This is a memoir that screams and shouts, and murmurs and purrs. It is biting and scratching and claws its way into your psyche. It rends a man’s clothing to reveal the Truth. It does not apologize. It curses and blesses, and pierces the Dream to reveal a deep, dark void. It pulls back the curtain to expose a false Wizard. This is a personal memoir of a man that telescopes outward to include the greater world of his existence, for who is to say that a line must be drawn between the “I did this” and the “all that happened on my watch.” The Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Sympathizer bids us welcome to his life. He writes of the dance between Vietnam and the U.S.; of what it means to be both the “killer” and the “killed.” He talks of promises made and broken; and the value of our memories, painful as they may be. But there is humor here and love as well, for aren’t these things also a part of life? Viet Thanh Nguyen is a “brilliant” writer, but most of all I found him to be a “human” writer, willing to share himself so that we understand things we may not have known before. Even his chosen narrative structure reflects the man behind the words. This memoir is shocking, it is satisfying and it is good for the soul. I can’t wait for book clubs to get their hands on this masterpiece!
–Linda Bond, Auntie’s Bookstore, Spokane, WA
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