Choosing the French as New Targets
Nguyen jokes that after offending Americans and Vietnamese of all backgrounds in The Sympathizer, he wondered who was left to target in his sequel and realized the obvious answer was the French.
Reviewed
Read Time
8 min read
Our age bandAdult
Reader rating
4.3 · 2,971 Amazon ratings
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Our review
The Committed
The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen Review: A Razor-Sharp Sequel Set in Paris
The Committed is Viet Thanh Nguyen's sequel to his Pulitzer Prize-winning debut The Sympathizer, following the unnamed narrator as he arrives in Paris in the early 1980s with his blood brother Bon, becomes entangled in organized crime, and confronts the deep contradictions of French colonialism and identity. It is a New York Times bestseller that extends one of contemporary fiction's most politically fearless voices into new, equally combustible territory.
LuvemBooks Verdict
Best for
Readers who loved The Sympathizer and want to follow the Captain's fractured identity into postcolonial Paris, and who relish fiction that operates simultaneously as crime thriller, dark comedy, and philosophical essay on colonialism and belonging.
Worth it if
You've read The Sympathizer and are prepared to engage Nguyen's dense, allusive prose as both gripping narrative and sustained political meditation — the novel's ironies and layered postcolonial argument reward exactly that dual attention.
Skip if
You haven't read The Sympathizer, prefer propulsive genre thrillers over philosophical fiction, or find extended intellectual digressions a barrier to narrative enjoyment — this is not a standalone entry point.
Where reviewers agree and split
Readers rate it 4.3 on Amazon. The reviews we read that discuss it in depth split on some points:
- Positive
BookBrowse · Magazine: ambitious literary thriller securing author's place in American literature (from its headline)
- Mixed
Book Clubs · Book blog: entertaining but overshadowed by the original's greater novelty (from its headline)
What readers & critics say
Kirkus Reviews (starred review) calls it "a quirky intellectual crime story that highlights the Vietnam War's complex legacy," praising Nguyen's deft balance of existential despair and the lurid glow of a crime saga. The Guardian's review, by Aminatta Forna, frames the novel as a powerful challenge to enduring narratives of colonialism, arguing that together with The Sympathizer it amounts to much more than the sum of its parts. Slate highlights a "deliciously complex irony" in transplanting the narrator to France — the very colonial power that shaped Vietnam — and notes that Nguyen's satirical scope has shifted continents without narrowing. Bookmarks Reviews observes that while the novel indulges in espionage high jinks, Nguyen is less interested in thriller mechanics than a plot summary might suggest, and that the book carries some of a sequel's inherent inelegance alongside its transcendent ambitions.
“A quirky intellectual crime story that highlights the Vietnam War's complex legacy — Nguyen is deft at balancing his hero's existential despair with the lurid glow of a crime saga.”
— Kirkus Reviews“Together with The Sympathizer, it amounts to much more than the sum of its parts — a powerful challenge to an enduring narrative of colonialism and neo-colonialism.”
— The Guardian“There's a deliciously complex irony to this development, as there is in so much of Nguyen's fiction.”
— Slate4.3from 2,971 Amazon ratings— reader ratings, not a LuvemBooks score
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The Committed, Viet Thanh Nguyen's sequel to his Pulitzer Prize-winning debut The Sympathizer, follows the unnamed narrator and his blood brother Bon into the Paris underworld of the early 1980s, where organized crime becomes the backdrop for a searing reckoning with French colonialism, fractured identity, and postcolonial irony. A dense, satirically brilliant continuation of one of contemporary fiction's most politically fearless voices, the novel sustains Nguyen's signature blend of thriller momentum and philosophical weight across a new continent. It is essential reading for those already invested in the trilogy — though readers new to the series should begin with The Sympathizer, as this is not a standalone entry point.
- Is it worth reading?
- For readers who have finished The Sympathizer, The Committed delivers the same caustic wit, philosophical gravitas, and broad historical understanding in a new setting with new antagonists — and Nguyen's satirical wit operates at full force, skewering colonialism, ideology, and identity without relinquishing narrative momentum. The novel is a New York Times bestseller and continues a series that has sold more than one million copies worldwide, signaling a wide and enthusiastic readership. The key caveat is patience: Nguyen's dense, allusive prose and extended philosophical passages reward engaged readers, but those seeking a more propulsive or straightforward thriller may find the intellectual interludes demanding.
- Similar books
- Readers drawn to The Committed's blend of postcolonial argument, fractured identity, and literary ambition will find rich companions in the curated selection below. The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen is the essential predecessor and first volume of the trilogy. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz similarly uses bravura voice and dark comedy to examine colonialism's long shadow on identity. Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar and James by Percival Everett both interrogate inherited histories and selfhood through formally inventive, politically charged prose. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, like Nguyen's work, transplants a classic narrative tradition into a marginalized American experience with fierce satirical intent.
- Who should read this?
