A review by fkshg8465
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious reflective slow-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

4.5

Finally a book about the Vietnam War by a Vietnamese person. Took a while to finish this. Wanted to savor it but also, it was a lot to digest. Strongly recommend reading the op-ed and Q&A at the end too. Gives me a much greater in depth insight into the book by setting it from the author’s perspective.

PS, have a dictionary handy. There were a LOT of SAT words!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, War, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Gun violence, Sexism, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Trafficking, Medical trauma, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Religious bigotry