Heather answers “I loved the book and thought it taught me...”

Ray asked this question about The Sympathizer (The Sympathizer, #1):

I loved the book and thought it taught me a lot but I was confused and disappointed at the final chapters. The narrator is captured and tortured by his best friend, now the commissar of a POW camp. He is deprived of food, sleep, given sensory deprivation. All of this is done according to the friend "to save him". Eventually, the author is "saved". Why did the author need to add these chapters?

Heather

This answer contains spoilers… (view spoiler)

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Elaine Farrant It could be that "nothing" is what he did when he had a moral decision to make: when his comrade was raped, when Bon killed the crapulent major (at hi ...more
Jan 06, 2018 10:18AM · flag

Michael I think I read it the same way as you did but I thought concluding with the idea that "nothing matters" was a kind of empty way to end such a powerful ...more
Apr 26, 2020 12:58PM · flag

judy-b. judy-b. well said
Jun 04, 2021 09:59PM · flag

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