Goodreads Monday is a weekly meme that was started by @Lauren’s Page Turners. This meme is quite easy to follow – just randomly pick a book from your to-be-read list and give the reasons why you want to read it. It is that simple.

This week’s book:

The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Blurb from Goodreads

The long-awaited new novel from one of America’s most highly regarded contemporary writers, The Committed follows the Sympathizer as he arrives in Paris as a refugee. There he and his blood brother Bon try to escape their pasts and prepare for their futures by turning their hands to capitalism in one of its purest forms: drug dealing. No longer in physical danger, but still inwardly tortured by his reeducation at the hands of his former best friend, and struggling to assimilate into a dominant culture, the Sympathizer is both charmed and disturbed by Paris. As he falls in with a group of left-wing intellectuals and politicians who frequent dinner parties given by his French Vietnamese “aunt,” he finds not just stimulation for his mind but also customers for his merchandise―but the new life he is making has dangers he has not foreseen, from the oppression of the state, to the self-torture of addiction, to the seemingly unresolvable paradox of how he can reunite his two closest friends, men whose worldviews put them in absolute opposition.

Both literary thriller and brilliant novel of ideas, The Committed is a blistering portrayal of commitment and betrayal that will cement Viet Thanh Nguyen’s position in the firmament of American letters.

Why I Want To Read It

And just like that, it is Monday again. For accountants across the world, it is the most tedious period as it is a couple of days before the feared tax deadline. Whilst none of the three entities have final balances, all are nearly done, with just a few requests pending for completion. I am just hoping we get to finish everything before the deadline. Anyway, I am hoping everybody is having a great start to the week. I am also hoping and praying that everyone is safe from the virus. The Manila heat continues to stifle and the humid air is making it even warmer than it is. Despite the heat, summer used to be my favorite season.

Anyway, it is time to go back to the purpose of this post. Mondays also mean Goodreads Monday. Just like what I did last month, I am also going to feature works of Asian literature for this month’s Goodreads Monday updates. For this update, I am featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Committed. A couple of years ago, I picked Nguyen’s The Sympathizer even though I barely had any iota on who he was. The Pulitzer Prize tag on the book’s cover enough to convince me to purchase it. I am glad I did for it gave me an insight into the events following the Vietnamese War.

My experience with The Sympathizer made me look forward to Nguyen’s succeeding works. When I learned that he was publishing a sequel to his critically-acclaimed debut work, I was up on my toes and immediately added the book to my ever growing reading list. I follow Nguyen in Twitter and it is interesting learning about his thoughts about a plethora of subjects such as literature, politics, and the current discrimination AAPIs experience in America. From what I understand The Committed takes cue from its predecessor as it is narrated by an unreliable narrator. I did come across a piece regarding this particular topic but my memory fails me (as always, haha). I have been searching for copies of the book but I am still to find one. Hopefully, I get to have a copy of it this coming weeks.

How about you fellow reader, what book do you want to read? I hope you can share it in the comment box. For now, happy reading! Have a great week ahead!

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