I saw a lot of talk about this book, so I quickly picked up a copy of the Sympathizer, so that I could read and understand this highly anticipated book.
While I appreciated the Sympathizer, I did not love it, so I adjusted my expectations and excitement and started the Committed.

The unnamed protagonists continues his journey to Paris where he meets up with his "Aunt".
Selling drugs, seeing ghosts and struggling with mixed Political feelings, he explores Capitalism and continues to struggle with abandonment issues.

Beautifully written, The Committed is not a fast or easy read, but a twisted journey of a haunted man.

This book picks up where The Sympathizer ends, and continues the story of the unnamed spy. The Sympathizer dealt with the American invasion of Vietnam through his eyes, and was a meditation on the conflict, patriotism, espionage, the depiction of conflicts in pop culture. This book , while ostensibly about Vo Danh ( not his name, I know, but less unwieldy than typing out variations of "nameless narrator"each time!) trying to survive in Paris with Bon, explores the effects of French colonialism on Vietnam, the fallout of that, capitalism and communism and everything in between, and most importantly, reconciling the contradictory parts of your own identity. The conceit of the narrator being a double agent was perfect for The Sympathizer, and works just as well here-the narrator's always in a bind from being able to recognize all the nuances of a situation and ever point of view. That's a great narrative device, because the writer uses that to explore the many facets of being an immigrant to a country that was formerly a coloniser. Viet Thanh Nguyen's writing is as perspicacious as ever in his observations about people, and governments, and how inhuman we really are.
To me, though, the book has a lot of "Tell, instead of show"elements-throughout the book, there are various instances of the writer quoting from works by other thinkers, (Fanon in particular) on the implications of colonialism and the enduring effects that's had on the world, and he engages with those ideas to apply them to that specific situation. Those parts are very well-written and deeply thought-provoking, but just as he's built up a fascinating discussion, the book reverts to a not-particularly well-written crime thriller. In the acknowledgements, Nguyen specifically lists out all the philosophers he's read who have inspired him, and that he wanted this book to be about his engagement with their ideas. Since that was the case, and he clearly has a lot to say that's genuinely insightful, I wish the book had been a collection of essays, on the theme, or that the book had been longer so he could more fully develop on those themes. The Sympathizer did not have a single element that felt irrelevant or pointless, everything meshed perfectly to play a part in developing the writer's theme of the conflict from his perspective. The Committed, however, has multiple instances that seem completely superfluous-the long-winded operations of the gangs, multiple repetitive descriptions of the filthy loo he has to scrub, an orgy meant to show the deeply racist and troubling fantasies of a colonial power, that in turn completely dehumanises the prostitutes forced to take part in it, a scene that ran for far too long describing in unnecessary detail the narrator's bowel movements (yes, you've read that right), in complete contrast to the hilarity of scenes like the memorable squid Portnoy scene in The Sympathizer. Additionally, the female characters literally fall into Madonna/Whore dichotomies- with the writer again performing a 'Tell ,not show", with a couple of characters hurling Helene Cixous' and Kristeva's names at you and scorning the rest of us for being banal and only knowing about Beauvoir and Arendt. I think it's great if the writer wants us to know about a variety of thinkers-it would enhance that if instead of showing me how well-read he is, there was more direct engagement with their ideas, which he tries with a paragraph or two about Kristeva right at the end. By then, however, the twists and turns and happenstance through the book is so exhausting that the denouement, which should have been heart-breaking, is merely annoying. I don't expect books to be perfect and satisfy everyone, however I do expect it to be true to its themes. I keep bringing up The Sympathizer because that's one of my favourite books, and provided an extremely unique, nuanced perspective. The Committed has the advantage of that perspective, but it gets lost amidst the mediocre crime thriller elements. I appreciate his appeal to the power of moderation in face of extremist thought, though I found his proposed solution to rising fascism a little naive in its assumption of good faith-which is strange coming from a writer as clear-sighted as he is.
I've given this book 4 stars, and docked just one, despite an entire paragraph devoted to its shortcomings! Viet Thanh Nguyen is a great writer, with some very powerful insights. I love his style of writing-I've never seen stream-of-consciousness used as well as he does, in any other works of literature. His extremely powerful passages, that usually extend upto at least a page, describe generations of injustice, their fallout, the difficulties of overcoming them and the effects on subsequent generations, and how better to explain the insidiousness of this than a powerful rant that has to compress world-altering occurrences in a single page. His understanding, and ability to write complicated socio-political ideas in a lucid way that can be applied to a multitude of experiences is as sharp as ever. He clearly has so much to say that's of value, that I was glued to the page despite being aware of all the parts of the book I wasn't enjoying. I would recommend this book for Vo Danh's unmatched ability to see all sides of a situation, and the writer's wince-inducing thoughts on humanity and governments.
I'm really glad Grove Atlantic and NetGalley gave me this opportunity to review this ARC!
#TheCommitted #NetGalley

