hanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape/Belknap for the ARC!

Viet Thanh Nguyen’s "To Save and to Destroy: Writing as an Other" reads like an academic addendum to the author's earlier work, replacing personal urgency with social clarity.

After "A Man of Two Faces," a memoir I admired for its confident refusal to simplify identity, I wondered where Nguyen could go next. The answer, it seems, is deeper. "To Save and to Destroy" is more a re-mediation than a step forward, allowing the author to soften his tone while sharpening his arguments across a series of lectures.

In my review for the aforementioned memoir, I noted that Nguyen’s work seemed to suggest that the best way to honor memory is by leaving it as an open wound. That isn’t the case here, as the author seems prepared to heal—ready to find the language to stitch himself up.

Nguyen is much better equipped to discuss otherness this time around, but he has replaced the spiraling, exploratory approach of his memoir with the circular, emphatic format of an academic lecture. It’s still interesting, particularly if readers are into both historical and modern literature, but it isn’t particularly novel. It can even feel a little redundant. I love hearing Nguyen’s take on people like Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, but only in the same way that one might be curious about what a professor thinks about a given subject.

It’s anecdotal, not essential.

As a whole, in comparison to its predecessor, the book seems more personally cathartic but, surprisingly, less publicly catalytic, even though it is more direct in its calls to action. "To Save and to Destroy" has an audience in mind, but its timely didacticism seems to underserve them. When, for example, Nguyen writes about genocide in Gaza, it feels anonymously academic—a tragedy to serve as an example to prevent future tragedies.

It’s abstracted, which feels a bit antithetical to the author’s earlier work.

Having noted all of this, one of the book’s themes is how otherness wrongfully creates thematic obligations–perhaps I am burdening "To Save and to Destroy" with stakes it doesn’t need to have. I'm not sure I can fault a book for being unlike another book. I really enjoyed this dive into Viet Thanh Nguyen's brain, and the excellent opening essay is a must-read. It isn’t as if the author is irresponsible—he’s just a little more settled now, even in moments when it seems readers should be unsettled.

You know a non-fiction book is good, when it evokes so much emotion and grinds those gears.

This is my first book by this author, but one I thought would fit as a great starting point as it is a collection of essays.

What was so great about this was I found myself agreeing with the author on many things, specifically with the complicity of the empire in making human beings feel othered.

Now, let me role my sleeves up, what made this even a better read for me was that I disagreed on many mentions or citations of individuals specifically mentions of politically contentious individuals such as Salman Rushdie or the leader of the PKK, Abdullah Öcalan.

I suppose in Viet Thanh Nguyen’s eyes these individuals are at the forefront of being othered within their own communities, or at least that’s what I was grasping from my read.

I do call out these two individuals because they are contentious within my own communities, I speaking from a middle eastern perspective who identifies with a cultural similarity to Öcalan, but also whole heartedly disagree with both individuals here who have not only othered me within my identity, but also I feel othered by their works, in Rushdie’s case and othered by Öcalan’s actions.

I feel more compelled to call out within my own community, to specifically point figures because their works/actions have created a separation when a collective whole is more beneficial.

I could talk to the ends of the earth about this, so I will keep this as short as possible.

Other topics I found I disagreed with was the othering by exclusion. I don’t use this lightly because if anyone knows exclusion well enough, it’s an individual who is from a minority. One topic mentioned was pho. Yes, pho. The author specifically recalls using pho in a sentence but having to “translate” or give contextual markers for unfamiliar cultural foods/phrases in books. The author disagrees with doing this and believes to leave such context untranslated. But fails to mention that you are not only translating for the white individual but other “others” as well.

For me, these little translations are an invitation. The reader might not know what pho is, but by sharing with the reader that pho, a Vietnamese soup dish, is just that, you are welcome individuals to look further into this, by opening a door.

I can go on and on, clearly I have much to say. But let’s just leave it as a book that will invoke emotion and create discourse. Just don’t talk about it at the family dinner table 😉

Special Thanks to Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for an ALC of To Save and to Destroy: Writing As An Other. All thoughts are my own.

Viet Thanh Nguyen demonstrates why he’s a Pulitzer Prize-winning author in this, part memoir, part lecture on the art of writing. The internal battle of who he is and what county he represents is brilliantly written.

As an Asian American first-gen physician, this book hit home for me. Viet Thanh Nguyen’s reflections on being an outsider—through family, literature, and politics—felt deeply personal and powerful. I especially appreciated how he tied in his mother’s story and challenged the idea of “model minorities.” His writing is sharp and moving, and the audiobook narration made it even more impactful. I felt seen. Highly recommend.

