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Review of The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen |
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Personal Notation: I'm not sure how to review this book. Personally, it was the hardest and most unlikeable book I have ever picked up and continued to read. I had to force myself to keep reading it. Whether this was because it was political warfare (a subject I dislike), or the big words that I had to keep looking up, I'm not sure. After about halfway through, I stopped looking up the words I didn't know because it became too burdensome. I felt that Viet wasted his education in pursuing his life as a double agent which I didn't see brought him any happiness or accomplishment. Someone of his education could have done so much more with his life; instead I feel he spent it making bad decisions, drinking to excess, using women, and killing people. I found I didn't care very much for him. He spent a lot of time complaining about Americans and his upobringing. I agree that he had a hard upbringing but so many others have too, and they did not take the path that he chose to take.At the very end, I was surprised to find that some of the book was fiction. If that was the case with my above comments, then I have to give Viet credit for his imagination. My Perspective On The Author: This was a Pulitzer book. For anyone who likes military books, I am sure this one would rank up near the top. It is clear that Viet is a highly educated, well-spoken man who writes with deep feeling and emotion. I felt that some of his sentences dragged on, and on, making you pause at the end of the sentence and look back to see what he was talking about. This book was above the reader's comprehension. The Book: Chapter 1: Viet admits that he can see things from two sides, He sympathized with his country and yet still made the decision to be a double agent; he spoke perfect English with no accent. He lived in a village with the General and his wife, referred to as Madam. He was pleased with the demise of the regime. The General's wife persuaded them to try and get out of the country while there was still time. He was assigned the job of deciding who would be taken along. Along with others he picked Bon, his frriend. Man, another friend, would stay behind.They were planning on traveling to Guam. He wondered what it would be like to live in a country that was not at war. Chapter 2: He was a bastard. His mother had an affair with a priest. She called him her love child. His father did not acknowledge him as his son. As they made plans to leave the Villa, the General's staff was instructed to take what they wanted and if asked, to deny that they knew him. Viet was an atheist. He said that it was better to admire the best among our foes rather than the worst among our friends. Chapter 3: Viet believes that marriage is not for him. He doesn't believe that he has the social status to attract women. On their way to Guam they were loaded into an airplane like a can of sardines.Suddenly, an explosion happened on the plane and it started on fire. As they tried to escape, they had to dodge someone shooting at them. Viet had to obtain another 92 visas and another C-130 plane came and they all ran to get on board.. Once again the shooting started. Viet noticed that his friend Bon and his family were not yet on board so he ran to help them. Unfortunately Bon's wife Linh and their son Duc were killed. He had to knock Bon out and throw Linh over his shoulder in order to get them on the plane. They were taken to Camp Asan in Guam. The refugees were not accepting the General's interaction with them. He was trying to ease their pain but the women attacked him, screaming that he should have protected them and crying out for their lost loved ones. The next day they were taken to Camp Pendleton in San Diego. Now the General has suspicions that someone, perhaps Viet, was a spy. Viet went to LA and obtained an apartment in Chinatown. He bought a used '64 Ford. He tried to get an organization to sponsor Bon. Finally the Church of Prophets agreed to hire and sponsor him. Bon and Viet shared the apartment together. The General and his family also ended up in LA sponsored by the siter-in-law of an American Colonel. The General eventually bought a liquor store on Hollywood Blvd. He worked in the Dept. of Oriental Studies working with students. Bon worked at night for the church and also received welfare. He was otherwise still depressed about the loss of his family. Viet sent cryptic letters to Man that had to be uncoded with iodine. The invisible ink was made from cornstarch and water. Chapter 5: Because of his work, Viet was an insomniac. He developed a relationship with an older Japanese woman who he referred to as Ms. Mori; the relationship became intimate. His friend Claude escaped from Saigon by pushing and shoving himself through the crowd. The General once again broached the subject of a spy. He points a finger at the Major who was doing well in Saigon, even though others were not. The General assigned Bon to take care of the Major. Was this a test to see where Bon's alligence lie? Chapter 6: View accused Bon of being happy to assassinate the Major. Bon did not disagree. Bon felt that he was a nobody. It seems he felt some conscience over the Major's death as he had a hard time going to sleep. Chapter 8: Viet was asked to be a consultant on a Vietnam movie. When he gave his ideas, the producer was offended and told him to get out. Chapter 9: He was again rehired as a consultant on the movie. The film was titled, "The Hamlet". There were masses of refugees in the Phillipines referred to as 'boat people'. Chapter 10: The General reported that one 1 in 2 boats were not surviving the crossing from their homeland to the shores in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, and The Phillipines because of storms