies, which I am not on point with so I could not really join into that dialogue.If I had a wish for this book it would be that I wished for a better

He's a half-breed. The son of a French priest and a Vietnamese girl. If a fourteen-year-old can be called that. It is believed that everything ripens faster in a hot climate. But you can look at things from the other side - no one has canceled the cravings of big white men for lolitas from Southeast Asia. He's a bastard. Because he was born out of wedlock. He has a naturally tenacious mind, which he developed without sparing time and effort. Because only by betting on education can you break out...