A deeply intellectual and insightful collection of scholarly essays about being an “Other,” based on Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Norton Simon lectures at Harvard. There’s also a lot of humor and cleverness in these series of essays/lectures that’s really thought-provoking at the same time. I’ve been fortunate to hear Nguyen speak in a couple of events, so listening to his narration of the audiobook was enlightening and reminiscent of being in a town hall lecture. Much of the book is autobiographical, as Nguyen relays his musings as a writer and in academia, perusing over the differences between being a refugee, an immigrant, or an exile. Having been in academia for a long time, this series of essays are also very well-researched and well-thought out, referencing classic writers, historical events, other Asian/Asian American/BIPOC writers, and even similar refugee experience to that of the Vietnamese people.

This book touches on important on individual and personal themes of identity, language, representation (and the expectations that come with being an immigrant), collective voices, and the power of narratives (and who’s telling the story) but also on far-reaching topics like politics, violence, capitalism, and post-colonialism. If you’re familiar with his previous work, he also references The Sympathizer and A Man of Two Faces, explaining these themes into his previous works. Overall, an excellent addition to the collection of writings by Vietnamese authors (if you read the book, you’ll understand the importance of this).

Special thanks to Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for providing an audiobook in exchange for an honest, independent review.

Nguyen has written a number of novels, including The Sympathizer and The Committed, which is how I first became aware of him. I'm sure the TV show about the former has brought others of you to him. Like me, you may have initially thought that this would be similar, but instead it is primarily an academic analysis of writing and its intersection with identity, politics, imperialism, and more.

This collection of essays (originally delivered as the Norton lectures at Harvard) is unlike anything I've ever read or heard, and therefore I had some difficulty in deciding on a rating. My hunch is that I am under-rating (i.e. it should be a 5), but I found myself wandering a bit as I listened, most likely my own fault, but nonetheless, the reason for it being slightly lower. Once again, I wish there was a 4.5 option!

As you might expect, Nguyễn narrates the audiobook, which parallels his initial delivery of the essays and also dovetails well with their extremely personal nature. Nguyen is a Vietnamese refugee (not that he would use that word, as you will see when you read), and does an extremely good job talking about "othering", and particularly how to grapple with writing about it and through it. There is a lot to digest here and I personally would likely benefit from a critical reading of the essays and then sitting with them a while. Worth the read for the more "intellectual" among us.

An important and insightful collection - I would absolutely assign this text about writing to my writing students, especially the first essay on inauthenticity. I also really enjoyed hearing the author read the audiobook, especially since the book is based on Nguyen's Norton lectures. I can imagine it being a meaningful experience for students to hear these essays in the medium they were originally delivered.

Viet Thanh Nguyen writes about what it's like to be an immigrant and writing from that perspective in this book. This was a phenomenal book. I loved it so much. His tone is so conversational. You feel like you are on the journey with him.

One of the things I loved most about this book was his discussion of how books and reading kept him from being lonely and falling in with the wrong crowd when he was a child and his parents were working 16 hour days at their grocery store. He also talked about the first book he ever wrote in elementary school and how much libraries meant to him growing up.

This is a really good book not only to understand the writing process but also the diaspora and being an immigrant and not quite fitting into any community. I highly recommend this book.

you know when you read a book and all you have to say for every word, every sentence is - 'yes, exactly!' because either a) you've already had the thought, b) you've had the thought but not in that exact way, or c) wow, you've never thought about it in this way? that's how i felt reading this book.

i really liked each essay/speech in this book. it's important and also, importantly, accessible. on the one hand, i really liked (or really disliked) how much i related to so many parts of the book, and on the other, i am disappointed that it needs to be said and then said again.

i will be recommending this book to so many people!

5 stars

Prospective readers should be mindful that unlike Nguyen's most popular work, this is a series of nonfiction essays (vs. a fabulous fictional novel). While I'd often encourage only an academic audience to read this, I think there is so much relatable content here that it could appeal to many audiences. That noted, I am part of that academic audience, so my opinion may be ever so slightly tainted.

Nguyen narrates the audio version of his book, and that is particularly fitting with the personal nature of the content as well as the original modality through which these essays were delivered: Norton lectures. Fans of Nguyen's and those interested in modern writing, identity, and postcolonialism will find so SO much to be enthusiastic about here.

I really enjoyed this efficient listen, and I can't wait to recommend it to my students.