The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen - 4 stars

[Joy D]

The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen - 4* - My Review

The Committed is the follow-up to The Sympathizer. The unnamed protagonist-narrator arrives in Paris in the early 1980s as a Vietnamese refugee. He and his blood brother Bon work in an Asian restaurant owned by their sponsor, but the narrator soon becomes involved in the drug trade. He lives with his aunt in an immigrant community. Through his drug-related connections and his aunt’s social circle, he interacts with both French intellectuals and the criminal underworld.

The narrator refers repeatedly to his two minds and two faces. He talks to himself in between speaking overtly to others. He engages in numerous philosophical musings. The main ideas in this book have to do with the impact of both capitalism and colonialism. It portrays the difficulties experienced by refugees in the countries of their former colonial occupiers: in this case France, which had occupied Indochina (now Vietnam).

The narrator is a former Communist who worked as a double agent, eventually moving to America. He ended up in a re-education camp where he was tortured into renouncing his views (this story is told in The Sympathizer). He is now a man in-between, observing the politics of others. His good friend Bon is an anti-communist, and the narrator worries they will eventually have to reckon with their differences. He also is haunted by the ghosts of his past, the people he has harmed by his actions (or lack thereof). Throughout, he questions whether true commitment to any cause is possible when all systems ultimately betray their promises. There is also a thread of narrative that focuses on being and nothingness, and I enjoyed these segments immensely.

It is an ambitious work that criticizes postcolonial capitalism. The writing is top rate. I would not say it is a book to read for the plot, though it does have one, but it is not in any way a conventional thriller. I recommend it more as a book about exile and disillusionment. I enjoyed the narrator's sardonic voice, and I think he does an excellent job of helping readers put themselves into the shoes of an immigrant or refugee. After reading and enjoying three of his books, I am adding Viet Thanh Nguyen to my list of favorite authors.

PBT Content warnings: (view spoiler)[torture, gruesome violence (hide spoiler)]