- The Committed is best suited to readers who have already experienced The Sympathizer and are ready to follow the narrator's fractured identity into new, equally combustible territory. It will particularly reward fans of literary fiction that blends genre — crime narrative, psychological thriller, and postcolonial essay — with philosophical and political depth. Readers drawn to authors like Junot Díaz or Percival Everett, who use voice and formal ambition to interrogate history and identity, will find Nguyen's approach kindred. Patient, engaged readers willing to sit with dense, allusive prose will get the most from its layered ironies and dark comedy.
- Where should I start with Nguyen?
- The essential starting point is The Sympathizer — Nguyen's 2015 debut, winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction along with seven other prizes, and the first volume of a planned trilogy. It introduces the unnamed narrator, establishes the political and psychological framework that The Committed deepens, and has been credited as one of only a handful of American novels about the Vietnam War and its aftermath that centers Vietnamese characters. The Committed is the second volume and rewards readers who arrive with full knowledge of the Captain's arc.
- What is Nguyen's postcolonial argument?
- At the heart of The Committed is what Slate's review calls a "deliciously complex irony": Nguyen transplants his Vietnamese narrator into France — the very colonial power that shaped Vietnam — thereby relocating the postcolonial argument from American soil to Paris and deliberately sidelining American exceptionalism. The narrator's fractured identity, previously a duality rooted in being the illegitimate son of a Vietnamese mother and a French Catholic priest, deepens into at least three parts once he is on French soil. The narrator's withering verdict on the American Dream — described in Slate's excerpt as "as shallow, boring, and sentimental as a bad television show that had somehow become a hit" — signals that Nguyen's satirical scope has not narrowed but shifted continents, continuing his stated corrective project of centering Vietnamese perspectives in the literature of the Vietnam War and its aftermath.
- Who is the narrator?
- The narrator of The Committed is the same unnamed protagonist from The Sympathizer — sometimes called "the Captain" for his rank in the South Vietnamese army — who served as a communist spy embedded within the South Vietnamese regime. His defining characteristic is a fractured identity: the illegitimate son of a Vietnamese mother and a French Catholic priest, he has always understood the epithet "bastard" as referring less to his parents' unmarried status than to his biracial condition. In The Committed, transplanted to France itself, that fracture deepens from a duality into at least three parts, and the organized crime underworld of Paris becomes the arena where his wit, resourcefulness, and "moral flexibility" are tested anew.
Summarize this book
Is it worth reading?
Who should read this?
Where should I start with Nguyen?
What is Nguyen's postcolonial argument?
Who is the narrator?
Summarize this book
The Committed picks up where The Sympathizer left off: Nguyen's unnamed narrator — sometimes called "the Captain" — has survived a psychically obliterating reeducation by the communist regime he served as a spy, and now arrives in Paris in the early 1980s alongside his blood brother Bon. The two men attempt to build new lives, but their path leads directly into the city's organized crime underworld, where the narrator must deploy wit, resourcefulness, and what bookseller sources call "moral flexibility" to survive. Running beneath the thriller mechanics is an intensified meditation on colonial identity: transplanted to France — the very power that shaped Vietnam — the narrator's sense of self fractures from a duality into at least three parts, and Nguyen's satirical scope shifts from American exceptionalism to the dark heart of postcolonial Paris.
The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen
4.3
/ 5
The Committed is Viet Thanh Nguyen's sequel to his Pulitzer Prize-winning debut The Sympathizer, following the unnamed narrator as he arrives in Paris in the early 1980s with his blood brother Bon, becomes entangled in organized crime, and confronts the deep contradictions of French colonialism and identity. It is a New York Times bestseller that extends one of contemporary fiction's most politically fearless voices into new, equally combustible territory.
View on LuvemBooks →
The Sympathizer: A Novel by Viet Thanh Nguyen
4.3
/ 5
Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Sympathizer is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel narrated by a half-Vietnamese, half-French communist spy embedded within the South Vietnamese military, whose coerced confession frames a searing account of the fall of Saigon and the long exile that follows. Critically acclaimed and widely awarded, it stands as one of the defining American novels about the Vietnam War and its aftermath.
View on LuvemBooks →
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Our Review
This review covers the content and published reception of The Committed as documented by named sources; it does not reflect hands-on reading or use.
The Committed (The Sympathizer, 2) by Viet Thanh Nguyen front cover
What the Novel Is and What Happens
The Committed picks up where The Sympathizer left off. Nguyen's anonymous narrator — sometimes called "the Captain" in the first novel for his rank in the South Vietnamese army — has survived the psychically obliterating reeducation at the hands of the communist regime he served as a spy, as Slate's review recounts, and now washes ashore in France in the early 1980s alongside his blood brother Bon.
The two men attempt to build new lives in Paris, but the path they find leads directly into the city's organized crime underworld. According to bookseller sources, the novel blends the mechanics of a psychological and political thriller with the atmosphere of a crime narrative, while sustaining extended meditations on colonialism, national identity, and ethics.
