Saigon, Vietnam (Google Maps ⧉, OpenStreetMap ⧉)

"As Graham Greene and Robert Stone have taught us, on the streets of Saigon, nothing is as it seems . . . Think Alan Furst meets Elmore Leonard, and you’ll capture Nguyen at his most surreal . . . a worthy addition to the library of first-rate novels about the Vietnam War. —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"

"An early frontrunner for debut novel of the year, The Sympathizer considers the fall of Saigon in 1975 through the eyes of The Captain. It’s as much a spy novel of political intrigue as it is an examination of Communism, the CIA, and torture. —Flavorwire (10 Must-Read Books for April)"

"But despite this precedent, the atmosphere was strangely quiet in Saigon, most of the Saigonese citizenry behaving like people in a scuppered marriage, willing to cling gamely to each other and drown so long as nobody declared the adulterous truth."

"Beautiful Saigon! they sang. Oh, Saigon! Oh, Saigon!"

"I still encountered them periodically in Saigon, nostalgic colonizers who stubbornly insisted on staying in this country even after their empire’s foreclosure."

"I nodded and said, You’re only guilty of the same thing that everyone else in Saigon is."

"And they call Saigon the whore city, don’t they? Honey, I can connect the dots."

"Along with the General’s family and a hundred others in the barracks, I watched inglorious images of helicopters landing on Saigon’s roofs, evacuating refugees to the decks of airplane carriers."

"Somewhat hungover and somewhat sentimental, this month being the first anniversary of Saigon’s fall, or liberation, or both, I wrote my aunt a letter to commemorate a year’s worth of tribulation."

"but I had not seen Claude since Saigon."

"Second, the General had contacts in Saigon, meaning some kind of resistance existed."

"Back in Saigon, his function in the Special Branch had been to analyze Chinese-language communication and to keep track of the subterranean subterfuges of Cholon, where the National Liberation Front had constructed an underground network for political agitation, terrorist organizing, and black market smuggling."

"In Saigon, I could have depended on my weekly visits to the basilica with Man to discuss my misgivings, but here I was alone with myself, my deeds, and my beliefs."

"what with me hundreds of miles away at the lycée in Saigon and then thousands of miles abroad."

"…I wondered if it had perhaps been one of the same Filipino bands that had played in Saigon’s hotels…"

"…all I could see was the only other all‐white room I had been in, at the National Interrogation Center back in Saigon, working my first assignment under Claude’s supervision."

"Based in the secret zone of Binh Duong Province, Z-99 was collectively responsible for hundreds of grenade attacks, minings, bombings, mortarings, and assassinations that had killed a few thousand and terrorized Saigon."

"For this clock that was a country, and this country that was a clock, the minute and hour hands pivoted in the south, the numbers of the dial a halo around Saigon."

"…the car transporting us not only west to Hollywood but back to the glory days of Saigon circa 1969, after my return from America."

"Lana was not above socializing with a common man, and for the next hour they became partners on a walk down memory lane, reminiscing about Saigon and songs while I quietly quaffed my cognac, discreetly admiring Lana’s legs."

"…hung the same clock as in the General and Madame’s restaurant, also set to Saigon time."

"I had flown to and from America for college, then flew with Bon from Saigon to Guam and Guam to California, followed by my round trip to the Philippines, and now this."

"… encountered them in that Saigon alley, singing, Beautiful Saigon! Oh, Saigon! Oh, Saigon!"

"When she notified the powers that be, they ordered the best surgeons remaining in Saigon to operate on me."

"As he was in the last division to march on Saigon, however, the war was over by the time he arrived to liberate the city."

"After a numbing two-day journey over mountain passes and crumbling highways, the Molotova deposited us on Saigon’s outskirts. From there we shuffled along sullied streets populated by sullen people toward the navigator’s house, our pace slowed by Bon’s limp."

"For the fall of Saigon and the last days of the Republic of Vietnam, I consulted David Butler’s The Fall of Saigon, Larry Engelmann’s Tears Before the Rain, James Fenton’s “The Fall of Saigon,” Dirck Halstead’s “White Christmas,” Charles Henderson’s Goodnight Saigon, and Tiziano Terzani’s Giai Phong! The Fall and Liberation of Saigon."

"One of the blond boys call out to them, “Hanoi, Saigon, come here,” and the dogs, both Dobermans, come leaping gracefully onto the deck."