"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.