and pirates. Chapter 11: Viet looked at the movie as a work of propaganda. He believed art and literature were tools of domination and politics. When the Auteur (producer), planned to blow up the cemetary, he went there to the fake stone he had put there in rememberance of his mother. Then an explosion happened. He flew threw the air, was knocked unconsciious, and awoke at a hospital in Manilla. All in all, he was fortunate to survive with minimal injuries and no broken bones. We get to see glimpes of his past life as he lay in the hospital room; past events coming to his mind. One such event was his interrogation of a prisoner, The Watchman. This was a test of sorts by his mentor, Claude. The Watchman outsmarted him and all his threats by killing himself. The Watchman had infuriated him by calling him a bastard. Chapter 12: General and Madam opened a Vietnamese Restaurant with money they had smuggled out of the country. The challenge was to get the Americans to accept it. In reality, the restaurant funded The Movement. When Viet found out that his friend Bon was going to Vietnam on a dangerous overland trek, he feared for him, so he also volunteered to go. The General nixed that idea, requesting that he would be better served if Viet stayed there and helped with the planning. Viet negotiated a payoff of $10,000 for his injuries from the explosion at the movie. Apparently he had a conscience of sorts because he visited the wife of the Major and gave her $5,000. Chapter 13: After a 7 month absence from Ms. Mori, he returned, only to find that his college buddy Sonny was already there. After the visit, Viet realized that it was over between him and Ms. Mori (Sophia). Chapter 14: The General, reading a news article that Sonny wrote, begins to question Viet about his once college acquaintance. He suggests that something may have to be done about the man. Viet becomes reacquainted with the General's daughter, Lana, at a nightclub. He hopes that they will become intimate sometime in the future. Chapter 16: The General told Viet that he needed him to do something for him and when it was done he could return to his homeland. In my opinion, Viet is easily manipulated by other people. His friend, Bon, believed that killing was not killing but assassination. The General wanted Viet to kill Sonny, the lover of his friend Sophia. Although he had once stated that he didn't want children, he now says he would have wanted a child with Sophia. Chapter 17: Viet did seem to have some remorse over the killing of Sonny. He was scheduled to leave the next day for Thailand. The General felt it was best that he leave right away before questions over Sonny's death happened. While in Thailand, Bon and Viet went to a movie theatre to see The Hamlet. Bon was angry at Viet for making his people look bad. Viet stated that he had done all he could. It was a real deflation to Viet when the General and Madam told him how disappointed they were in him for seducing their daughter, Lana. After all, the General said, a man in his position, a bastard, would never have been an appropriate suitor for their daughter. Viet and Bon were taken into the forest where they met 'the last men standing of the armed forces of the Republic of Vietnam'. Chapter 18: The affectless Lieutenant stepped onto a mine and lost his leg and subsequently his life. The other marines killed him to put him out of his misery as there was no medical assistance there. They carried him away in pieces, including the blown up leg and foot in order to hide the evidence from their pursuers. Viet had visions of the deceased Major and Sonny, whom he had killed. Maybe this was a sign of conscience somewhere inside of him. As they crossed the Mekong, gunfire exploded and somehow Bon and Viet survived. Chapter 19: Bon and Viet were captured and taken to a camp. He was interrogated by the Commandant who referred to him as a patient. He gave his written confession, rewitten several times, but apparently it was not to the satisfaction of the Commandant. He was held in an isolation cell and had withdrawal symptoms from lack of alcohol. To his horror, when he was taken to see the Commissar, who had been horribly burned so that he virtually had no face, he did not even recognize that it was his friend, Man. Chapter 20: Man put Viet through a grueling interrogation where he was bound and gagged. Man told him he was burned with napalm and his wife had found him. Chapter 21: Viet was untied and the gag taken off but the room was full of bright lights. He was not allowed to sleep. He was given a shot of some kind and hooked up to a machine that would give him an electric shock on his toe every minute to keep him awake. Chapter 22: He found out that Man had been the one instrumental in killing his father. Viet admitted that he had often expressed the wish that his father were dead. He said he wanted to die as well. Man asked Viet to kill him and he placed a gun in his hand and held it to his own temple. Viet was unable to pull the trigger. Chapter 23: Finally after being tortured for some time, Viet gave the Commandant and Commissar the answer they were looking for. The word was 'nothing'. I have to admit that this part of the book made no sense at all to me, I did not get the significance of the word nothing. Thereafter, Viet seemed to be out of his mind until the doctor asked him to re-write his confession, word for word. He was finally able to do so and then added his experience in the interrogation room. He asked to see Man one more time. Man told him that he and Bon would be leaving the camp and the country. They were going to be sent to Saigon. Viet was reunited with Bon and they left the county by boat, now becoming 'boat people'. During the final part of the book Viet kept referring to himself as 'us'. I wasn't sure if that was because he had become psychotic. |
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