I can't really say in all honesty that I enjoyed reading this book, but I appreciated it on many levels. That appreciation was enhanced by the author essay and interview that appeared at the end of my Kindle edition - both of which I found fascinating and enlightening.

The narrator is the son of a Vienamese woman and a French missionary who is a communist agent embedded with the southern Vietnamese. The book is essentially the narrator's confession which takes us from his departure from Vietnam, through his years in the United States, and then back to Vietnam.

The book is most certainly a treatise about not just the Vietnam war, but wars in general. No side escapes unscathed from the author's lens - - not the French, not the U.S., not the communists, and not the southern Vietnamese. In the author's hands, the narrator is both a sympathetic and a terrible person. He's not the only one. This book is dark and parts of it were very hard to read. In fact, I found it excruciating at times. Some of the messaging seemed a little heavy handed to me toward the end, but not superfluous because without it, I'm not sure I would have actually understood the theme in its entirety. In fact, thank goodness for the author essay and interview at the end because that certainly clarified parts of the story for me as well.

Honestly, I think not having a strong personal knowledge of the Vietnam War also made this book a more challenging read. Fortunately, my husband is like a living walking history book, so he gave me a great overview without which I would have been lost. But now, after reading this novel, I'm ashamed I don't know more of the history and will seek out some (hopefully balanced) non-fiction books on the topic. In fact, I think Nguyen is a professor and also has a non-fiction book available.

I don't want to complete the review without mentioning the use of language. The author writes some very compelling sentences - - not beautiful or poetic writing, but tight, biting, cynical ones that made me stop and take notice. It was one of the aspects of the book that made me continue to the end in the face of some imperfect plotting and some very graphic scenes.

It's hard for me to wholeheartedly recommend this book because at times, it wasn't the most engaging, and when it was engaging, it was incredibly disturbing. If you appreciated [b:The Narrow Road to the Deep North|17905709|The Narrow Road to the Deep North|Richard Flanagan|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1374734363s/17905709.jpg|25086415], you may also appreciate this book. On the flip side, I think this would be a great book to read in a college literature class because I think there's lots of fodder for discussion. My final summation: eye opening.

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Reason read: Asian Diaspora. Author Viet Thanh Nguyen is a Vietnamese/American author. Born in Vietnam and living in the US. This his debut novel is the story of an unnamed narrator who is an immigrant and a spy. The book covers many issues; immigrant, mystery, political, metafiction, dark comedic, historical, spy, and war. ( )

Didn't care for this - read about 20% of the book.

What a great book- just excellent writing and an amazing story. Grabbed me and wouldn’t let go! I found the end a bit flat, or at least not as amazing as the novel up until the airport but overall just superb ( )