From the Bookshelves: The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen coming to HBO
Viet Thanh Nguyen‘s novel The Symphatizer is an espionage thriller and satire about the struggles of a half-French, half-Vietnamese communist spy during the final days of the Vietnam War and his resulting exile in the United States. It is told in the form of a forced confession from the conficted spy. It won the 2016 Pulitzer prize and the author additionally won a 2017 MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant.
The novel will become a film starring Robert Downey, Jr. Oldboy director Park Chan-wook will be the director. They will co-produce together with Don McKellar, Susan Downey, Amanda Burrell, Niv Fichman, Kim Ly and others. The series is a co-production between HBO, A24 and Rhombus Media in association with Cinetic Media and Moho Film. (Additional coverage here.)
A worldwide search is currently underway for the lead role and the rest of the predominantly Vietnamese ensemble.
The publisher’s book description says:
A profound, startling, and beautifully crafted debut novel, The Sympathizer is the story of a man of two minds, someone whose political beliefs clash with his individual loyalties. In dialogue with but diametrically opposed to the narratives of the Vietnam War that have preceded it, this novel offers an important and unfamiliar new perspective on the war: that of a conflicted communist sympathizer.
It is April 1975, and Saigon is in chaos. At his villa, a general of the South Vietnamese army is drinking whiskey and, with the help of his trusted captain, drawing up a list of those who will be given passage aboard the last flights out of the country. The general and his compatriots start a new life in Los Angeles, unaware that one among their number, the captain, is secretly observing and reporting on the group to a higher-up in the Viet Cong. The Sympathizer is the story of this captain: a man brought up by an absent French father and a poor Vietnamese mother, a man who went to university in America, but returned to Vietnam to fight for the Communist cause. Viet Thanh Nguyen’s astonishing novel takes us inside the mind of this double agent, a man whose lofty ideals necessitate his betrayal of the people closest to him. A gripping spy novel, an astute exploration of extreme politics, and a moving love story, The Sympathizer explores a life between two worlds and examines the legacy of the Vietnam War in literature, film, and the wars we fight today.
Here is a clip of an NPR interview with Viet Thanh Nguyen describing the book and its inspirations in his own life as a Vietnamese refugee growing up in San Jose.
MHC