MixedWashington Independent Review of BooksOne of the most interesting aspects of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Committed, sequel to the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Sympathizer, is how much of a critique it is of three cultures: Vietnamese, American, and French ... Commentary about capitalism, colonialism, and culture crowd the novel ... The plot is very Tarantino-esque ... One of the reasons I had trouble getting drawn into the story is that the narrator is largely unknowable ... it requires some suspension of disbelief to accept that a war survivor who has worked as a spy and been horrendously tortured is so immersed in literary theory and philosophy, even as he goes about dealing drugs or visiting brothels ... Ultimately, if you belong to the slice of the population that’s into both violent thrillers and cultural analysis, this well-written book — with its various idiosyncrasies — will hit the spot. For others, it may be a bit of a struggle.
Rumaan Alam
MixedThe Washington Independent Review of BooksThe writing is spectacular ... There’s a simmering tension between the two families — a successful white couple and an even more successful Black one — but this story isn’t really about race. Instead, it’s about how all four of the adults, and to a lesser extent the children, cope with some sort of a catastrophe unfolding in the larger world. This is when the novel begins to falter. The author makes an odd choice, writing from multiple perspectives — a notoriously hard feat to pull off. Instead of getting to know one or two characters really well, the reader suffers a lengthy whiplash, shuttling among six people’s perspectives — yes, even the children’s. In some scenes, we flit among the perspectives of all four adults. So, we scratch the surface of every character’s personality, but it’s hard to begin to care for any of them as they process the shifting reality around them. And to make matters worse, it’s often hard to tell who’s who ... realistic portrayal of how human beings act during difficult circumstances. But, unfortunately, while there’s a lot of underlying tension in that scene, there’s not nearly enough drama throughout. Essentially, the characters deal with disaster by waiting, baking cake, or driving away ... This is not to say there aren’t moments of beauty and surprise in the story. There’s so much that works wonderfully: acts of kindness, asexual intimacy, disappointment, parental love, and horror. But despite the skilled writing and stretches of effective storytelling, Leave the World Behind ultimately struggles to free itself from the clutches of a few fatal choices the novelist makes.
Elif Batuman
PositiveThe Washington Independent Review of BooksWhile it would be easy to tear down this book because of its lack of plot or drama, the truth is, the story does exert a strange pull. Batuman is an exceedingly talented writer, both in terms of psychological insight and her delightful habit of pointing out oddities ... While this novel falls short of being entirely satisfactory, it’s certainly a rewarding read in its own way. Here’s hoping she will write another, more ambitious novel one day.
