Pacific Affairs Reviews Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War
Nguyễn Thị Điểu reviews Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War. Originally published by Pacific Affairs. Decades ago, at the end of a devastating conflict, a flow of humanity, braving all dangers while paying a deadly price, fled Indochina to asylum countries where they resettled into new lives, their homelands branded into their […]
Journal of American History on Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War
Susan Southard from The Journal of American History reviews Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War. Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Nothing Ever Dies is an elegant, scholarly, and searing exploration of how personal and national identity, ideology, economics, and the power dynamics between countries formerly at war—combined with each nation’s industries of war and […]
Singapore Unbound: The Refugees
Andrea Yew of Singapore Unbound examines the themes of identity, displacement, and trauma in Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Refugees. In a time characterized by political instability and virulent polemics, Viet Thanh Nguyen’s collection of short stories The Refugees is a much-needed mediation about the experience of displacement. From the young Vietnamese refugee who is haunted by the loss of […]
La lucidesa bastarda d’un home escindit
Pere Antoni Pons reviews The Sympathizer for ARA. El primer que sabem del narrador protagonista d’ El simpatitzant, eldebut novel·lístic del nord-americà d’origen vietnamita Viet Thanh Nguyen, guardonat amb el Pulitzer de ficció 2016, és que és “un espia, un agent secret, un agent dorment, un home amb dues cares”. I ho sabem perquè ell mateix és obligat a explicar-ho: […]
Vrienden in Vietnam
Annemarie van Niekerk reviews The Sympathizer for Truow. Je hoeft niet over een kristallen bol te beschikken om te kunnen voorspellen dat er onder de talloze vluchtelingen die nu de Middellandse Zee oversteken ook potentiële schrijvers zitten die binnen enkele decennia stem zullen geven aan hun ervaringen. Die toekomstige migrantauteurs hebben een voorganger in Viet […]
Dawn: The Refugees
Dawn’s Hurmat Kazmi reviews the short stories within Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Refugees, and comments on its timely publishing. Had he not deservedly won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction last year with his novel The Sympathiser, Viet Thanh Nguyen, like the characters in his new book of short stories, The Refugees, may have been overwhelmed. […]
Ny Tid Reviews The Refugees
Birgitte Gustava Røthe Bjørnøy of Ny Tid reviews Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Refugees, noting the well-timed and universality of its themes. Reportes Without Borders kunne i desember 2016 meddele at 348 journalister satt fengslet verden over – en økning på seks prosent fra året før. Mye av dette skyldes forholdene i Tyrkia, men dette burde på ingen […]
Back to school: Vietnam at both ends
Philippe Chevilley reviews Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer. Originally published on Les Echos. La guerre du Vietnam revue et corrigée par un étonnant agent double : cette épopée mi-tragique, mi-burlesque, premier roman d’un jeune écrivain américain d’origine vietnamienne, a été couronnée du prix Pulitzer 2016. Viet Thanh Nguyen a une double origine : né au […]
Diplomatic History Reviews Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War
Christian G. Appy reviews Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War in Volume 41 of Diplomatic History. Combining cultural analysis, philosophical reflection, political manifesto, travel narrative, and autobiography, Nothing Ever Dies is a rangy, original, and provocative meditation on the ethics of war memory. Though its arguments implicate war in general, the book’s substance […]
Sydney Morning Herald: The Refugees
Helen Elliot looks into the themes of loss, trauma, and possibility in Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Refugees in this review for The Sydney Morning Herald. In an age of hype when you cannot trust previously reliable prizes it is difficult finding the exact note for sincere praise. Viet Thanh Nguyen won a prestigious prize for his […]
8Books Reviews The Refugees
Lily Wong of 8Asians reviews The Refugees. Viet Thanh Nguyen’s newest book, The Refugees, is a luminous collection of eight short stories that takes piercingly intimate looks at the lives of refugees, of those caught between worlds, of those caught in a moment. The Pulitzer Prize winning author’s recent books included The Sympathizer, a wry novel about […]
Necessary Fiction: The Refugees
Necessary Fiction‘s Emily Hoover reviews The Refugees, Viet Thanh Nguyen’s newest short story collection. About his 1980 novel Antwerp, Chilean author Roberto Bolaño once said: “I wrote this book for the ghosts, who, because they’re outside of time, are the only ones with time.” In an age of closing borders and building walls, it is […]
The One Book You Need To Read To Understand The Plight Of Refugees
Claire Fallon reviews The Refugees for The Huffington Post’s ‘The Bottom Line’. In nine psychologically evocative short stories, Viet Thanh Nguyen lays bare the trauma and emotional ambivalence that lie beneath sentimental or heroic tales of refugees. The Refugees, Viet Thanh Nguyen’s fiction follow-up to his acclaimed debut novel, The Sympathizer, would be critically praised […]
Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Refugees: Restrained Cast of Displaced People
James Grainger of the Toronto Star reviews The Refugees, Viet Thanh Nguyen’s short story collection. In follow-up to award-winning debut The Sympathizer, Nguyen instinctively understands what to leave off the page, what to include, and when to allow readers to fill in the most painful details. Literary award juries are not noted for rewarding bold, […]
Reading a Pulitzer Winner’s Stories About Refugees as Particularly Piquant in the Trump Era
Anu Kumar of Scroll.in reviews Viet Thanh Nguyen’s short story collection, The Refugees. A meme bearing a much-cited Naguib Mahfouz quote has been doing the internet rounds recently: “…Home is where all attempts to escape cease.” Words that seem particularly relevant and poignant at this juncture, with the world facing a refugee and humanitarian crisis, […]
