Dangerous Pleasure: A ‘Booktail’ for ‘The Sympathizer’

In Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel, The Sympathizer, an unnamed narrator—a double agent—pens a confession to a figure he addresses as “my dear Commandant.” If the narrator is to be condemned, he quips, “I will do no less than explain myself, in a style of my own choosing, regardless of how you might consider my actions.” The agent’s story begins in Saigon, where he lives a double life as a North Vietnamese mole spying for the Vietcong while working for the South Vietnamese National Police. With the city on the verge of falling, the head of the police, the General, and his family evacuate to the United States, taking our narrator with them. So begins the spy’s American odyssey of coded messages, love affairs, murder, Hollywood racism, confinement, and secrets upon secrets. 

The Sympathizer is full of surprises. The narrator’s acerbic wit exposes the absurdity of violence that’s “necessary for the greater good.” In this work of fiction, every side of a very real moral prism is somehow still the wrong side. 

This refreshing sweet-tart mango smash recipe is made with scotch, which is copiously consumed throughout this novel, evoking “the bitter peat of the past.” Smoky scotch is mixed with a tart mango shrub, like “the sweet-and-sour taste of unreliable memories.” In one cheeky scene, the narrator meets a group of sex workers selected for evacuation. Communism is bad for business, explains one, proclaiming she’s not letting “anyone eat this mango for free.” As is traditional in a smash cocktail, muddled—or “smashed”—mint and lemon are included, offering herbaceous and refreshing notes to this dangerously delicious drink.

Join us on January 28 at 5 p.m. Pacific time, when Nguyen will sit down with CBC host John Freeman to discuss The Sympathizer. Register for the Zoom conversation here.