In Race and Resistance: Literature and Politics in Asian America, Viet Nguyen argues that Asian American intellectuals have idealized Asian America, ignoring its saturation with capitalist practices. This idealization of Asian America means that Asian American intellectuals can neither grapple with their culture's ideological diversity nor recognize their own involvement with capitalist practices such as the selling of racial identity. Making his case through the example of literature, which remains a critical arena of cultural production for Asian Americans, Nguyen demonstrates that literature embodies the complexities, conflicts, and potential future options of Asian American culture.

Race and Resistance: Literature and Politics in Asian America

Literature & Fiction

Nguyen, Viet Thanh

History & Criticism

Oxford University Press

Race and Resistance: Literature and Politics in Asian America (Race and American Culture)

Suave, educated, secular and with a reputation for unwavering honesty, Madhavrao Scindia did not conform to the conventional image of the Indian politician. Despite his liberal outlook and his whole-hearted espousal of democratic values, Madhavrao, son of the last ruling king of Gwalior, did not forget his heritage: he was inextricably linked with the people of Gwalior and Guna, who unfailingly voted for him in all the nine elections he contested. To the world at large he was a successful minister and a leading light of the Congress party, but at heart he remained a simple family man, who did not allow either his ancestry or his political status to define him. What made Madhavrao Scindia one of the most fascinating figures in contemporary Indian politics? The answer lies, perhaps, in the way Madhavrao chose to live. Born with life s plan neatly laid out for him the title to a 21-gun salute state; a political career chosen for him by his mother; and vast estates in several cities he sought instead to tread a path that was neither predictable nor easy. Madhavrao Scindia s life reads very much like the plot of a grand novel. There is the bitter falling out with his mother, the Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia, a powerful force of the Jana Sangh; a host of minor and major characters ranging from intriguing courtiers to wily politicians; a battle with at least two Congress governments (the first during the Emergency and the second during Narasimha Rao s regime) and, finally, Madhavrao s tragic and untimely death. This is the story of a man who was born a maharaja but chose to live as a democratic citizen of India. Vir Sanghvi and Namita Bhandare bring alive his tale in this riveting biography that is as much a chronicle of modern Indian politics as it is a portrait of a fascinating life.

The Committed (The Sympathizer, 2)

Literary

GROVE PRESS

To Save and to Destroy: Writing as an Other (The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures)

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press

To Save And To Destroy

Cambridge, Massachusetts : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press

All wars are fought twice, the first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory. From the author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel The Sympathizer comes a searching exploration of the conflict Americans call the Vietnam War and Vietnamese call the American War―a conflict that lives on in the collective memory of both nations.
From a kaleidoscope of cultural forms―novels, memoirs, cemeteries, monuments, films, photography, museum exhibits, video games, souvenirs, and more―Nothing Ever Dies brings a comprehensive vision of the war into sharp focus. At stake are ethical questions about how the war should be remembered by participants that include not only Americans and Vietnamese but also Laotians, Cambodians, South Koreans, and Southeast Asian Americans. Too often, memorials valorize the experience of one’s own people above all else, honoring their sacrifices while demonizing the “enemy”―or, most often, ignoring combatants and civilians on the other side altogether. Visiting sites across the United States, Southeast Asia, and Korea, Viet Thanh Nguyen provides penetrating interpretations of the way memories of the war help to enable future wars or struggle to prevent them.
Drawing from this war, Nguyen offers a lesson for all wars by calling on us to recognize not only our shared humanity but our ever-present inhumanity. This is the only path to reconciliation with our foes, and with ourselves. Without reconciliation, war’s truth will be impossible to remember, and war’s trauma impossible to forget.

Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War

Arts & Photography

Harvard University Press

Finalist, National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist, National Book Award in Nonfiction A New York Times Book Review “The Year in Reading” Selection
All wars are fought twice, the first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory. From the author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel The Sympathizer comes a searching exploration of the conflict Americans call the Vietnam War and Vietnamese call the American War―a conflict that lives on in the collective memory of both nations.
“[A] gorgeous, multifaceted examination of the war Americans call the Vietnam War―and which Vietnamese call the American War…As a writer, [Nguyen] brings every conceivable gift―wisdom, wit, compassion, curiosity―to the impossible yet crucial work of arriving at what he calls ‘a just memory’ of this war.” ―Kate Tuttle, Los Angeles Times
“In Nothing Ever Dies, his unusually thoughtful consideration of war, self-deception and forgiveness, Viet Thanh Nguyen penetrates deeply into memories of the Vietnamese war…[An] important book, which hits hard at self-serving myths.” ―Jonathan Mirsky, Literary Review
“Ultimately, Nguyen’s lucid, arresting, and richly sourced inquiry, in the mode of Susan Sontag and W. G. Sebald, is a call for true and just stories of war and its perpetual legacy.” ―Donna Seaman, Booklist (starred review)

The winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, as well as seven other awards, The Sympathizer is the breakthrough novel of the year. With the pace and suspense of a thriller and prose that has been compared to Graham Greene and Saul Bellow, The Sympathizer is a sweeping epic of love and betrayal. The narrator, a communist double agent, is a man of two minds,” a half-French, half-Vietnamese army captain who arranges to come to America after the Fall of Saigon, and while building a new life with other Vietnamese refugees in Los Angeles is secretly reporting back to his communist superiors in Vietnam. The Sympathizer is a blistering exploration of identity and America, a gripping espionage novel, and a powerful story of love and friendship.

The Sympathizer (The Sympathizer, 1)

United States

Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction Winner of the 2016 Edgar Award for Best First Novel Winner of the 2016 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction “[A] remarkable debut novel”―Philip Caputo, New York Times Book Review (cover review) The winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, as well as seven other awards, The Sympathizer is the breakthrough novel of the year. With the pace and suspense of a thriller and prose that has been compared to Graham Greene and Saul Bellow, The Sympathizer is a sweeping epic of love and betrayal. The narrator, a communist double agent, is a “man of two minds,” a half-French, half-Vietnamese army captain who arranges to come to America after the Fall of Saigon, and while building a new life with other Vietnamese refugees in Los Angeles is secretly reporting back to his communist superiors in Vietnam. The Sympathizer is a blistering exploration of identity and America, a gripping espionage novel, and a powerful story of love and friendship.

The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) (The Sympathizer, 1)

Reference

Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Sympathizer was one of the most widely and highly praised novels of 2015, the winner not only of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, but also the Center for Fiction Debut Novel Prize, the Edgar Award for Best First Novel, the ALA Carnegie Medal for Fiction, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and the California Book Award for First Fiction. Nguyen's next fiction book, The Refugees, is a collection of perfectly formed stories written over a period of twenty years, exploring questions of immigration, identity, love, and family. With the coruscating gaze that informed The Sympathizer, in The Refugees Viet Thanh Nguyen gives voice to lives led between two worlds, the adopted homeland and the country of birth. From a young Vietnamese refugee who suffers profound culture shock when he comes to live with two gay men in San Francisco, to a woman whose husband is suffering from dementia and starts to confuse her for a former lover, to a girl living in Ho Chi Minh City whose older half-sister comes back from America having seemingly accomplished everything she never will, the stories are a captivating testament to the dreams and hardships of immigration. The second piece of fiction by a major new voice in American letters, The Refugees is a beautifully written and sharply observed book about the aspirations of those who leave one country for another, and the relationships and desires for self-fulfillment that define our lives.

The Refugees

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Books by Nguyen, Viet Thanh

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Nguyen, Viet Thanh. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Race and Resistance: Literature and Politics in Asian America

Race and Resistance: Literature and Politics in Asian America (Race and American Culture)

The Committed (The Sympathizer, 2)

To Save and to Destroy: Writing as an Other (The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures)

To Save And To Destroy

Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War

Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War

The Sympathizer (The Sympathizer, 1)

The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) (The Sympathizer, 1)

The Refugees