I have not read the Sympathizer and I did not realize this was a sequel/follow up. So I did enjoy it as some back story is given, but I think you might like it more if you have read the Sympathizer "The Sympathizer" is the main character of the book and it is set in 1980s Paris. It is both full of action and can be very long-winded and philosophical at times, which makes for an interesting combination and one reason why this book may not be for everyone. There are also some torture scenes, so trigger warning there.

Viet Thanh Nguyen can do no wrong in my eyes. He is the modern Vietnamese immigrant, now successful celebrated American writer.

The Committed, the HIGHLY anticipated sequel to The Sympathizer, is perfection. Now, "Crazy Bastard' is in Paris and works dealing hash and heroin. Much like The Sympathizer - the book is stream of conciseness from an unreliable narrator......and that's why it's brilliant.

I've already pre-ordered copies for my mom and sisters.

Thank you NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the opportunity to read this book. Thank you to Viet Thanh Nguyen for being amazing.

The Commited
by Viet Thanh Nguyen

This is a difficult book to read on many levels. Maybe, as described by the author, the American mentality does not lend itself to the types of thinking he attributes to all the various non-white peoples of the world who have been colonized and subjugated by world powers such as France, America, Russia, China etc. This may be true. However, the level of depravity and violence he describes cannot solely be blamed on the colonizers.

The protagonist in this book is a self proclaimed communist, spy, and traitor who has commited many crimes including multiple murders. He has betrayed his closest friends. The many pages made up of long, convoluted, endless sentences dealing with his soul-searching and his desire to be forgiven, made this reader want this book to come to an end. It became very hard to feel empathy for the protagonist when trying to wend my way through the mass of verbiage.

I am a fan of Viet Thanh Nguyen's previous work, "The Sympathizer," a spy novel. I don't generally care about spy novels, but this one, set against the backdrop of the fall of Saigon, was amazing. It won all the awards, and deservedly so. This book doesn't reach the lofty heights of "The Sympathizer" but it is still a well-written book that suffers from the comparison to its predecessor.. It continues the story of the main character from "The Sympathizer," who with his friend Bon has moved to Paris and ends up dealing drugs. As the reader, you will sympathize with him, even if you think drug dealing is immoral. During his dealing, he may make money, but his psyche suffers as he sees the effect that his dealing has not only on himself, but the people around him. The language is beautiful, as Nguyen has a knack for making what could be a rote sentence into something far more artistic and beautiful on the tongue. But it does lag in areas and the storyline can sometimes be frustrating. Still, it takes us away to 1980s Paris, and that journey alone is worth the price of this book.

Thank you Netgalley for this digital ARC. My opinions are my own and unbiased.

I must confess that I have not read the preceding novel, but I found prior events to be summed up well enough that I feel this novel works as a standalone piece. I also must confess that I found this novel to be exhausting. Between the intermittent philosophical and political diatribes and the graphic incidents of violence, it was a tough read.

The prose itself was carefully crafted and the plot was interesting, but it was often difficult for me to follow the action as it was interspersed between angry post-colonial screeds. I think I understand what the author was trying to do, how he was trying to show the mindset of the main character with this fraught narrative, but I think it still could have used some good editing.

Even though I didn't love this novel, it has made me want to read its predecessor as the writing itself is so good and the main character is interesting. Perhaps I will appreciate this one more after reading the first.

