Ep. 41 - An American Narrative: A Conversation with Author Viet Thanh Nguyen Winner of The Pulitzer for Fiction

The impact of entrepreneurship on the America dream is too often taken for granted. Consider Pulitzer Prize Winning Author Viet Thanh Nguyen, who escaped Vietnam as a refugee with most of his family in the 70s, almost immediately torn from his mother's arms when they hit the ground in America. Then a few years later, reunited with his brother and parents who started their own successful, yet back breaking grocery store business in San Jose, California.  An observer, Viet learned how to be and not to be, absorbing the tenacity and fierceness of his entrepreneurial parents. His journey from boyhood to manhood in a country studded at every point with racism and hypocrisy manifests beautifully in his Pulitzer Prize winning novel "The Sympathizer."  Host JinJa Birkenbeuel interviews Viet on this special episode. Viet's story will surprise you, as he unpacks and deconstructs American-style racism through his own cultural lens.  Follow Viet on Insta and Twitter @viet_t_nguyen. Purchase his books at http://www.bookshop.org. "The Sympathizer" is available here https://bookshop.org/books/the-sympathizer-a-novel-pulitzer-prize-for-fiction/9780802124944 and his collaboration with his son Ellison "Chicken Of The Sea" https://bookshop.org/books/chicken-of-the-sea/9781944211738. #BlackLivesMatter #TheSympathizer #Pulitzer #Refugee #Vietnam Follow our show on http://www.instagram.com/honestfieldguide or at http://www.twitter.com/thehonestfield. We would love your dollars to keep going! We can take a donation to support our podcast here and we will shout you our when you do it on an upcoming podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-honest-field-guide/support.  Text The Honest Field Guide at ‪(312) 445-0903‬ Send us a voice message and we will record it on an upcoming episode: https://anchor.fm/the-honest-field-guide/message. The podcast is recorded and produced by Birk Creative: Designing visual identities and multichannel strategies to help brands establish, grow, scale, exit and keep up with the pace of change. Visit birkcreative.com. Music found on this episode is available on Apple here https://music.apple.com/us/artist/utah-carol/137984081 and provided courtesy Utah Carol (ASCAP). All content ©Birkdesign Inc. This podcast represents the personal views of JinJa Birkenbeuel, CEO of Birk Creative and its employees.