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The Committed
The Committed | Viet Thanh Nguyen
13 posts | 9 read | 16 to read
The sequel to The Sympathizer, winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, The Committed follows the "man of two minds" as he comes as a refugee to France and turns his hand to capitalism, dealing drugs in 1980s Paris but unable to escape his past
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review
DivineDiana
The Committed | Viet Thanh Nguyen
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Mehso-so

I did not enjoy reading this book,but I appreciate the author‘s skill in portraying the feelings of a young man born in Vietnam to a Vietnamese mother and a French Catholic priest,as he navigates life in Paris. It is the follow up to the Pulitzer Prize winning,The Sympathizer,which I did not read. On the surface, it is about gangsters, drug deals, prostitutes, communists, and gross behavior, but underneath,it is a book of philosophy.Not for me.

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DivineDiana
The Committed | Viet Thanh Nguyen
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“The American Way of Life! Eat too much, work too much, READ TOO LITTLE, think even less, and die in poverty and insecurity.”

Of course, this does not apply to Littens!

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DivineDiana
The Committed | Viet Thanh Nguyen
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Times running out for this Book Club pick! Can not renew because someone is waiting! Do you know that feeling? Luckily, I found a real book copy at the Library!

EvieBee Totally. I‘ve been known to put my kindle on airplane mode so I have as much time as I need even after it‘s returned. 3y
Ruthiella Yes! I‘ve done the airplane mode trick before too! Works like a charm (unless you want to upload something new). 😅 3y
DivineDiana @EvieBee @Ruthiella Thank you! I did not know about that trick! My Kindle is very old, but will see if I can do that! 3y
SamAnne This is on my list! 3y
DivineDiana @SamAnne I didn‘t realize that this is a sequel to his book (edited) 3y
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review
JackieGreco
The Committed | Viet Thanh Nguyen
Pickpick

I think that this series is so interesting and insightful into Vietnamese culture. The main character describes himself as two different minds and understands both sides of the divide in Vietnam. I empathize with the struggle of not understanding your own identity especially when your culture is colonized. 4/5

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k8makesart
The Committed | Viet Thanh Nguyen
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"On the one hand, the ugly American, who did not care what he ate so long as he ate too much of it, especially gigantic slabs of still-bleeding red meat. On the other hand, the chic Frenchman, who preferred the refined cruelty of foie gras."

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review
Shakesteve
The Committed | Viet Thanh Nguyen
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Pickpick

This is a sequel to a previous novel, The Sympathizer. The title character of that book was a Vietnamese Communist spy during the Vietnam War; a man with two minds, as he describes himself. This amazing but unreliable narrator returns in this novel and he is now an expatriate in Paris, selling heroin for The Boss, a gangster he met in a refugee camp. The books are great, but sometimes go on philosophical tangents which can slow the story.

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Bookish.SAM
The Committed | Viet Thanh Nguyen
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Mehso-so

The follow-up to The Sympathizer and I did like this one a fair bit better (though I think I‘m in the minority with that). I enjoyed all the political/philosophical references… making me want to return to all those old university readings 🤓
#beachreads 🌊☀️
#booksandbooze

Ruthiella Apparently the first book also has a bunch of literary references, all of which I missed! 😆 But I was recently reminded of the scene with the liver in Portnoy‘s Complaint and was able to connect it to the scene with the octopus in The Sympathizer. I‘d like to read an annotated version of it, if there is one. 3y
43 likes1 comment
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Mitch
The Committed | Viet Thanh Nguyen
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KatieDid927
The Committed | Viet Thanh Nguyen
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Mehso-so

Eh. This is definitely one of those sequels that didn‘t need to happen. I did enjoy revisiting this world and characters, but ultimately this follow-up doesn‘t enrich the first novel. The narrative is less cohesive and the book overall felt like a self-indulgence on the part of the author. The best I can say is it doesn‘t fall into the category of sequels so bad that they make the first book worse.

BarbaraBB That‘s a pity 🤷🏻‍♀️ 4y
40 likes1 comment
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Vansa
The Committed | Viet Thanh Nguyen
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@TheSpineView #Two4Tuesday
1.Tagged book, full review here.It wasn't as good as The Sympathiser which is very sad when you have a writer as talented as Viet Thanh Nguyen. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3748901075
2.The Ents, by far.So wise and majestic and so kind. They're absolutely perfect. Treebeard is so memorable.What the movies did to them was a travesty.

TheSpineView Thanks for playing! 4y
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ChrisBohjalian
The Committed | Viet Thanh Nguyen
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Bedtime reading. Good-night.

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Well-ReadNeck
The Committed | Viet Thanh Nguyen
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Mehso-so

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. #ARC #netgalley

KathyWheeler I hate to hear that. I loved The Sympathizer. 4y
Well-ReadNeck @KathyWheeler Me, too. I think that was part of the issue for me. The Sympathizer was so unique and this is necessarily similar 4y
KathyWheeler @Well-ReadNeck Sometimes that can be a problem. 4y
65 likes2 stack adds3 comments
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rachelm
The Committed | Viet Thanh Nguyen
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Pickpick


A few notes. I'm not sure I'm smart enough-- or ever could be smart enough-- to unearth all of the points that Nguyen puts forward in this text. At its heart, it's a book about colonialism, hidden under a veil of a gangster narrative. Like The Sympathizer, our narrator has a wry sensibility and surrounds himself (on purpose or accident) with philosophers-- even if they wouldn't consider themselves that way. (More in comments 👇🏼)

rachelm The plot meanders a bit, but as a reader I was so rooted in the voice, I couldn't help but want to follow (even when I couldn't 'follow' every argument). This book is not, nor does it advertise itself to be, light reading, and the violence in every meaning of the word could put off some readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
4y
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