A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, a History, a Memorial
Book critic, Thuy Dinh, adds A Man of Two Faces to NPR’s 2023 list of ‘Books We Love’
Viet Thanh Nguyen
Combining elements of stand-up comedy and slam poetry, the author of The Sympathizer and The Refugees tells a story that aligns his personal trajectory of moving to the U.S. as a refugee from Vietnam with other lives affected by unruly forces. To guard against any dominant culture’s view of history, he urges inheritors of secondhand memory – those who were not witnesses to the original event but learn about the past through testimonials, film and literature – to investigate the intent in every narrative, as well as any system that suppresses disputes. His approach embraces a diasporic writer’s divided self as a site of endless examination.
