The Sympathizer

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Reviewed by Jack
📕📒📗📘

Darkly comic and deeply moving The Sympathizer, Viet Thanh Nguyen debut novel, is a blistering exploration of war, human nature and what it is to see the world from the outside. All we know at the outset is that he is a Viet Cong sleeper agent sent to the USA to report back to the new Vietnamese regime.

Although it took me a while to get used to the authors style (I realized how long it has been since I read a book written in first person) the drama, intrigue and suspense of the novel will not let you put it down; from the blood soaked exit from Saigon to the duplicitous, murderous life in California to his ultimate return to his homeland this is a book that grips you in a vice and doesn’t let go. Left me in fits of laughter (many a strange look while reading in public), weeping and disgusted all rolled in to one. Not the easiest read but
essential nonetheless.