You, on the other hand, won't tell me what I want to hear. Does that make you very smart or very stupid?

Filled with caustic language and irony reminiscent of Vonnegut, The Sympathizer reminded me how to read intentionally. When thinking about the difficult novels I've read, this is one of the few for which the burden of the challenge did not outweigh the joy I experience while reading it. This book took me over two weeks of slow and purposeful reading, sifting through unmarked dialogue and attempting to decipher the narrator, our Captain's, true allegiances and feelings.

The Sympathizer reveals the absurdities and cyclical nature of war, blurring the already blurred lines of the Vietnam War. The Captain provides a unique view of American culture; He born and raised in Vietnam, attended college in America, worked for a prominent general in the AVRN, simultaneously served as a communist spy, and eventually exiled to America with his AVRN community. The son of a European priest and a Vietnamese woman, he was born a blend of two cultures and ridiculed for being a "bastard" his entire life. The Captain has one foot in the door of American culture, providing him with insight to understand. However, his Vietnamese features will never allow him to truly belong due to the fervent racism in America.

This book brings up many questions of identity especially in the context of race, morality, nationality, and culture. Beginning with the assumption that the Vietnamese are people deserving of respect and perspective, Nguyen explains that this is not a novel written to affirm the humanity of the Vietnamese. Rather, it is written to show the contrast between humanity and inhumanity that lives within us all.

It's hard to elucidate my feelings about this novel, because so much of what I experienced what just that - pure feeling. I was completely struck by the Captain's intellectual capabilities and undying bonds with his friends, Man and Bon, that transcended border lines and moral schema. I was thrown side to side trying to understand the absolute tragedy of the Vietnam War. A war that robbed a nation of its identity, making it synonymous with American failure. I believe this is a must read for all Americans who still think of the Vietnam war and consider it our tragedy. Yes, American lives were lost but it is not our tragedy alone. Our Vietnam War ended when we retreated; Vietnam was left in tatters.

I'm not an American, sir, I said. If my confession reveals anything, isn't it that I'm an anti-American? I must have said something outrageously humorous, for he actually laughed. The anti-American already includes the American, he said. Don't you see that the Americans need the anti-American? While it is better to be loved than hated, it is far better to be hated than ignored. To be anti-American only makes you a reactionary. In our case, having defeated the Americans, we no longer define ourselves as anti-American. We are simply one hundred percent Vietnamese.