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A stunningly inventive, deeply moving fiction debut: stories that take us from the slums of Colombia to the streets of Tehran; from New York City t...
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reviews
Jun 20, 2008
Emily
rated it: 
*sigh* Where do I even begin with what went wrong with this book. It started off so well. Certain scenes are so well described that I was really invested as a reader. However, I hate the way he ends each story... or rather, doesn't.
The first story felt like a good introduction chapter to a novel, except it's not a novel it was just a short story on its own. In turn it made the story have a horrible ending with a quick sum-up of what the character understood from the events in a few More...
The first story felt like a good introduction chapter to a novel, except it's not a novel it was just a short story on its own. In turn it made the story have a horrible ending with a quick sum-up of what the character understood from the events in a few More...
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Sep 09, 2011
Brendan
rated it: 
like Bon Iver's debut album of last year this book proves that sweet art will make its way when it's at it's least eager. a quiet, brilliant idyll. each story sent me on a one hour walk around the canyons. the first one and the last one were my favourites and 'halflead' could've been a winton short from 'the turning'. im officially jealous of this vietnamese australian master-craftsman.
Dec 29, 2008
Thomas
rated it:
"Faulkner, you know," my friend said over the squeals, "he said we should write the old verities. Love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice."
This quote is planted square in the middle of Nam Le's opening story, a metafictional conceit that allows the author to address the reader directly about how ethnicity and the immigrant experience can both confer a special status on an author while also becoming a crutch, hobbling his imagination.
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This quote is planted square in the middle of Nam Le's opening story, a metafictional conceit that allows the author to address the reader directly about how ethnicity and the immigrant experience can both confer a special status on an author while also becoming a crutch, hobbling his imagination.
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Nov 21, 2008
Mike
rated it: 
Okay -- "Halflead Bay" is dazzling, a 5-star story stretched some 50 pages (novellette? novella?) and I wish it had been more. I found myself immersed in the local, its own language and rhythms, the social and familial structures and struggles revealed with a confident, understated narrative structure. And writing that without razzle-dazzle dazed me, like a throwaway observation of trucks "ripping skins of water" off the roadway.
I enjoyed the last two stories, a More...
I enjoyed the last two stories, a More...
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Apr 26, 2011
Troy
rated it:
Confronting the Real
In the final story “The Boat” in Nam Le’s collection of the same name, Mai is adrift in a grossly over-crowded boat of refugees fleeing Vietnam. With no food, a dwindling water supply, scant shade and amidst inhuman (or all too human) squalor, Mai recalls her father’s return from a communist re-education camp in Vietnam. He could no longer see; it is unclear whether he was blind or simply unable to recognise his surroundings. He never spoke to her of h More...
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Feb 06, 2012
Layne
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This is a book for those who believe that well-constructed art is not just what's nice to look at, but that which effectively causes the observer to feel. It's an extraordinarily poignant collection of stories about far-flung places and times that starts with a memory of Vietnam, penetrates the dark world of Colombia's slums, and accompanies an adolescent boy in a remote Australian fishing village as he navigates the dichotomous journeys of losing his mother and experiencing his first love. It w
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Mar 12, 2009
Stephanie
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THE first story in this debut collection by Australian writer Nam Le, 29, has the wonderfully bombastic title Love And Honor And Pity And Pride And Compassion And Sacrifice. A catalogue of the "old verities" Faulkner urged writers to write about, it suggests that all storytelling should go back to some fundamental, universal truth about the human condition.
This search for the fundamental takes centrestage in a story that also serves a dual purpose as the introduction this c More...
This search for the fundamental takes centrestage in a story that also serves a dual purpose as the introduction this c More...