The narrator must deploy all of his wits, resourcefulness, and what one retailer summary calls "moral flexibility" if he is to survive.
The Narrator's Fractured Identity at the Novel's Core
The thematic engine of The Committed is an intensified version of the duality that drove The Sympathizer. As Slate's review details, where the narrator previously considered himself split in two — a product of being the illegitimate son of a Vietnamese mother and a French Catholic priest — he now understands himself as fractured into at least three parts.
The epithet that most galled him, "bastard," has always carried, in his view, less to do with his parents' unmarried status than with his biracial identity. Now transplanted to France — the very colonial power that shaped Vietnam — that fracture deepens.
Slate notes a "deliciously complex irony" in this displacement: Nguyen takes his Vietnamese characters into what the review calls "the dark heart of their postcolonial turmoil," deliberately sidelining American exceptionalism. The narrator's verdict on the American Dream — described in Slate's excerpt as "as shallow, boring, and sentimental as a bad television show that had somehow become a hit" — signals that Nguyen's satirical scope has not narrowed but shifted continents.
Its Place in Nguyen's Career and in the Larger Trilogy
The Sympathizer, published in 2015, was Nguyen's debut novel and went on to win the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction along with seven other prizes, selling more than one million copies worldwide. Nguyen has stated publicly that The Sympathizer and The Committed are intended to be the first two volumes of a trilogy, making this sequel a middle chapter in a larger, still-unfolding architecture.
Slate's review credits the predecessor — citing Philip Caputo's notice in a review — as one of only a handful of American novels about the Vietnam War and its aftermath that puts Vietnamese characters at center stage. The Committed is, in that context, a deliberate continuation of that corrective project, this time relocating the center of gravity from American soil to the streets of Paris.
The novel was also a New York Times bestseller in its own right.
Strengths: Wit, Philosophical Weight, and Genre Range
Bookseller commentary consistently highlights Nguyen's ability to hold competing registers in tension: the novel offers, in the words of one source, "caustic wit, philosophical gravitas, and broad historical understanding" alongside genuine thriller momentum, with action described as plentiful. The genre blend — organized crime, psychological thriller, political fiction, and postcolonial essay — is a deliberate feature of Nguyen's method, consistent with the multi-genre construction of The Sympathizer, which Wikipedia notes incorporated mystery, metafiction, dark comedy, historical fiction, spy fiction, and war narrative.
For readers who responded to that approach, The Committed delivers the same dense layering in a new setting with new antagonists.
Who It's For and Where It Demands More
The Committed is unambiguously a sequel, and readers who come to it without The Sympathizer will find themselves without essential context for the narrator's psychology, relationships, and history. The novel is structured to reward those already invested in the Captain's long arc of betrayal, survival, and self-interrogation.
Nguyen's style — dense, allusive, and intellectually demanding — is a consistent feature across both books, and readers seeking a more propulsive or straightforward thriller may find the novel's philosophical interludes require patience. The book's richest pleasures — its ironies, its layered postcolonial argument, its dark comedy — are most accessible to readers prepared to engage the text as both fiction and political meditation simultaneously.
Sources & Further Reading
The key facts and claims in this review are grounded in the retrieved, verified sources listed below.
- 1
en.wikipedia.org
- 2
jabberwockybookshop.com
- 3
- 4
groveatlantic.com
- 5
bookbrowse.com
- 6
- 7
- 8
shopopenbooks.com
- 9
- 10
Kirkus Reviews
- 11
The Guardian
- 12
Bookmarks Reviews
Age & Reading Level
Our age band
Adult
Our age band groups books for browsing; it isn't an age a review gave.
3 content notes · who it suits
Content to know about
political violence and torture (referenced, not graphic)
organized crime and drug trade
colonial trauma and racial identity
Best for: Adults — dense, allusive prose and sustained postcolonial philosophical argument require mature and patient readers; the novel is not intended for younger audiences.
Skip if you want a propulsive, plot-first thriller without extended philosophical and political digressions.
Viet Thanh Nguyen on The Committed
Viet Thanh Nguyen speaks with Frank Buckley about his novel 'The Committed', discussing its narrator, refugee themes, and setting in 1980s Paris.
Uploaded by KTLA 5, 2021 · Watch on YouTube ·
Bringing Paris By Night into Fiction
Nguyen says the fictional song-and-dance show Fantasia in his novel was inspired by the real-world diaspora production Paris By Night, capturing the lively Vietnamese appreciation for nightlife and spectacles.
Depicting an Unromantic, Immigrant Paris
Nguyen wanted to bypass clichés like the Eiffel Tower to show the darker, gritty reality of immigrant neighborhoods, people of color, and Little Asia in Paris.
Confronting Toxic Masculinity Towards Asian Women
Nguyen notes that in addition to examining Western racism, he used the novel to confront toxic masculinity and challenge how Vietnamese men themselves objectify and mistreat Vietnamese women.
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