Viet Thanh Nguyen's 'The Sympathizer' is a rather original take on the phenomenon of the 'boat people' : Vietnamese refugees who fled their homeland following the victory of Hanoi over the South Vietnamese and their American allies in 1975. The author is a master of political satire by employing a first person narrator who is a Eurasian refugee in the United States-- and a double agent as well. This ingenious character identity allows the author the opportunity to convey a hilarious form of self-deprecation at the expense of the character's Asian as well as Western origins. Whether it be the
depiction of defeated officers trying to recreate a sort of Vietnamese paradise in California or a certain American film maker deciding to content himself with the Philippines to 'duplicate' the Vietnamese locale for a gory war film, Viet Thanh Nguyen is never afraid of throwing a few barbs at either his country of origin or of salvation. An amusing yet thought provoking novel never afraid to offend.
On the outside looking in
Viet Thanh Nguyen's 'The Sympathizer' is a rather original take on the phenomenon of the 'boat people' : Vietnamese refugees who fled their homeland following the victory of Hanoi over the South Vietnamese and their American allies in 1975. The author is a master of political satire by employing a first person narrator who is a Eurasian refugee in the United States-- and a double agent as well. This ingenious character identity allows the author the opportunity to convey a hilarious form of self-deprecation at the expense of the character's Asian as well as Western origins. Whether it be the depiction of defeated officers trying to recreate a sort of Vietnamese paradise in California or a certain American film maker deciding to content himself with the Philippines to 'duplicate' the Vietnamese locale for a gory war film, Viet Thanh Nguyen is never afraid of throwing a few barbs at either his country of origin or of salvation. An amusing yet thought provoking novel never afraid to offend.