"The Committed" by Viet Thanh Nguyen "2021"

The Committed is the second book of the series of The Sympathizer. It picks up where we left the protagonist, Vo Danh (nameless), in the first book on his way to Paris as he and his blood brother, Bon, attempted to flee the now communist Vietnam in search of a life in the land of his father. 

By far, this is my most maimed book; marks and notes are all over it. Luckily, it's a digital copy. Anyway. This book is dense and juicy, oozing with big ideas. If I could, I would've highlighted the whole thing.

The Committed is different from The Sympathizer when it comes to the purpose of the main guy. In the first book, he is a spy with a broad mission to inform on any insurgencies by the American-backed-up South Vietnamese in America. In this book, he's no longer tied to anything. He roams the world wherever the wind stirs him. He's purposeless in a meaningless world.

The protagonist is on a relentless hunt for the truth, principles, for idealism, for something to rely on that is inherently good and solid and unchanging, for consistency. That's why he keeps shifting and changing his beliefs over and over: from catholicism to atheism (because, perhaps, of his pedophilic father who neglected and disavowed him), from communism to a capitalist drug dealer (because of the Viet Cong's reeducation program). So he's an ex-theist, ex-commie, ex-mole, ex-something. The guy, according to Juan Cortez from Far Cry 6, 'got more ex's than anyone's porn search history.' 

Throughout the book, Vo Danh isn't anywhere near satisfaction. And it's quite normal because what he's looking for is something akin to a fairy tale, a holy grail, a fountain of youth sort of a pursuit, because it's ideal, and everything ideal is prone to corruption. There's no black and white. "Corruption is a way of life... That’s how the world spins, gives us night and day." He believed in revolution and communism because "capitalism has become the worst version." i.e. it became corrupt. And when the heavy price was paid for the revolution to succeed, he was shocked to see what he's been fighting for turn into what he's fighting all along. "three million people dead for this revolution? We had simply traded one Repressive State Apparatus for another one, and the only difference was that it was our own."

The moral of the story: do not draw a halo on anyone or anything and idolize it because 'nothing is sacred! Everything can be transgressed'.

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Summary:

There's a saying that goes 'If you don't want to offend anyone, don't talk about either politics or religion'. The Committed is anything but politics and religion. So, if you're easily offended by these topics, this book is definitely not for you. Viet Thanh Nguyen has a voice that is powerful, shameless, and unapologetic. 

The series is a feast for philoso-philias, a platform for political debates, and a hell of an entertainment show of dark humor and cynical absurdities.

"The Sympathizer" by Viet Thanh Nguyen (2015)

 

As the bloody, merciless conflict in the Gaza Strip continues, I became more interested in observing parallels between the war there and what happened in Vietnam. I didn't want to read about the American perspective, but mainly was interested in reading the Vietnamese. Hence, my choice of reading this book regardless of its prizes won and its glowing reviews.

I must admit, I was intimidated by the book's number of pages and how densely the words populated each one, particularly when its pace was similar to an 'arithmetic tortoise', and most especially, when the dialogues were crammed with full-blown musings and flashbacks. But as I went on, I realized I wrongly approached the book. It wasn't about an action-spiced spy novel more than a reflection on the reality of the people living in the war-torn leftovers of a country. It provides a thorough psychological and analytical account of wars, occupations, freedom, and most especially, of revolutions/ideologies and how they embody the concept of Harvey Dent's "You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain".

With that being said, I can safely say that The Sympathizer is more than just a novel. It refuses to be bound by the perimeters of its pages and cover. It goes beyond, waaaay beyond. This is life (with all its happiness and tragedies and laughter and agony) perfectly encapsulated in the form of a novel. Viet Thanh Nguyen took me by surprise. His voice is crystal clear and strong and, dare I say it, is fairly equal to one deserving of the Nobel Prize. Heck! His voice is a character of its own. (either he was projecting or not). There's a perceptible fluidity in the structure of his jokes and an eclectic fluency in his words and phrases. 

The book was brilliant up to 50% then dropped to quite boring between 50-80% then aimed for the stars and became a masterpiece in the last 20%. 

There are unforgettable moments during the book where I literally laughed out loud (the poor squid scene for example) and moments where all ambient sounds and lights around me were gone because those scenes were so intense and painfully graphic.

