THE SYMPATHIZER

by Viet Thanh Nguyen
 
Last year’s Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction, this debut novel is somehow both brutal and funny, eye-opening yet reassuring.  The story is told from the perspective of a young man serving a high-ranking General in the Vietnamese Army as the Americans are pulling out of the war in 1975.  He is forced to flee with his General, but we quickly learn, he is actually a mole for the communists.  In addition to being a double agent, he is also bi-racial (half French, half Vietnamese), and attended college in America, making him the expert on that culture as well. 
 
The exploration of split identity, particularly as an immigrant in America, feels as potent now as I’m sure it felt in the 70’s, and Nguyen deftly manages to create a historical picture, while not letting us off the hook for the way our country is behaving today.  This book was difficult to read at times, but the charisma of the narrator and the skill of the prose made it worth it for me. (Lily)