#74
Title: The Sympathizer
Author: Viet Thanh Nguyen
Genre: Fiction
Rating: B
Published:
2015
Dates: 10/11/16 – 11/14/16
Pages:
393
Winner
of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2016 Nguyen is also the recipient of many other
awards including the Edgar Award for Best First Novel. Based upon the awesomeness of the Vietnam War
Nguyen takes us into the depths of human and inhuman existence. While this award winning author was born in
Viet Nam he grew up in Los Angeles, California and had to decide whether to
embrace his Asian roots or his adopted country.
He chose the US. Each sentence is
one you’ve never read before. There is
no need to punctuate dialogue because the words are so riveting. Some characters have names – Man, Bon, Claude
and Violet – others are the crapulent major, the Auteur, the Congressman, the
baby faced guard and others. Our unnamed
protagonist is a double agent, and you’ll forget you’re reading fiction from
the fall of Saigon to the chilling nightmare of the courageous boat people.
Some
are calling this novel “extraordinary,” “a page-turner ...”, “an optic tilt
about Vietnam and what America did there as profound as Ralph Ellison’s
Invisible Man and Toni Morrison’s Beloved were to the legacy of racism and
slavery.”
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