The Sympathizer (The Sympathizer #1)

by Viet Thanh Nguyen

After all, nothing was more American than wielding a gun and committing oneself to die for freedom and independence, unless it was wielding that gun to take away someone else’s freedom and independence.

A lot of countries use guns to take away other countries’ freedom and independence, and often do this with high-minded rhetoric which no one believes except the country doing the violence. So the United States is not unique in this regard. HOWEVER, we seem to have a fetish for “freedom” and “independence.” They are a part of the American mythology. I wanted to poke fun at that mythology, as all mythologies deserve to be satirized once they become hypocritical. Rest assured, I get around to satirizing the Vietnamese communist hypocrisy around freedom and independence too.