The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

My Popsugar reading challenge required me to read an espionage thriller. This is not a genre I typically explore very much, but I did have Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Sympathizer on my shelves because it won the Pulitzer in 2016 and I wanted to check it out. I usually have pretty good luck reading award-winners, so started reading with high hopes. After admiring the multiple award medals on the novel's cover, checking out the blurbs from literary superstars on the back, and flipping past multiple pages of additional blurbs in the front of the book, I was ready to read what I figured must be the greatest book every written. What I ended up with was a confusing struggle that I'm still scratching my head over.

The Sympathizer follows an unnamed communist double agent during the end of the Vietnam War. He describes himself as a man of two minds and claims that he has a gift of being able to see both sides of any situation. When Saigon falls, he flees to America with the general that he works under and sends regular reports back to his superiors about the movements of the South Vietnamese refugees he lives among. His ability to empathize with his enemies causes serious internal conflict for him, and he struggles mightily to rationalize the actions he is forced to take to maintain his cover. He participates in some violent and surreal events in his new city of Los Angeles before deciding to return home to Vietnam with an ill-fated resistance movement.

The narrative is structured as the protagonist's written confession. He speaks occasionally about being imprisoned and writing down his story to submit to a commandant. Mixed in with his confession are his biting observations of Americans and their actions during the war. His words provide a very different, and not very flattering, perspective on the U.S. that feels raw and true. When his confession catches up with his current imprisonment, the protagonist is forced to face some very harsh truths about himself and his country and must try to sort out his complicated feelings surrounding his life choices.

I've read enough literature in my lifetime to recognize greatness when I see it, and The Sympathizer is undoubtedly great. It is full of complex ideas, meaningful allegories, and deep symbolism. I know that it deserves all the accolades it has received, however, this novel did not click with me. I did not understand what it was trying to do. I understood the story and the words, but the ultimate meaning of what I was reading proved to be impossible for me to grasp. Maybe I don't know enough about the history of the Vietnam War to be able to understand Nguyen's perspective, or maybe the almost complete lack of female characters made me lose interest. Maybe I'm just not smart enough for this novel. Whatever it was, I struggled to get through the story. I was so disengaged that I had difficulty staying awake when I sat down to read.

Since so many regard this work as a masterpiece, I feel very unsophisticated talking about my struggles with it. The back of my edition included an interview with the author, which I read in an attempt to try and understand what the novel was supposed to be about. His remarks, which were quite thoughtful and intelligent, didn't really help. He mentioned what different characters symbolized, and what some key lines were, but I still wasn't clear on what the ultimate message of the book was supposed to be and I never would have interpreted the symbols he mentioned correctly on my own.

One thing Nguyen said that was a bit illuminating for me was how he was inspired to write The Sympathizer by Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. I have read Invisible Man and I can definitely see similarities between the two. Invisible Man was also a surreal and critical account of an unnamed protagonist's life in America. That novel was difficult to understand as well, but I fared much better with it, probably because I was more familiar with the time period and social context it was placed in. My lack of familiarity with the Vietnam War was a big impediment to my understanding here, and I would caution anyone looking to give this novel a try to study a bit about the time period before reading.

Sadly, my experience reading The Sympathizer was one of intermittent boredom and confusion. The blurbs on the front cover touted this novel as a fast-paced, suspenseful spy story, but I didn't feel like this story was anything close to that while reading. I know that the fault in this situation is mine-the book is clearly great, it just didn't click with me. There were parts that I did enjoy, especially the sections in which the protagonist discusses his perspective on America, but overall, I wasn't able to get engaged in the story and I never ended up understanding Nguyen's overall point. Ultimately, I am glad I read The Sympathizer, because it was quite unique, but it just didn't engage me.


Challenge Tally
Popsugar Challenge: (An espionage thriller) 6/40 
Mount TBR: previously owned 6/60