The Boat (Rough-Cut) by Nam Le Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Boat (Rough-Cut)
Book Review: Not Very Good. Here's Why
Summary: 1 Stars
I completely agree with K.H. It was like Nam Le was looking up the words in a dictionary while he was writing it, in order to impress the reader with his "large" adjectives, instead of telling the story for the story. He was being too excitedly poetic about almost every sentence in the story. That is for poetry, not for realistic fiction. I wonder if he had ever read Hemingway or Heller. I just can't relate to the characters in the story due to Nam Le's lack of development and understanding for the characters of his book. Admittedly, I give him credit for his endeavor for writing while looking up the "large" words in a dictionary, if he should get any credit at all! The plots were bad and completely incoherent. The characters did not feel real at all. I don't know if it's the overly done ethnic type of writing or overall, just not a very good piece of writing. He should have some inventiveness to let the characters in the story tell the story. That way it is more believable when the reader reads it. For those of you who enjoy all of Nam Le's rambling. Have fun! For me, I'll just look for something else more believable to read.Book Review: Ok
Summary: 4 Stars
A book of 7 short stories, a few of them that I think should have made their own book.
The title is based on the final story of the book and is diefinately one of the better ones - its story entraping yet the ending doesn't leave you with more questions than answers, it actually has an ending and closure. The other two that would make up my top three were Love and honour and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice; and Meeting Elise. Both of these stories had a fluidity to them and once again a complete ending.
Yet all the stories cover different subjects in different parts of the world and you can almost see them as a snapshot of a specific time and what is happening around the world.
For me Tehran calling was the most disappointing, not because it wasn't a well written and interesting story but because it just got to a point and finished leaving a gap that wasn't filled. It left me feeling frustrated instead of intreged.
The Boat however is definately a book worth reading.
Book Review: Problematic Poetry
Summary: 5 Stars
Beautifully written stories. But...so intense that they actually hurt, and take a while to "get over." Literally speaking, that's a good thing! I'm still reeling. But I know that these stories are well worth reading, and that this author is very, very gifted. It's not often that I encounter a "short story" author who can affect me, as a reader, to such a degree. This collection is for serious readers and/or serious students of literature: it's that good.Book Review: The Boat
Summary: 5 Stars
Steve Koss wrote an insightful review here earlier suggesting a connection between this collection of seven short-stories and ethnic literature. Nam Le is Vietnamese, but only the first and last story are directly about the Vietnamese experience, the rest are a seemingly random mix of people and events from all over the world. Nam Le tells us he "could totally exploit the Vietnamese thing. But instead, [he] choose to write about lesbian vampires and Colombian assassins, and Hiroshima orphans - and New York painters with hemorrhoids." What do Colombian assassins, Hiroshima orphans and hemorrhoid infected New Yorkers have to do with the Vietnamese experience?
Everything. The problem is, as Le says, ethnic literature is "a license to bore. The characters are always flat, generic." Readers are either numb to it because of stereotypes or mental blockage, or have no frame of reference. And as Le's first story shows, the writer can't help but be exploitative in the process. However it is still possible to convey the feelings of the experience through a proxy, and so all of these stories immerse the reader with emotions in preparation for the last story about Vietnamese boat people.
It's been said there is no loneliness more acute than that experienced around other people, in particular family. The New York artist who waits alone in the restaurant for the daughter who never comes; the high school football star who fights his personal battles, but even with his father taking the punches, still faces it alone; the Colombian assassin who faces his destiny without his friends help; in each of the stories the main character is isolated and alienated and faces a great trauma. The experience of reading this book reminded me of when I was child, lost in the crowd, my parents seemingly gone forever and the world a difficult and cold place.
By the last story, "The Boat", the readers sensibilities have been so finely shaped to this sense of alienation, fear and dread that Nam Le is able to convey the Vietnamese boat people "ethnic experience" in a fresh and immediate way. The details and facts are conveyed through the words on the page, but the feeling and sense of experience comes from within. Using this as an interpretive framework, it no longer seems like a collection of short stories but a work greater than its elements, a masterful use of the short story format to touch on universal human experience.
Book Review: The Boat by Nam Le
Summary: 5 Stars
wounderful spread of topic/countries/subject matter in these insightful short stories by a very young writer who writes with lots of wisdom.A truly great read