The Sympathizer (The Sympathizer #1)

by Viet Thanh Nguyen

What kind of political work do you hope this book does in the world, especially in the face of a dominant American culture that will relentlessly maintain its ideas about Vietnamese people and its involvement in Vietnam? Another interviewer, when she finished reading the book, told me that she was rattled by the ending. I want readers to be rattled by the book. That might be the most I can hope for the book politically. I’ve really wondered if I, as a critic, have overestimated the political capacity of literature beyond the scope of people who read books. I hope it does, but I don’t dare to predict what impact the book will have except within the realm of literature and people who read books. I want this book to provoke people to rethink their assumptions about this history, and also about the literature they’ve encountered before—to make them uncomfortable in a good way.

This is from the q&a at the back of the book. Uncomfortable in a good way is exactly the feeling.