Book Review: “The Committed” by Viet Than Nguyen

The Committed by Viet Than Nguyen

This book continues the unpleasant story from The Sympathizer (2015).  The protagonist (his name and identity are uncertain) has moved to Paris circa 1980, to live among the large ex patriot Vietnamese population there.  He is no happier and no saner than in the earlier story in Viet Nam and America.

From this side of the Atlantic, the good news is that the French and French culture are now the recipients of Nguyen’s savage attentions, sparing America from quite so much painful observation.  And, once again, it isn’t pretty at all.

The protagonist dances at edges of society, sucked into a criminal life of drug dealing, violence, and other crimes.  He is also dancing at the edges of a complicated cultural life, criss crossed by colonialism, racial, and ex patriot politics. 

As we know from The Sympathizer, the protagonist is not a whole, healthy, and sane man. His Parisian life style does little to heal him.  Not that he is looking for healing or trying for anything other than oblivion.

Written in the first person, much of the book is a mish mash of fantasy, confusion, and stinging observations of the idiocy of the French and everyone else.  It’s not pleasant to read.

It seems that Nguyen is exorcising a lot of personal ghosts, and retelling the history of his country and his people.

But I hope this isn’t completely autobiographical, because it is so very, very dark.

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1. Viet Than Nguyen, The Committed, New York, Grove Press, 2021.

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