The Sympathizer

A Novel

By: Viet Thanh Nguyen

Narrated by: Francois Chau

Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

Pulitzer Prize, Fiction, 2016

A profound, startling, and beautifully crafted debut novel, The Sympathizer is the story of a man of two minds, someone whose political beliefs clash with his individual loyalties.

It is April 1975, and Saigon is in chaos. At his villa, a general of the South Vietnamese army is drinking whiskey and, with the help of his trusted captain, drawing up a list of those who will be given passage aboard the last flights out of the country. The general and his compatriots start a new life in Los Angeles, unaware that one among their number, the captain, is secretly observing and reporting on the group to a higher-up in the Viet Cong.

The Sympathizer is the story of this captain: a man brought up by an absent French father and a poor Vietnamese mother, a man who went to university in America, but returned to Vietnam to fight for the Communist cause. A gripping spy novel, an astute exploration of extreme politics, and a moving love story, The Sympathizer explores a life between two worlds and examines the legacy of the Vietnam War in literature, film, and the wars we fight today.

©2015 Viet Thanh Nguyen. Recorded by arrangement with Grove Atlantic, Inc. (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

A WORLD CITIZEN

“The Sympathizer” defines the idea of a world citizen. It is the first novel of Viet Thanh Nguyen. In the beginning, “The Sympathizer” seems like another version of a war Americans would like to forget. Chugging through the story one is nearly derailed but the denouement spectacularly realigns a listener’s direction and destination.

As is widely acknowledged, America’s abandonment of Vietnam in 1973 left thousands of South Vietnamese soldiers in peril. In 1975, the last American marine leaves the roof of the American Embassy in Saigon. Nguyen’s novel begins with hard decisions made by South Vietnamese commanders to identify native supporters, and their families, who would or would not be saved by military transport to America. Nguyen’s main fictional character is chosen to be one of the lucky evacuees. The irony of that selection is that he is a communist sympathizer, a spy.

While many escaped death from America’s abandonment of South Vietnam, the communist friend who stayed is severely wounded from an American napalm attack. His experience in recovery from the severe wounds, and life under communist rule appears to have taught him an indelible lesson. That indelible lesson is what the sympathizer has forgotten to remember.

The communist friend asks the sympathizer what is most important about being either a citizen of America or of Vietnam. After many days of sleep deprivation, the sympathizer says it is freedom and independence. Wrong says the friend. After more sleepless days and nights, the sympathizer says death. This is progress says his friend but wrong again. Finally, after more wakeful nights, the sympathizer answers the question correctly. The answer is a seven letter word–nothing. The answer cuts through nationalist political ideology. The inference is that all people are subject to the sins of being human. People are citizens of the world; not of any one nation. Death may be an escape from the chains of nationalism but believing in nothing offers opportunity to live.

powerful novel

The language portays the mind's inner life with a vivid intensity. The story forces the reader to examine and distrust the layers upon layers of personna, both false and merely partial, under which we all exist day to day. Our personal relationship with and response to power and authority is exposed and turned over for scrutiny. The narration with its minimal inflection and slight rasp a perfect depiction of a soul ripped inside out, shredded and returned to a scarred shell of normalacy. This book merits a second read.

If you like Hollywood blood and gore

Would you try another book from Viet Thanh Nguyen and/or Francois Chau?

I bought this book and it's sequel, The Orphan Master's Son, mainly because the author had won a Pulitzer prize and it represented the Vietnam war from a Vietnamese perspective. As is true of several of my friends who bought it for the same reasons, I (and they) had to force myself to read beyond the first half (and could not bear to go to Part II of The Orphan Master's Son, I quit after Part 1).Wars are horrific, cruel and show the beastly killing instinct of man. But Hollywood -- and these two books -- like to dwell and portray in vivid relief the most gory, bloody, despicable things that man can do to man, it sells!Do we need this? Do we not already live in a violent world in which we as individuals can do little to change it? Do we need to know how to torture, disembowel and tear people into pieces? Hollywood plays on people's desires for blood and guts, so do these books.Beyond the very detailed and vivid descriptions of torture and murder lie a tormented personality, anguished and conflicted. This book is as much about the author as about the Vietnam war. The only saving grace is that we do get to see a glimpse -- just a glimpse -- of the loving and gentle nature of the Vietnamese people about whom the West knows little and who truthfully have been the victims of invasion and useless bloodshed without meaning.Would I buy more books with this kind of graphic description, NO!

If you’ve listened to books by Viet Thanh Nguyen before, how does this one compare?

I have even less kind words to say about The Orphan Master's son.

What about Francois Chau’s performance did you like?

The delivery was good.

Could you see The Sympathizer being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

I hope not but as it is the blood and gore that is typical of Hollywood, it probably will become a movie.

Vietnam and human consciousness.

Viet Thanh Nguyen poetically shows how the US genocide in Vietnam marked a turning point in the human story. Global Consciousness was altered, great novel.

Heartbreakingly Real

What did you love best about The Sympathizer?

I found myself being quickly drawn into the predicament of the main character who leads us further and further into his heartbreaking experiences during the Vietnam War. Though we never really meet his mother, she plays an important role in shaping the main character's conflicting views of the west's hypocrisy and the asian dilemma in confronting western ideology. The double agent is the illegitimate son of a Vietnamese mother who sacrificed everything for his wellbeing, and a caucasian Catholic priest who rejected and humiliated him as a child. He is intelligent and committed to a cause which may ultimately lead to his demise. This powerful drama allows the reader an opportunity to examine the consequences of the War in Vietnam from the perspective of people who strongly supported the Viet Cong as well as their various motivations for doing so.

The futility of ideological warfare.

A first person experience of the "banality of evil". Well written and well presented, we can't help identifying with the protagonist as a human trying to make sense of the world, even as he takes us down a disastrous path.

Compelling political novel of Vietnam experience.

Well-written, engrossing novel about a North Vietnamese spy under deep cover in the South. His role takes him to the US during the fall of Saigon and back to Vietnam. His life is a metaphor for Vietnam's relations with exploitative nations in the 20th century. Enjoyed it greatly, although the book really dragged when the Sympathizer returns to Vietnam.

A writer's writer

Perhaps the best example of perfect prose I have yet come across. Although the sentences are not short, they contain no unnecessary words or digressions. Although the ideas are not simple, they are easy to grasp for anyone with an interest in the humanities. The concept of Liberation, in particular, acquires new meaning in this book when it is portrayed as propaganda used by all the string-pullers. The Vietnam war has stories to tell from many sides, particularly in the aftermath, and this book does so with a refreshing blend of kindness and cynicism.

magnificent

The writing is rich, artful, and playful. Jumping between withering sarcasm to visceral scenes to philosophical pondering with elegance and grace. This is a brilliant work of decolonization literature and so much more.

So very good in every way

Having lived in southern California during and after the Vietnam War, this book really resonated with me. Everything about this book is just excellent, including the narration.