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jenbsbooks 's review for:
The Sympathizer
by Viet Thanh Nguyen
This probably would not have been a usual pick for me ... it was recommended somewhere, and it was one that was available on Spotify, but not at the library. As Spotify now includes 15 hours of an audiobook per month, I feel obligated to get my perk. Thus, this was my pick for April 2025. I was able to borrow the Kindle copy from the library. I went primarily with the audio ...
The writing/language was not the easiest to understand/follow. Assuming this character has English as a second language, he has a wide vocabulary. Some of the words I stopped to look up and/or highlight, words I note: louche, penurious, crapulent, abnegation, palimpsest (ironically the third time I've seen this one in April alone!), chiaroscuro, ambuscade, priapic, purloined, deign, kudzu, bucolic, preternatural, proFanity x 15. ... and listening in audio, I probably didn't catch half of the words I might have reading myself. ...
He has numerous people that he refers to by a descriptive title ... the crapulent major, the affectless lieutenant, the philosophical medic, the grizzled captain, the dark marine, the skinny RTO. On the one hand, it was unique and entertaining, on the other ... it became quite repetitive. "The crapulent major" was said 76 times! I'm sure in other novels, character's names are said even more than that, but because of this naming, it really stood out here.
There were some interesting topics ... prostitutes and communism, the irony of a "sleeper agent" stressed with insomnia, the "pursuit" of happiness guaranteed - but not actual happiness. There was an explicit sexual scene and he/the MC comes out and says "Some will undoubtedly find this episode obscene. Not I! Massacre is obscene. Torture is obscene. Three million dead is obscene. Masturbation, even with an admittedly nonconsensual squid? Not so much." and in truth, that IS a really good point.
"Death by 1000 paper cuts" ... (I've just noted the "death by 1000 cuts" in other books).
I feel like I learned a little about the Vietnam War, and about the lives of those who transitioned to the states. It just didn't unfold as a story as much as other historical fiction.
Extras included at the end, an essay and a Q&A Interview ... some interesting stuff, but in audio, the Q&A blended together with the same voice reading both the questions and the answers. I wish there had been two different voices, some distinction between who was talking ... it was hard to tell in audio. Two narrators were needed there.
The writing/language was not the easiest to understand/follow. Assuming this character has English as a second language, he has a wide vocabulary. Some of the words I stopped to look up and/or highlight, words I note: louche, penurious, crapulent, abnegation, palimpsest (ironically the third time I've seen this one in April alone!), chiaroscuro, ambuscade, priapic, purloined, deign, kudzu, bucolic, preternatural, proFanity x 15. ... and listening in audio, I probably didn't catch half of the words I might have reading myself. ...
He has numerous people that he refers to by a descriptive title ... the crapulent major, the affectless lieutenant, the philosophical medic, the grizzled captain, the dark marine, the skinny RTO. On the one hand, it was unique and entertaining, on the other ... it became quite repetitive. "The crapulent major" was said 76 times! I'm sure in other novels, character's names are said even more than that, but because of this naming, it really stood out here.
There were some interesting topics ... prostitutes and communism, the irony of a "sleeper agent" stressed with insomnia, the "pursuit" of happiness guaranteed - but not actual happiness. There was an explicit sexual scene and he/the MC comes out and says "Some will undoubtedly find this episode obscene. Not I! Massacre is obscene. Torture is obscene. Three million dead is obscene. Masturbation, even with an admittedly nonconsensual squid? Not so much." and in truth, that IS a really good point.
"Death by 1000 paper cuts" ... (I've just noted the "death by 1000 cuts" in other books).
I feel like I learned a little about the Vietnam War, and about the lives of those who transitioned to the states. It just didn't unfold as a story as much as other historical fiction.
Extras included at the end, an essay and a Q&A Interview ... some interesting stuff, but in audio, the Q&A blended together with the same voice reading both the questions and the answers. I wish there had been two different voices, some distinction between who was talking ... it was hard to tell in audio. Two narrators were needed there.