The Boat | 
 enlarge | Author: Nam Le
Publisher: Knopf
Category: Book
List Price: $22.95
Buy New: $12.99
You Save: $9.96 (43%)
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Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 4685
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 288
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.2
ISBN: 030726808X
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.92
EAN: 9780307268082
ASIN: 030726808X
Publication Date: May 13, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: 2008 hardcover as pictured -- bought at a bookstore pre-holiday sale -- 0-307-26808-2 -- bookstore put a black mark on top side of outside spine
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Product Description
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 to Iowa City; from a tiny fishing village in Australia to a foundering vessel in the South China Sea, in a masterly display of literary virtuosity and feeling.
In the magnificent 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 of 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 test. In “Meeting Elise,” an aging New York painter mourns his body’s decline as he prepares to meet his daughter on the eve of her Carnegie Hall debut. And with graceful symmetry, the final, title story returns to Vietnam, to a fishing trawler crowded with refugees, where a young woman’s bond with a mother and her small son forces both women to a shattering decision.
Brilliant, daring, and demonstrating a jaw-dropping versatility of voice and point of view, The Boat is an extraordinary work of fiction that takes us to the heart of what it means to be human, and announces a writer of astonishing gifts.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 Curiously unemotional November 28, 2008
Anna Louise (Australia)
Nam Le has created a series of curiously bloodless characters. His writing is technically adept, but somehow in this collection he has failed to reach the hearts of the people he is writing about. The story that worked best for me was the first one in the collection, which is also the one that I suspect is closest to Nam Le's life - the story about the Vietnamese father and his son. The others I found unconvincing - cleverly written, but emotionally flat.
In my opinion Nam Le has a lot of writing talent, but may not yet have reached his full potential.
 A best young writer November 16, 2008
Dung Phan (Texas, USA)
One of the few books I've read that I've hated to finish. Funny, sordid, in places, and solid-contemporary-idealist, not just of "questionable morality" as the jacket cover states. The important thing, however, is the writer's skill in projecting memorable prose. The clever writing skill was in many different country-story level cultures. A very pleasurable read and a page turner, to boot. I would highly recomment it, although perhaps one would enjoy it much more if one had prior acquaintance with Vietnamese culture.
Excellent New Voice in Short Fiction November 13, 2008
M. T. Vancampen (Houston, TX)
I was so enthralled with this volume that I read all the stories in under a day. Nam Le is an impressive new writer w/ a well of talent. I was impressed with how diverse the stories were in terms of setting and characters and yet so thematically similar. I highly suggest this to lovers of good fiction and am guessing there will be more to come from this promising author.
Not Very Good. Here's Why October 20, 2008
H. To
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
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.
Problematic Poetry October 19, 2008
D. Brunskill (Riddle, OR)
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.
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