A review by mikkiokko
A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, a History, a Memorial by Viet Thanh Nguyen

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

Wow! Wow! Wow!

A Man of Two Faces is a memoir, but also a massive recounting, analysis, and critic of Nguyen's life, his mother's life, his family's life & history, the author's experience with trying to become a writer, and America's history & colonialism. This book is of average length at 354 pages, but packs in so much more than you would ever expect without being convoluted. A Man of Two Faces made me happy, mad, think, analyze, cry, and laugh. It is a book that has an important conversation and confrontation for everyone around the world to participate in, and it truly treats the reader as a participant with the 2nd person narration. The structure of this book is unconventional, but it is pulled off masterfully by Nguyen. For how much it captures it easily drops the reader into what I think is the point of the book; which is to share and understand each other's grief. What a wonderful piece of work!

(p.s there are many great mentions of other's work in this book that I cannot wait to read!)