The Sympathizer

For those of you who know me know it requires some effort to put a grin on my face. For those who don't, you might just think I'm annoyed or don't like you— I do I do... its just the muscles in my cheeks simply atrophied having spent too much time in Canada. But I digress... what I'm getting at is this book is really funny and made me laugh out loud a couple of times, which doesn't happen often.

Let me begin with the writing style because Viet Thanh Nguyen aced it. The books is narrated in the first-person in the form of a confession by the protagonist. The barrator tells his story fluidly, weaving together narrative, dialog, digressions, and flashbacks, all with the sarcasm you would expect from someone whose defining life story is the Vietnam war. It is riddled with masterful metaphors that sometimes feel a bit contrived but mostly amuse you or cause you to think deeply.

A large part of the book explores an oriental take on the occident. The narrator's commentary (maybe cynicism is a better word) of the US is refreshing. He recounts quite a few truisms about Americans¹ I have experienced firsthand, which (if I may say so) I thoroughly enjoyed. Reading them not only entertained me, but also helped re-calibrate my perception of the where exactly the US is and where exactly the center of the world is.

Sometimes objective storytelling gives extra weight to the story itself, elevating it in some capacity. The narrator does exactly this through his unbiased political descriptions and the way he recounts his story with cold objectivity and dark humour. If you are like me and into that sort of storytelling, I highly recommend another book I read a while ago, although will a little bit less humor, called If This Is A Man by Primo Levi, which takes you on a terrifying (although invaluable) journey through Auschwitz all the way to its liberation.

... is it sane or insane to believe, as so many around us apparently do, in nothing?

Just like If This Is A Man, and really all good novels centered on war, The Sympathizer touches on nihilism and the human psyche's ability to grapple with the unimaginable. Rivetting.