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May 02, 2011
Benito
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I had heard good things about this book and then picked up a copy at the home of a misguided amorosa and started reading. Straight away I thought damn, this cat can really write! The amorosa ended badly, though I did get a short story out of it, which I dictated into my Nokia later on the steps of the Newtown schule. Through all the regrets I still couldn't get Nam Le's beautiful prose out of my mind (everything happens for a reason perhaps?) so I finally bought it. Let's hope the majesty of
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Aug 17, 2008
Paul
rated it:
I'll admit it. I sort of fell in love with this book's cover as soon as I sawl it on the New Fiction table at Bailey/Coy. I hemmed and hawed, picked it up and put it down, then finally let Michiko Kakutani and Mary Gaitskill convince me to fork over the $25. What I got from these stories, initially, was a really strong McSweeney's vibe. I couldn't quite put my finger on why this was, but the feeling was sustained, and eventually I figured it out. In the first story, Le writes about a writer stru
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Jul 21, 2008
r
rated it: 
I have to admit, I am still ten pages from finishing this book, but I can't do it anymore! With the exception of the first story, this book bored me to tears. I give it two starts instead of one, because Le is a great writer. At fear of sounding like a literary agent, I will still say that I couldn't relate to any of these characters or their lives. And this is because the writer didn't make it easy for me to relate to them. Le is an excellent writer, but a horrilbe story teller. He never drew m
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Jul 02, 2008
nicholas
rated it: 
The Boat is a breathtaking & heartbreaking work of literary genius. Each of Nam Le's stories are a world so completely real & realized that they feel like a living, breathing being. His understanding of human emotions know no boundaries of age, race, country or gender & is only overshadowed by the beauty & mastery of Le's writing. For those who do not read short stories, please do not let that stop you from picking up this book; each story is a novel in itself. The intensity of character & place
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Mar 10, 2008
Richard
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Wow! Beautiful. Disturbing. I just read an Advanced Reader's Copy of this book and was particularly impressed by Le's ability to create characters that all convincingly inhabit so many different landscapes and cultures. I was expecting a more specific cultural tone or flavor from this book--but the stories and persepctives are radically different, and are able to stand alone as their own worlds, which to me signals an astounding stylistic range--clearly the writer could have stuck with just o
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Aug 21, 2008
Jason
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These are quite simply some of the most amazing stories I have ever read. I am not typically an avid fan of short stories. I typically find them little more than character sketches (like E. Annie Proulx's Postcards) or short scenes that are surely a part of a greater whole but simply leave me with a literary hole. But Nam Le has done something amazing with most of his stories -- they smack of realism, the characters are full, the stories hold up on their own and are not just false starts of n
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Nov 06, 2011
Ryan
rated it:
***1/2
A collection of short stories that are well-crafted, if a little conspicuously so. As Le explains in his first piece, he's driven by a desire to be recognized for his writing, and not just his Vietnamese heritage, which an adviser suggested that he exploit to capture the attention of trend-conscious literary agents on the lookout for "immigrant" fiction. That piece, exploring the author's complex relationship with his father, who survived the aftermath of the Vietnam Wa More...
A collection of short stories that are well-crafted, if a little conspicuously so. As Le explains in his first piece, he's driven by a desire to be recognized for his writing, and not just his Vietnamese heritage, which an adviser suggested that he exploit to capture the attention of trend-conscious literary agents on the lookout for "immigrant" fiction. That piece, exploring the author's complex relationship with his father, who survived the aftermath of the Vietnam Wa More...
Mar 17, 2011
Reema
rated it:
great scenes and some muscular, resonant narrative building, but just couldn't get into this. i think i need more careful language than this offered, and i got irritated by the self-absorbed, "masculinist" voice in some pieces which left me looking for a foothold into the story. also, i just don't understand why the pieces needed to range all over the friggin' globe. i mean, what made this cohere as a collection? (i guess i need to muster the patience to read the whole thing through .
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Jan 01, 2011
Literary Feline
rated it:
I tend to prefer short stories that delve into the hearts and minds of the characters and that is exactly what Nam Le has done with his collection of stories in The Boat (Knopf, 2008 - Fiction; 272 pgs). I find his writing beautiful at times, while at others somewhat harsh harsh. The stories in the collection are all rather melancholy, the characters flawed and real. My favorite of the stories included the title story, "The Boat," about a mother and child who befriend a young woman tra
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Feb 08, 2010
Benito
rated it:
Le's ability to fully inhabit his wildly disparate characters is the hallmark of this strong and promising debut. His prose doesn't quite leap off the page as does the writing in my favorite short-fiction debut from last year -- that would be Wells Tower's Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned: Stories, which sometimes verges on showy -- but it's elegant and understated nonetheless.
The first story is probably the highlight of the collection, and is the sort of piece that would (or sh More...
The first story is probably the highlight of the collection, and is the sort of piece that would (or sh More...
Sep 23, 2009
Younkin
rated it:
This is a fascinating collection of short stories and, like most collections, its hard to give the entire collection a rating when there is a fair bit of variance between the stories. The first story is spectacular and, in my mind, the best and most memorable of the novel. In fairness, my opinion may be colored by the fact that I found that protagonist the most inviting and complicated. The subsequent stories veer from very good to average, in particular I was not a fan of either "Tehran
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Apr 20, 2009
Banafsheh
rated it:
Nam Le's book of short stories, hit our stores under a great umbrella of praise from the literary society. It was picked by book the 'The Tuesday Bookclub' and was the first book chosen for the 'Debra Camron' (702 ABC Radio) bookclub.
Graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop, Le has written a collection of unique stories, each with their own tempo and heartbeat. The writing is lyrical and descriptive, taking time to slowly allow the reader a portal view into the background of each chara More...
Graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop, Le has written a collection of unique stories, each with their own tempo and heartbeat. The writing is lyrical and descriptive, taking time to slowly allow the reader a portal view into the background of each chara More...
