The Sympathizer

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

“Here, we can dream of anything, can’t we, ladies and gentlemen? I will tell you what my American Dream is, he said, holding the microphone with the care one reserved for a stick of dynamite. My American Dream is to see once more, before I die, the land where I was born, to taste once more the ripe persimmons from the tree of my family’s garden in Tay Ninh. My American Dream is to return home so I can light incense at the tomb of my grandparents, to roam that beautiful country of ours when it is at last peaceful and the sound of guns cannot be heard over the shouts of joy…” (227)

The written confession of a man of two minds makes up the lion’s share of this engrossing novel which, appropriately, can be read on two levels. First, there is a thrilling story of espionage and romance, as the nameless narrator describes his life as double agent during the Vietnam War: assigned to a group of high-ranking Republic of Vietnam officials, he only narrowly escapes a liberated/fallen Saigon and thereafter reports back his observations in careful code to Viet Cong comrades still in Vietnam. Then, there is the novel’s philosophical level, which employs deftly crafted allegory and provocative metaphors to interrogate Western hegemony, Orientalism, capitalism, communism, and all parties involved in the Vietnam War through storylines including the creation of an Apocalypse Now-esque movie and reeducation in a communist prison camp. As agonizing as it is amusing, as condemning as it is—well—sympathetic, The Sympathizer is expansive, funny, heartbreaking, and profound. Subjects this book includes that some readers may be sensitive to: death, murder, rape, gang rape, torture, war, displacement.