Cursed with Talent
The narrator a spy back in homeland of Vietnam. He is now refugee in France; a communist who is pursuing a capitalist agenda. This duality causes him to ponder “What was a man with two minds except a mutant? Perhaps even a monster.” This is a metaphor that describes a very unique ability of his he once termed a talent, but now calls a curse. The perfect operational calculus for a spy: the ability to see any issue from two sides with equal validity.
Colonization
Since the narrator is a Vietnamese refugee who takes up residence in France, it is to be expected that themes related to duality and colonization will be prevalent. After all, the French had set up colonial authority in Vietnam. Much metaphorical imagery is directed toward the issue of colonization, but one in particular stands out. “Colonization is pedophilia. The paternal country rapes and molests its unfortunate pupils, all in the holy and hypocritical name of the civilizing mission!” That is the kind raw, visceral use of the device that metaphor is used for too infrequently. It is not just a shocking image, but one that puts a rather abstract concept into a context impossible to ignore. The passage is also indicative of the extent to which much of this novel is constructed of debates about political ideology.
Americans
Such an intense focus on debates over critical theory is not one conducive to the best-seller list. The novel definitely has 1950’s French existential literature vibe to it. There is even the requisite insulting of America’s lack of cultural sophistication. “The typical American preferred the canned version of philosophy found in how-to manuals, but even average Frenchmen and Vietnamese cherished a love of knowledge.” What is interesting about this slight against American intellectualism is that thought the protagonist is a Vietnamese man living in France, the novel clearly wants to be about America. Direct references to America and Americans are as plentiful as the direct references about Vietnam and the French. The metaphor of “canned version” to indicate lesser quality also seems purposely like a reference from an era which passed long before the period in which the story takes place.
The Fetishism of the Commodity
The narrator may no longer be a practicing communist revolutionary, but he is still a dedicated Marxist. Contrary to what its most vociferous opponents try to argue, Marxist theory is not just alive and well, but can be applied to the daily practice of existence. When the narrator observes that he wore his “Bruno Magli shoes with pride and polished them weekly, succumbing to the capitalist seduction that Marx warned about: loving a commodity, a thing, as if it were an actual living being, an affair that could only be short-lived at best” he is making a concrete link between Marxist theory and how that theory infiltrates life. Marx’s theories of the fetishism of the commodity apply especially to shoes, it seems. This passage works as a subtle allusion to a scene in Theodore Dreiser’s novel Sister Carrie in which the title character literally become an actual living being her deluded state of mind when she hears shoes speaking to her in a voice of temptation.
Smart Tenancy
The Boss offers the narrator the opportunity to use a pair of binoculars to peer out his window where, way off in the distance, the Eiffel Tower rises majestically. The point being that he can see France’s defining landmark just the same as people paying stupid amounts of money for places much closer to the Tower. And there is the extra benefit of not having to worry about too many tourists or wealthy residents drawing the protection of the police. He explains, “That’s who they want to protect, tourists and bankers. This place? If it was full of white people, cops would be here like fruit flies on fruit.” The actual simile is a bit pedestrian, but keep in mind it is a crime boss expressing it throughout dialogue. Even in his own less than poetic way, however, the Boss is perfectly attuned to the point he is making. The primary focus of law enforcement is property, not human life. Fruit attracts fruits flies and white people with property at risk attracts a law enforcement system dominated by white people. Racism will always play a significant part in the machinery of enforcing laws wherever the white residents possess the greatest share of the wealth.
