[Subdue] The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen - 4 stars

[Jen K]

A follow up to The Sympathizer, our "hero", most commonly known as crazy bastard, has escaped his re-education and also Vietnam once again with his blood brother Bon finally arriving in France, the land of his father. After the trauma and torture, he is now a man of two faces and two minds seeing the duality in everything and sympathizing with both sides especially communism vs capitalism. Taken on by the Boss and hosted by Man's aunt, the crazy bastard takes on the the ultimate job of dealing drugs amongst the the intellectuals, the socialists and communists disguised as Japanese tourist. The crazy bastard is perplexed as to why the Vietnamese are in conflict with the Algerians when they have a common enemy in the colonizers, the French, yet the drug trade is too lucrative to not fight.

The book is as gritty as the first one with copious drugs, prostitutes and violence. In between are philosophical musings looking at the duality of life, loyalty and the complicated relationship between the colonized and the colonizer. If you enjoyed the first book, you will enjoy being back with Nguyen's brilliant writing.

[NancyJ]

The Sympathizer was amazing and eye opening. Reading about his reeducation (and friend?!) was really tough though. I don't choose a lot of books about drugs or crime, but I realize that I never really understood what happened at that time in history. (I was just happy we were out of Vietnam.)

[Jen K]

This one really echoes The Sympathizer. It is similarly amazing and eye opening! I'm not one for drugs and crime either but the writing is so good if you don't mind the stream of consciousness.