Viet Nguyen has proved himself to be a master storyteller who's able to convey his thoughts in an entertaining and engaging manner, and one who isn't afraid to experiment with style and narration (as long as it serves a valid purpose), shifting from a realist approach to a quasi-surreal one, or from second perspective to a third.

What really blew my mind was the central scene of the raping of the agent. Yes, it's despicable and horrendous and all, but beneath the physical and the literal, there's one of the most powerful metaphors I've ever read. It's all about Vietnam, that beautiful ripe country, and what has been done to her, by outsider colonialists (the French), their 'freedom spreaders' replacements (the Americans), and sadly but quite naturally, by the Vietnamese people themselves (communists or otherwise).

"The world watched what happened to our country and most of the world did nothing. Not only that—they also took great pleasure in it. You are no exception."

It's not about the American/Vietnamese war, about the atrocities committed in the name of ideological purging (namely the rise of communism), or—according to the narrator—in the name of freedom and independence (the Viet Cong). It's not about the millions of lives wasted on both sides. It's not about the Fall of Saigon or the Liberation of Saigon. It's about what such a pointless war has done to the people of Vietnam regardless of their position. And no one can truly see the crux of the matter unless they are of two minds, a sympathizer. That's the brilliance of the book. It doesn't tell you that the narrator is pro-anything. Is he a true communist? An Americanized Asian? A spy? For whom exactly? Don't know. Don't care. What matters here is that when he commits to a side, he tells it as it is. No tints. No shades. Just the plain truth.

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Summary:

The Sympathizer is an instant classic that should be read, dissected, and analyzed. It's rich in metaphors that are accessible to the common reader. It's a story by the people suffering for the people suffering. There are so many things the book wants to confess to the readers, things about art and propaganda, about maternal complex, about wars and suffering, but the central theme is the duality of perspective, to see things objectively. Hence, the metaphor of the main character as having two minds, two ways of thinking, two convictions... just like Vietnam, north of south.

"Mister Magic" by Kiersten White (2023)

 

My first book by White. Saw it on the thriller nominations for Goodreads Awards. Thought to myself why not give it a try, especially when it's labeled as a horror story. But before I write down my thoughts on it, there's something I need to get off my chest: I have a phobia of children's programs, particularly those with puppets or costumes. There I said it! They're unnatural and weird and extremely disturbing. To think of making a thriller/suspense out of a kids' show is diabolical... and smart.

Or so I thought...

Without spoiling anything Mister Magic is basically a coming-of-age story gone wrong. It's about a podcast reunion of a group of adults who used to be child stars on a show called Mister Magic.

I had issues with the omnipresent narration and White's style of writing, but I got over them later on. There are vibes from The Truman Show - Coraline - and especially IT. The characters were well-defined, but I think Javi was the best. 

As I went on with the story, I couldn't help but feel an insidious feeling crawling beneath my skin and thoughts. I wanted to know what the hell was going on. I wanted to look for reviews to see what this was all about and spare myself the agony of feeling confused and lost. That feeling was so alluring but gut-wrenching. It's like something 'caught at the back of [my] throat like mucus [I] couldn't clear'.

the mood then shifted from insidious to absurd to pure fantasy to a chaos of words and scenes and emotions. And I meant it not in a good way.

What I didn't like was the heavy emphasis on talking ambiguously and abstractedly and on generalities. It's the Lost TV show syndrome all over again.  No. It doesn't pique the readers' interest more than confuse and distract them.  No wonder why many reviewers couldn't go past the first third. The problem with this technique is that it promises you something grand and jaw-dropping, but when I reached the last third [which was the most boring pile of shit I've ever read after Ulysses], I realized I got scammed and cheated on. The ending was so stretched out and so abstract and so boring. 

It just drags... on and on and on. 

I got the message or what you wanted to say White, but damn, the writing was just awful. Sorry.

[WARNING: thematic spoilers]

What I really liked about Mister Magic was its themes, however poorly and broadly they were executed. Talk about the influence of media on the spongy psyche of children... the fine line between parenting and indoctrination... media exploitation of children and the trauma they might suffer afterward... the archetypes and assumed gender roles... memory and how subjective and sometimes manipulative it can be... childhood and creativity.

 

Yeah... it's a whole lotta themes out there! 

And that's where the book fails. A good book talks about a central theme and avoids being divergent and in the process loses the interest of its readers... just like it did to me.