Reviews

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

dffloyd98's review

Just couldn’t going with it

ellenelly's review

dark emotional funny informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

jeff_clutterbuck's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

bleapbo's review against another edition

2.0

I think it was ok. An good start, interesting view of the Vietnam war. Not much more than that.

ctdang27's review

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

catfishmaggie's review

challenging dark funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

jorydotcom's review

dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

cyborgforty's review

4.0

I picked up this book because it has long been on my TBR (required reading as a Vietnamese American, right?) and plus, the show was coming out so now's a better time than ever. I'm really glad I waited to read it now rather than read it while I was in high school. The prose is dense but gripping. AP English Lit type shit. It gave me Invisible Man vibes right off the bat, and then I remembered what VTN named his son. I will say the war scenes made my eyes glaze over, which is the only reason I'm docking a star. The Sympathizer's style is better suited for character and reflection than for physical action, and while the war scenes were certainly necessary considering the context of the story, I was slow both to get into and finish the book because of it.

emilynkg's review

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

cassreading's review

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was wonderfully and thoughtfully written. It has so much to say about the Vietnam war, American imperialism, racism, the American Dream™, politics, language, representation. It's incredibly ambitious, and yet I think it manages to do what it wants well for the most part.

The ending was brutal to read (read TW). It definitely shows the brutality of war, the limits of sympathy, but I still feel unsure about it, and about the book's representation of women as a whole. Still working through that mentally.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Suicide attempt, Racial slurs, Rape, Racism, Suicide, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, and War