Follow up to The Sympathizer (amazing!) - the Vietnamese spy is now in Paris, it is the early 1980s. He survived a reeducation camp and ends up selling drugs to the French bourgeoisie.
Philosophy, French music, gritty turf wars, search for identity. There's an awful lot going on in this beautifully written novel.

Viet Thanh Nguyen revisits our narrator from the Sympathizer with his sequel, The Committed. Here, our narrator's conscious has become more fractured as he views life from the outside, now in Paris as a refugee. In this novel, as in The Sympathizer, Nguyen masterfully and wittily describes issues of identity (this time with a healthy sprinkling of the smugness and hypocrisy of French intellectuals who purport to be anti-colonialist). Some may complain that the book reads more like an anti-colonialist treatise than a novel, but I personally found that to be the strongest part of the book. I was highlighting passages at a time of the narrator's thoughts about the reaches of colonization - not least within the mind, and of culture. Questions of orientalism are very much in the forefront in this novel as the characters play into the oriental aesthetic willingly and unwillingly, becoming objects for convenience or disguise.

Overall I thought it was an incredibly written book, which forced me as a reader to take into account all of the issues that the narrator throws up and grapple with his flippant intellectual efforts to untangle his identities. The narration was a nonstop stream of consciousness that did not overly concern itself with an organized structure of story, but captured the state of our protagonist's mind well. While I enjoyed engaging with the issues this novel brought up, I felt trapped by the plot of gangsters and prostitutes that the narrator brings us into. I don't think Nguyen necessarily wants his readers to enjoy the ride so to speak, but I did feel exhausted and even jaded by the twists and turns of the plot (perhaps his point)?

Thanks to Grove Atlantic for an ARC through NetGalley.

A brilliant sequel to a highly regarded debut. This gifted and original writer has much to say, and handles the tone and content, the combination of narrative and philosophy, humor and tragedy with enormous ability. Deftly plotted, with surprises aplenty, and events both high and low, this is a something for everyone novel. Rare.

Viet Thanh Nguyen's follow up to his brilliant novel The Sympathizer trails the narrator (he's either crazy bastard or Le Chinois or Joseph Nguyen as the situation calls for it) as he lands as a Vietnamese refugee in his mid-thirties in the Paris of 1980s. He briefly shacks up with his communist intellectual aunt, gets employment as a janitor in a clientele-free Asian restaurant that's a front for a gangster, starts selling hashish to Parisian leftist intellectuals and sometimes even confronts them of their racial fetishes, masked as racial equality. The book is breathlessly paced and filled with searing, stream of consciousness prose that is sure a delight for some (read, me) but may not sustain other people's attention. In any case, I imagine you'd have to be invested in The Sympathizer a fair deal to pick this book up. Nguyen's prose takes the reader on a whirlwind trip across Paris in the 1980s and provides a fair bit of scathing commentary about racism, capitalism, communism and sundry. Quite enjoyed reading it.

ps: I think Grove Atlantic & Netgalley for the eARC .

Not for me! Brilliantly written and very humorous, but this was more of an extended essay on colonialism than a novel for me. Couldn't make out the plot due to all the extended (and heavy handed) musings from the narrator. Stopped reading about halfway through.

This novel is a sequel to the fabulous The Sympathizer. This book picks up where the earlier tale leaves off and underscores absurdity in a similar way. But, likely because The Sympathizer was so successful, this novel fell flat to me and sort of watered down the first novel.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.
Find the full review and others at: https://bookclubbed.buzzsprout.com/1572124/7443568-the-committed-political-binaries-are-not-a-personality

Viet Thanh Nguyen is a sterling writer. There is no doubt in regard to his political convictions, his vision for The Committed, and the wide swath of political theory he has at his disposal. There are times when the writing sings, and he handles the violence with a Reservoir Dogs tone.

Unfortunately, the majority of this book is long-winded, repetitive political theory laundered through the protagonist attempting to secure an identity in Paris. This is understandable in a sense, given the character’s backstory and the inextricable link between colonizer/colonized and his status in France. However, capitalist diatribes by secondary characters are exhausting, especially when they are so banal. We get it, I wanted to plead with the author, please move on to something else.

