I'm Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of The Sympathizer, refugee, and featured participant in the PBS documentary Asian Americans. I'm staying at home. AMA.

[u/VietThanhNguyen]

THANKS EVERYONE!!! I loved answering your questions and hope my answers were helpful.

PLEASE WATCH THE "ASIAN AMERICANS" DOCUMENTARY on PBS on May 11-12!!! I'm in episodes 4 and 5 and the whole series is terrific.

Hi Reddit, I'm Viet Thanh Nguyen, an author and professor at the University of Southern California. I've written both nonfiction and fiction books - from "Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War," to "The Sympathizer," which won numerous awards including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. My latest is the children's book "Chicken of the Sea, which I co-wrote with my son, Ellison. My story as an Asian American will be featured in the new documentary series "Asian Americans,"which premieres May 11 and 12 at 8pm on PBS (check local listings). #AsianAmPBS

Ask me anything!

Proof: https://twitter.com/viet_t_nguyen/status/1256327605852106753

[u/cantonking]

Hi Viet!

Big fan, thanks for doing this! I'm curious about your revision process, how do you know as a writer when something is complete? And what does your revision process look like? I have this habit of writing drafts of stories and then moving on to other projects because I don't know how to revise...

P.S. - big fan of your writing, "The Sympathizer" was fantastic. Thanks for being an inspiration to Asian-Am writers and folks in general :)

[u/VietThanhNguyen → u/cantonking]

Thanks for reading! Knowing when something is done is very hard. When I wrote The Refugees, I knew when a short story was done when I was exhausted with it and couldn't do anything more. And, ultimately, when a journal accepted the story. So sometimes you do need an external person--a reader, an agent, an editor--to make the decision for you. With The Sympathizer, I knew it was done because I have a better understanding of a novel and could articulate why all the different elements are there and what function they serve. But there still has to be room for mystery and feeling that can't fully be logically articulated. I know a story is good when it moves me, when all the elements click. If your own story can do that for you, it works. What you are doing in terms of putting stories aside is good. Return later and you should be better able to look at it with distance. And having multiple stories or writing projects means you can work on several at a time, which is what I do.

[u/Twisty_McTwist]

Chào Chú Việt! I'm a big fan of your works and all that you've done to give our community a voice!

As a younger progressive second-generation Vietnamese American, I often have trouble reconciling my political views with the views and experiences of my family members, and vice versa. My older family members associate anything having to do with socialism with the communist government from which they fled, and my support for Bernie Sanders, an avowed Democratic Socialist, worries them immensely.

Conversely, many leftists and progressive (non-Vietnamese) Asian Americans revere the North Vietnamese as liberating heroes against Western imperialism. This irritates me because the Vietnamese anti-imperialist movement did not start and end with Hồ Chí Minh's communist movement, and my family's experience (and many others') show that the conflict was not black and white. However, many people will accuse me of being an imperialist sympathizer for criticizing the North Vietnamese.

As a leftist Vietnamese American yourself, how do you navigate these discussions within Vietnamese American, broader Asian American, and leftist/progressive spaces? What advice do you have for progressive young Vietnamese diaspora?

[u/[deleted]]

In your opinion, what separates a decent book from something that is a great piece of literature?

[u/Diadema11]

Hi Viet, really enjoyed Refugees and really enjoying Sympathizer now (am halfway through).

Sorry for the clichéd questions but I really like reading writers' answers to these:

What are your all time favourite books and which books had the biggest impact on your development as a writer?

Did you always write stories with the aim of becoming a writer? I know you studied English Lit, but I'm intrigued by what separates someone who appreciates reading good writing from someone who makes a conscious effort to produce a novel.

Thanks!

[u/rainy_windy]

Hello Viet!

I’m really happy to see you prosper and bloom in your literary career. It’s very inspiring reading your Facebook posts, be it just a few brief lines.

I have some questions to ask you in the position of a young writer myself who has yet to live long enough to define “life” in my own terms nor figure out the style truest to my soul:

1. How do you start a book? Is the inspiration rooted in a particular detail/character/etc. or you already pictured something bigger first?

2. Do you feel that authors should expand their works with sequels and prequels? I know this question is a bit more personal but I would really like to hear your take. Personally I believe that the story is constructed on both ends, authors and readers, so in some cases leaving the story as it is might be a better choice.

3. Have you ever got so tired of an idea in your head that you must write it down but then it turns to be so mundane that you scraps the paper immediately? But then you kinda learn something from that time and move on? How do you feel about spontaneous writing?

4. Do you read a lot from your same generation writers, other people around your age? How do you feel about their writings? I heard somewhere that most authors have enough ego so they just avoid compare themselves to their peers and aspire to be on the same level with older masters on their own. What do you think?

Thank you so much for being in AMA. Have a great great day!

[u/schlong_way_home]

Thanks for taking the time to answer some of our questions!

What are your thoughts on non-Vietnamese (specifically white) people creating critical, scholarly works focusing on the American War in Vietnam and its aftereffects? There are clear issues with white scholars taking credit for the accounts of survivors – what, if anything, can be done to appropriately combat this?

[u/trainnoi]

Huge fan of your work! There's so many questions I want to ask...

My parents immigrated from Vietnam in the mid-70s. I feel like a lot of second-generation immigrants (me, my friends and cousins) have trouble communicating and understanding what our parents, aunts and uncles have gone through. How do you think we should begin learning?

[u/ChaseParnell]

Did you consider any other seafoods besides squid?

[u/hllyhng]

May I ask two questions?

1. In what do you find the most peace? Where are you most centered?

2. What is one piece of advice you have that you'd share—about literally anything in life?

P.S. Have been a huge fan since reading The Sympathizer when it first came out. I was in undergrad at the time and convinced my advisor, an Asian American studies professor, to read it as a summertime book club endeavor with other folks. We've been raving about you ever since :') When this is all over, I hope I'm able to attend one of your events in person one day.

[u/[deleted]]

Which city has better Vietnamese restaurants in your opinion, San Jose or Westminster?