RaveBookforumThe Sympathizer exceeds its two nearest relations in concept and form, Chang-Rae Lee’s Native Speaker and Hari Kunzru’s The Impressionist, through Nguyen’s confrontation with these layered types, which comprise his protagonist’s fraught persona. In creating a character for whom individuality from cause is both unimaginable and inevitable, Nguyen deftly dodges the lazy, familiar ’Nam tropes to answer the unanswerable question of the decimated, resilient self in a story that’s biting, funny, and painful. As for the sympathizer himself, as Nguyen ably shows, he never had a choice in the first place. When words fail, his continued existence asserts itself, continuing the story.
