Rather than slide into polemic or tragic melodrama, Nguyen leans into the tension between the four half-siblings to unpack the complicated roles that surveillance, big tech and journalism play in our fractured modern state ... Risk and desperation give the book the fresh edge of a thriller while maintaining its larger focus as an entwined story of family and imperialist history.
Comically macabre ... The writer is a stellar satirist ... Moments of violence are more impactful because they occur against scenes of humor and occasional mundanity ... Nguyen deftly finds a middle ground between playful critic and cleareyed observer. Even at its most ridiculous, the book feels eerily plausible ... Kevin Nguyen has written a very American novel indeed.
Nguyen’s barbed social commentary convincingly depicts a dystopian America that’s both distinct from and similar to the country we know today ... While the world-building successfully critiques tech giants, the mainstream media, corporate influence and public education, it also hems in plot and character development ... Through Ursula’s narrative arc, the book seems more concerned with critiquing the way people consume trauma via the media than it is with the actual trauma of imprisonment ... The book’s violent and tragic climax feels both inevitable and somewhat discordant with the rest of the book.
The novel lags toward its middle, when the relationships between the characters can feel underdeveloped. Still, Nguyen’s intricate, striking and poignant plot is to be admired. Mỹ Documents portrays a vision of the country that is distressing in its realism, a memorable, unsettling reminder that both the conditions we allow and the ways in which we resist are crucial sides of the American story.
A disturbing page-turner and a powerful look at American racism ... Nguyen’s hand is a bit heavy here, but it’s hard to argue with his pessimistic, and completely justified, view of the American government as a racist oligarchy deeply influenced by nefarious corporations. His narrative pacing is perfect, his dialogue and character development a bit less so; still, this is a compelling read.
