This left him with a feeling that he would never be Asian enough for the Vietnamese, and later never Western enough for the Americans he studied with and worked with. From the start he was always conflicted he was referred to as a “dust left behind’ by those in his village–a nod to his existence being nothing more than a consequence of the colonizers who came, took, and left nothing in their wake. His father was a French Catholic priest, while his mother was a young Vietnamese woman. He isn’t here or there, one or the other, but an amalgamation of many things which he comes to terms with as the book progresses. The Captain is the vessel for this portrayal as he is the crossroads between many worlds: the East and the West and the North and the South. One of the many aspects that Nguyen does beautifully is taking a very nuanced role in portraying the Vietnam War that encompasses perspectives from all different sides. The Captain battles all this while trying to hold on to his loyalties, which prove to be mutable, and the identity of his complex being as people from all sides around him force him to pick, choose, push, and reject. Death, betrayal, and espionage lead him to America where he tries to find a middle ground in a place where the grass isn’t always greener on the other side for Asian Americans. No one understands this better than a Eurasian captain who works as a communist sleeper agent during the pinnacle of it all: Saigon 1975. The Vietnam War is one of the most discussed and argued events in world history, and like all events of such caliber, it was pretty messy. The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen, brings a new whole level of understanding of such a mutable event in historical fiction as well as a powerful and raw voice on the Asian American experience, encompassing a dark, funny, and unwavering tone that explores identity and how the very essence of who we are can become a burden.
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