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4.46 AVERAGE
4.46 AVERAGE
more than anything, nguyen is a deeply talented writer. i struggle to rate how i feel about memoirs since they're so personal, but i struggled at times with his narrative. it could get a little repetitive and i wasn't (personally) always a fan of his political analysis. it's not fair to him necessarily, but i'm just so sick of hearing some attempt at a novel interpretation of donald trump, it's been 8 years now. anyway, still a good and compelling memoir, my own biases are my critiques here :)
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen, known for his novel The Sympathizer, brings forth his personal narrative in A Man of Two Faces. His memoir delves into his journey as a Vietnamese refugee, exploring the intricacies of identity, memory, and belonging. Nguyen’s story starts at age four, when he and his family fled Vietnam and sought refuge in the United States.
This book isn’t your typical coming-of-age memoir. Instead, it reads more like a diatribe or a history lesson, packed with intense political commentary that some may find offensive. Nguyen doesn’t hold back in his scathing criticism of the United States and its people.
Nguyen wrote portions of the book in the second-person narrative, an unusual choice that adds to its unique style.
His dark wit shines through with lines such as “The communist school of Berkeley.” But his portrayal of anti-Asian racism, while upsetting and eye-opening, often crosses into what feels like bitterness against Caucasians. His constant grievances about Whites, America, and Western culture became repetitive and tiresome.
There are many moments of interest, such as his references to lesser-known historical events, including a 1989 school shooting. However, his mention of George Floyd seemed out of place, unrelated to his personal story.
On a positive note, Nguyen’s openness about his life as a father and son provides a refreshing contrast to the book’s heavier themes. He has had much success as a professor and author, and it would have been nice to see more of positivity about his life.
Ultimately, A Man of Two Faces left me feeling uncomfortable and wasn’t to my taste. It may appeal to those interested in a deeply political and critical perspective, but it didn’t resonate with me. I give it 2 stars.
** Thanks to the publisher for a complimentary review copy. The opinions are my own.
This book isn’t your typical coming-of-age memoir. Instead, it reads more like a diatribe or a history lesson, packed with intense political commentary that some may find offensive. Nguyen doesn’t hold back in his scathing criticism of the United States and its people.
Nguyen wrote portions of the book in the second-person narrative, an unusual choice that adds to its unique style.
His dark wit shines through with lines such as “The communist school of Berkeley.” But his portrayal of anti-Asian racism, while upsetting and eye-opening, often crosses into what feels like bitterness against Caucasians. His constant grievances about Whites, America, and Western culture became repetitive and tiresome.
There are many moments of interest, such as his references to lesser-known historical events, including a 1989 school shooting. However, his mention of George Floyd seemed out of place, unrelated to his personal story.
On a positive note, Nguyen’s openness about his life as a father and son provides a refreshing contrast to the book’s heavier themes. He has had much success as a professor and author, and it would have been nice to see more of positivity about his life.
Ultimately, A Man of Two Faces left me feeling uncomfortable and wasn’t to my taste. It may appeal to those interested in a deeply political and critical perspective, but it didn’t resonate with me. I give it 2 stars.
** Thanks to the publisher for a complimentary review copy. The opinions are my own.
emotional
inspiring
reflective
Read while in/leaving Vietnam. I could not tear myself away. Nguyen writes with beautiful and evocative prose. The way he wove his memories together and tied it into a commentary on American society and Asian/Asian-American culture: I was confronted with a lot of my own thoughts about my experience, and the factors at play in forming them. The part about losing your mother tongue interwoven with his memories of his mother made me cry on the plane from Hanoi to Beijing. I could feel the love that he holds for both of his parents. Good insights and recs for reading material on decolonization, explicit leftist perspectives - can't ask for much more from a book.
challenging
informative
medium-paced
I loved the second-person tense used for most of this memoir. His style of moving around and integrating his life story with the history of immigration/refugees from vietnam to the US and the larger political landscapes as well as social ones. This was informative and kept me challenged and was eye-opening. It felt both like it was addressing a big topic and also like it was really personal at the same time.
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Gun violence, War
Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. As Nguyen’s prose reads almost like free-form poetry, he not only speaks of his own upbringing and his parents, but he uses his and their lives as the springboard to reflect upon numerous topics, including what it means to be a minority in America, to be Asian in America, a refugee, colonialism, racism, imperialism, and the so-called American Dream™. This ended up taking longer than expected, because I found myself pausing over and over to either chew upon one of his many ferociously sharp observations, or just to mull over Nguyen's powerful wording as a phrase leapt out at me as if spring-loaded by its clever construction.
Genuinely not like any biography that I’ve read yet, and I say that in the best way possible. I’ll definitely be recommending this left and right to both those who have and haven’t read his Pulitzer prize-winning The Sympathizer alike. I also hope to get this right into the t-purchase list of my library as soon as possible.
Genuinely not like any biography that I’ve read yet, and I say that in the best way possible. I’ll definitely be recommending this left and right to both those who have and haven’t read his Pulitzer prize-winning The Sympathizer alike. I also hope to get this right into the t-purchase list of my library as soon as possible.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Memoir of a Vietnamese American writer (need to read the Sympathizer, wish I started there) - loved the poignancy of his family’s story and the socio-political commentary on America(tm), refugee identity, and the Vietnam war. Learned a lot and connected with a lot as an immigrant (not a refugee though).
At this point, if I finish a book, I think it’s pretty great. I relate to a lot to Nguyen’s thought processes despite how disjointed a lot of the chapters feel.
“Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, your inconsistent self likes to tell itself.”
I concur.
“Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, your inconsistent self likes to tell itself.”
I concur.
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
I found the style of this book hard to follow. Good insights, particularly about the impacts of colonialism on both the community and individual but I found this book hard to get through. The last 1/3 of the book was easier to follow; first 2/3 were a bit of a slog.
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced