Reviews

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

pjcsantana's review against another edition

dark informative reflective medium-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

4.0

ritaralha's review against another edition

1.0

DNF - página 51

Não consegui entrar na história, e as personagens não ajudaram nada.


24/198 - Vietname

kaz9's review against another edition

4.0

I closed the book and thought, "Wow! That was impressive and deserving of a Pulitzer." This is a book about the Vietnam War and its aftermath from the perspective of a Vietnamese man - a perspective we certainly haven't had enough of in the media in general. The narrator is "a man of two minds." He is half Vietnamese and half French, so he has never felt truly at home, even in the country of his birth. He is a sympathizer - in the political sense - with the Communist cause, and he's being run as a double agent and therefore living in close relationship with members of the South Vietnamese resistance who have fled to the US after the fall of Saigon. So he lives a double life on the outside, and because of his relationships with the South Vietnamese and his experience of life in the U.S., he is also a man of divided sympathies on the inside. So it is a novel about a spy with action, murder, and intrigue; it is a novel about a refugee's experience in a new land; it is a satire of Hollywood - because the narrator spends time advising a famous director on the set of a film about Vietnam; it has echoes of Catch 22 in its funny, irreverent tone and its sense of futility of societal systems; and finally, it is a book about all of our attempts to become whole - our attempts to know ourselves and know our own minds.

katherinethegreat's review against another edition

5.0

Unlike any book I’ve read before. The prose was interestingly structured and it’s pretty dense. But within that there is a first-person narrative of a war I haven’t much learned about - and it’s a great story. Highly recommend. 

aidanhotte's review against another edition

medium-paced

4.75

mmaier40's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny tense medium-paced

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

4.25

gjwyatt's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

3.0

dmsehnert's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful reflective 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? Yes

5.0

what’s more precious than freedom and independence? 

love? happiness? 

nothing. but what is nothing? is it tangible? can it take up space in the recess of our minds? you did nothing.
how do we reconcile with that? what would you confess? maybe these are questions only a man with two faces and a man of two minds can answer. 

revolutions are, simply put, deeply complex.  

“what do those who struggle against power do when they seize power?” 
 
perhaps, they sit and remember. the pen and paper as their lonely companions down an old, yet familiar road. maybe they live to fight another day despite it all?

there were so many incredible sections of this novel but i have to everything relating to  the auteur and the set of the hamlet blew me away - incredible allusions to apocalypse now and francis ford coppola! americans love to tell other people their own stories, play out their bloodshed on a big, shiny screen while maintaining their own fraudulent heroism.

viet thanh nguyen, you are a genius! i am merely your student! 

peytonnora's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

rosasreads's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

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

4.75