The author overrides the protagonist, postcolonial lens fused to his face so he can’t possibly interpret his world in any other sense. It borders on solipsism, and the reductive musings on “nothing” isn’t nearly as interesting as the author makes it out to be. There is inscrutable wordplay (and rhetorical questions) that we are supposed to assume is clever if no meaning can be drawn out of it.

The conversations are interrupted by brief spasms of violence centered around drug warfare and territory control. At that point, however, every character is a vehicle for their political beliefs and I couldn’t have cared less about what happened to them.

At points in the novel, Nguyen draws on Fanon so much that you might be better served just reading the source material.

I’m blown away, again. The Sympathizer was one of the best books I’ve ever read. I loved living in the main character’s head as he relentlessly unfolded his story of identity, confusion, and belonging. I was a few sentences into The Committed when I remembered how much I loved the previous book and how nice it was to be back in the main character’s head.

The setting is different, lots of new characters and challenges, but it’s 100% as good and compelling as ever. The writing is spectacular, there are so many hilarious and poignant moments. The main character continues to struggle with identity. He doesn’t fit perfectly wherever he is. He’s victim of colonialism who doesn’t really have a home.

It’s compelling, tense, funny, and totally unique. A perfect sequel. Hopefully there’s a part 3!

I didn't read The Sympathizer so I'm less familiar with the author and the main character than others. I still very much enjoyed this book both for the storylines and the themes throughout. The story becomes very different in the end and it's definitely a book where the ending makes you go back and reread the beginning. I was many times left wondering what was real and what was in the narrator's head. I'm still left questioning what really happened, which definitely isn't a bad thing. Not only is the story ultimately thought-provoking but the expressed themes of colonialism, war, and capitalism/socialism/communism were also quite provocative as well. Not a perfect book overall, but definitely a great and memorable read.

(I read an advanced copy via NetGalley.) If you want to know my thoughts on how much respect I have for Nguyen, read my long-okay-it's-really-long review of THE SYMPATHIZER. Here for my review of THE COMMITTED, I'm going to try to keep it short. This novel is BRILLIANT. I loved the first book but this sequel really brought it a notch up. I love love love that the sequel seamlessly picks up where the first book drops off and reveals more of the unnamed narrator including a reveal of his supposed name!!! There was a lot of philosophy talk around Fanon, Adorno, and Cesaire -- all of whom are strangers to me. The philosophy combined with commentary on the binary of communism and capitalism were fascinating but at some points overwhelming. Nguyen really envelopes the reader into the narrator's world to the point where I felt like I was high for 42% of the book (heh). The last little tidbit I'll point out is Nguyen's fantastic play on words; without giving too much away, the title and some proper nouns are puns! I loved this book and cannot wait to discuss THE COMMITTED with the rest of my bookish friends, and I'm also beyond excited to add this to my bookshelf when it comes out!

I thoroughly enjoyed Nguyen's prior book, The Sympathizer, and I was very excited to see that he had written a sequel novel. Seeing Paris through the eyes of a refugee, rather than as a European travel destination, was equal parts provoking and disappointing. I enjoy Nguyen's imperfect characters, and the Sympathizer's attempts to reconcile the two opposing halves of his life are heartbreakingly poignant. Overall, I enjoyed The Sympathizer more as a whole, but I do like having the follow-up of what happened after he escaped Vietnam.

3 stars for a book that is overloaded with the tortured mind of a Vietnamese spy now in France. I decided to read this book because i had read and enjoyed 2 books previously by this author.
The steam of consciousness writing, with an emphasis on the ideas of various philosophers is at times confusing and too much information. That, plus depictions of torture, detracted from the enjoyment of the book.
On the plus side, there is some interesting commentary from the Vietnamese point of view on American society, French colonizers and present French society.
One quote, a self description: "Perhaps that was just another name for a man with two faces and two minds. If so, at least I knew who I was, and that was more than could be said for most. The dual images of myself floating in his lenses reminded me that I was not one, but two, not only me or moi but also, on occasion, we or us."
Thanks to Grove Atlantic for sending me this book through NetGalley.
#TheCommitted #NetGalley

I was very intrigued by the plot and the character. Unfortunately, I haven't read the previous book yet, hence I feel I did not fully connect. But will read The Sympathizer in the future and reread this. Sure it will be much pleasurable.