Finished: The Sympathizer (Nguyen) Perhaps the first book I've ever read where not a single word of prose was wasted, at least not to me, The Sympathizer is a Pulitzer Prize winning book which tells the story of a communist double agent in 1975 South Vietnam. The narrator, a captain in the South Vietnamese military, working directly for a general and his family, tells his story in a 300+ page confession to his North Vietnamese commandant after he is captured by his own people during one of his double agent non-assignments gone wrong. I think I may have learned more about, or at least related more to, the war in Vietnam than I did when I was in my teens and living with it on our television news broadcasts every night. The story begins in April of 1975 with the fall of Saigon as the captain scrambles to get the general, his family, a select few of his officers, and his own best friend, Bon, with wife and child, out of the country. Their narrow escape by the last plane taking off from the airport as the enemy closes in with bombs and gunfire is harrowing and heartbreaking. All of the major players that move forward in the story make it out safely, except for his best friend's wife and baby son. :-( :-( It is just so horrific. And thus we see the first sign of the captain's grand dilemma. He's grown to care about the general and his family, but he loves with all his heart his best friend Bon. Yet, his complete allegiance lies with his communist cause. The captain, who is never named, and Bon and another Vietnamese man, named Man, all met as young teens at school, and then attended university in the United States. Man and Bon had jumped into a fight where the captain was being beat up by bullies, much larger than all three of them, and though they were all battered and bruised, they went that night together and sliced their hands and became blood brothers for life. From that moment on, they had each other's backs no matter what. What Bon didn't realize was that once Man and the captain got done with university, they had both bought into the Communist Manifesto and had turned against their country and his own ideals. Working in South Vietnam, but directly against Bon's own cause for a non-communist country, Man and the captain remained the best of friends with Bon, but never told him of their allegiance. So...after the captain, Bon, the general, his family, and the other few officers escaped from Saigon to the United States, they first suffered through the tragic funerals and burials of Bon's wife and child, and then through two different "refugee camps", before landing in California where they scraped by on menial jobs. The captain kept in touch with Man through super secret letters, reporting back to him all the details of how the general was planning to get his men back together to once again go and retake South Vietnam. Of course, it was a pie in the sky idea, but the general was determined, and so he actually got secret funding from one powerful congressman. So many details and a few notable side stories will not be in this recap, but as I said earlier, the prose was just riveting, heartbreaking, page-turning at times, introspective, and sometimes required me to read pages two or three times to make sure I understood exactly what was being said. The captain stayed loyal to his communist cause throughout the entire book, but it was definitely clear the he sympathized with the plight of his South Vietnamese countrymen and fellow refugees. In the last hurrah, when the general felt he had enough backing, he decided to send a delegation of his men back to Vietnam to penetrate into the North Vietnamese territory and go on a scouting mission to see if his idea was viable. Bon volunteered to go right away, on this mission that was basically a suicide mission. Bon had nothing more to live for but to die for his country after losing his wife and child. When Bon volunteered, then the captain volunteered immediately as well. Reluctantly, the general gave him the go ahead to be a part of the group. Man, however, in a secret-coded letter back to the captain told him his orders were to "stay there, do not come". The captain was determined, though, to go and in being there, figure out a way to save Bon's life, so he disobeyed orders for the first time in his life. Once there, having spent several grueling days in the heat penetrating all the way into Laos, the group was attacked by the enemy and taken to a prison camp. This camp is where the captain was kept in isolation for a year, writing his "confession" to his North Vietnamese superiors. That's all I'm going to say about this, because there are a couple more surprises towards the end. The book itself was just very, very good. It also forced me to look up things about the Vietnam War that I never knew, even though it was a prominent feature of my teen years. I'm so glad to have read this book and it will definitely be finding a place in my Top 100!