The
Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group will meet Thursday, August 10th at 7 p.m.
in the meeting room of the Fairfax Library to discuss our August book, The
Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen.
Discussion
questions are below.
Here
are some links for additional background and information:
Coming
up, we have the following book to look forward to reading:
Thurs.
Sept. 14th His
Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet
Thanks
for reading with us. I look forward to seeing you at the Fairfax Library.
Beth Bailey-Gates
Friends
of the Fairfax Library
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
The
Sympathizer by Viet Than Nguyen
1.
What is the significance of the title, The
Sympathizer?
2.
How does the protagonist’s mixed parentage, his “outsiderness,” anticipate his
dual nature and divided loyalties?
3.
The novel takes the form of a long confession written by the narrator in
prison. How effective is this approach? What quandaries does it raise regarding
truth and coercion?
4.
In what way, or how accurately, do the scenes about the production of a film
about the Vietnam War, a take-off on Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now,
reflect how Vietnam was actually depicted in American media and culture?”
5.
Would you describe The Sympathizer as satire? Perhaps in the vein of Joseph
Heller’s Catch-22?
6.
The narrator is a spy, a secret agent. Is The Sympathizer an espionage
thriller? Or is Nguyen playing with the conventions of a thriller?
7.
What impact did American culture have on the Vietnamese refugees as they sought
to assimilate in their adopted homeland?
8.
When Vietnamese refugees returned home, how do think they were viewed by those
who never left?
9.
Do you think that younger readers will experience a different impact from this
novel than readers who grew up in the Vietnam era?
10.
Has The Sympathizer altered your perception of the Vietnam War? If so, how?
11. What does the
narrator mean when he tells us, "I am a man of two minds"? How does
this statement reverberate throughout the book?
12. Comparisons of this work have been made to Joseph Heller's Catch-22, an absurdist take on World War II. Nguyen includes similar satire in The Sympathizer. One such example is this statement::
12. Comparisons of this work have been made to Joseph Heller's Catch-22, an absurdist take on World War II. Nguyen includes similar satire in The Sympathizer. One such example is this statement::
It was a smashingly successful cease-fire, for
in the last two years only 150,000 soldiers had died. Imagine how many would
have died without a truce!
Can you find other examples where the author employs similar
satiric wit? What affect does such a stylistic device have on your reading?
Does the black humor lessen the horror of the war, or draw more attention to
it?
13. Talk about the
conclusion of the book, which many describe as shattering. Was it so for you?
How has the narrator been changed by his experiences? What has he come to learn
about himself, his culpability, his identify, the war, America and Vietnam?
14. The narrator says that the war in Vietnam "was the first war where the losers would write history instead of the victors." What does he mean by that? What do you know (or remember) about the war—and how did you come to know it? How does point of view, who does the telling, alter one's understanding of history?
14. The narrator says that the war in Vietnam "was the first war where the losers would write history instead of the victors." What does he mean by that? What do you know (or remember) about the war—and how did you come to know it? How does point of view, who does the telling, alter one's understanding of history?
