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unspeakablehorror ([personal profile] unspeakablehorror) wrote2021-05-08 05:05 pm

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

After seeing a number of posts by [personal profile] tobermoriansass about the novel The Sympathizer, I decided to read this novel.  It's a novel focusing on a double agent who is sent to America at the end of the Vietnam War.  I'm not well immersed in the genre of spy stories, so I can't really talk about how it fits into that, but there's definitely a lot in this story that I do have thoughts on.  It's a story about the aftermath of the Vietnam War that's both deeply reflective and sharply humorous.  I interpret the title as both referring to the political definition of sympathizer and a sympathizer as someone who feels sympathetic towards others.  This is a novel about deep human connection and about how brutal people can be to one another.  I can't really write a whole lot at the moment, but I just wanted to get a few of my thoughts out.

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