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Sep 16, 2011
David
rated it:
Nam Le writes stories that enthrall, while squeezing out tears of emotion. The first story in The Boat is Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice, and makes the rest of the book overflow with energy, suggesting the challenges writing has for Le: writing about Vietnam, telling meaningful stories, wondering why write at all, and always editing stories. I cannot imagine starting off the collection any other way - reading about writing at the Iowa's Writers' Workshop, communic
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Mar 20, 2010
Patty
rated it:
I just picked up this book from the "New Books" shelf at the library on a whim and I was blown away. This is a first book by Nam Le and it is short stories. But they are a collection of unique stories, each with their own tempo and heartbeat. The writing is lyrical and descriptive, taking time to slowly allow the reader a view into the background of each character.
We've all heard the advice to write about what you know. So I think what was most amazing to me was the div More...
We've all heard the advice to write about what you know. So I think what was most amazing to me was the div More...
Nov 04, 2008
Karlan
rated it:
This terrific book of short stories should win awards this year. The stories are so well written that I visualized all the characters and scenes without being aware of detailed descriptions. Although the author is originally Vietnamese, the stories are set in a variety of countries. Many have teens as major characters so it would be interesting to see what a mature teen thought of the collection.
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Feb 05, 2009
With this debut collection, Le has become the new literary darling. Every critic marveled at this powerful new voice in fiction, a young writer whose characters are so emotionally and psychologically rich that they simply transported reviewers to new worlds and eras. Le's remarkable range of characters, subjects, settings, and perspectives "beggars belief," says the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Indeed, Le "puts his searching, observant voice wherever he likes"with astounding suc
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Jan 13, 2009
Ann
rated it:
The last book of short stories I remember staying with me this way was Jhumpa Lahiri's _Interpreter of Maladies_ and only on a second read. And, in the same way I felt inclined to weigh her stories against one another, I do the same in looking at Le's book. While not all of the stories in Nam Le's book prove to me to be of equal caliber to one another, I appreciate the type and variety of character detail he has managed to achieve in several of the stories. His longer stories do this better
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Jan 26, 2012
Nesa
rated it:
In the opening story, "Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice," a young writer is urged by his friends to mine his father's experiences in Vietnam — and what seems at first a satire on turning one's life into literary commerce becomes a transcendent exploration of homeland, and the ties between father and son.
"Cartagena" provides a visceral glimpse of life in Colombia as it enters the mind of a fourteen-year-old hit man facing the ultimate More...
"Cartagena" provides a visceral glimpse of life in Colombia as it enters the mind of a fourteen-year-old hit man facing the ultimate More...
Sep 10, 2009
Chad
rated it:
Nam Le’s debut novel is, in fact, a collection of seven short stories beginning with what appears to be an autobiographical account followed by six fiction pieces. Le flexes his hefty writing muscles right from the start. His command of the language is poetic with every word providing power and stimulating all five senses. The versatility of his voice allows Le to alter his style with each story, providing the feel of seven unique authors rather than one author telling many stories. However, whi
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May 15, 2011
Nam Le is a thoroughly cosmopolitan writer. In the first story, which is presumably pretty autobiographical, he writes about not wanting to be pigeonholed as an "ethnic" writer. Good for him.
So his stories are non-ethnic almost to a fault, set in several radically different settings, yet all in the same realistic tone. I thought the Australian story was rather dull and pointless, but the others were all quite enjoyable. The Hiroshima story went to pains not to be maudli More...
So his stories are non-ethnic almost to a fault, set in several radically different settings, yet all in the same realistic tone. I thought the Australian story was rather dull and pointless, but the others were all quite enjoyable. The Hiroshima story went to pains not to be maudli More...
Dec 09, 2008
Rebecca
rated it:
The first story in this book, which is an autobiographical account of the writer at Iowa, is great. (And was previously published in Best American's NRR 07.) The titular story, positioned last, about Mai Lai, was also really great. Everything in between was wooden and plodding.
May 18, 2010
Katina
rated it:
Nam Le's collection of short stories struck me as a little hit or miss. I was enthralled by the first and last stories in the book and, at times, couldn't get through the ones in the middle fast enough.
I'm guessing that the first two stories might have been the best in the collection because they drew strength from Le's personal experience. The first one is semi-autobiographical about a young author whose father comes to visit him at the Iowa Writer's Workshop. It explores ethnic More...
I'm guessing that the first two stories might have been the best in the collection because they drew strength from Le's personal experience. The first one is semi-autobiographical about a young author whose father comes to visit him at the Iowa Writer's Workshop. It explores ethnic More...
May 21, 2009
Michael
rated it:
I'm almost ashamed to have started this collection wondering how I could possible relate to a series of stories about Asian cultures. How short-sighted and narrow minded I was!
"The Boat" is one of the most moving, well-written collections of short stories I've ever read. It's amazing how writing so stripped of melodrama can still be so powerful.
Le shares with his audience the flattest planes of humanity, an evenness in tone and quality of writing that moves the More...
"The Boat" is one of the most moving, well-written collections of short stories I've ever read. It's amazing how writing so stripped of melodrama can still be so powerful.
Le shares with his audience the flattest planes of humanity, an evenness in tone and quality of writing that moves the More...
