With his immensely imaginative and gifted voice, Nam Le brings us a haunting collection of stories that resonate like those of JD Salinger, ZZ Packer, and Canada's own Vincent Lam. A stunningly inventive 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 fishing village in Australia to a floundering vessel in the South China Sea, in a masterful display of literary virtuosity and feeling. In the magnificent opening story, a young writer is urged ...
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With his immensely imaginative and gifted voice, Nam Le brings us a haunting collection of stories that resonate like those of JD Salinger, ZZ Packer, and Canada's own Vincent Lam. A stunningly inventive 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 fishing village in Australia to a floundering vessel in the South China Sea, in a masterful display of literary virtuosity and feeling. In the magnificent opening story, 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 the ties between father and son. "Cartagena" provides a visceral glimpse of life in Colombia as a fourteen-year-old hit man faces 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. The title story returns us 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 harrowing decision. Adam Haslett praises Nam Le for "the kind of courage and directness it takes most writers years to achieve." Charles D'Ambrosio says, " The Boat nails our collective now with an urgency and relevance that feel visionary."
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Add this copy of The Boat to cart. $5.48, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Brownstown, MI, UNITED STATES, published 2009 by Anchor Canada.
Add this copy of The Boat to cart. $12.99, very good condition, Sold by Russell Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Victoria, BC, CANADA, published 2009 by Anchor Canada.
Nam Le's debut collection of short stories garnered quite a bit of notice, and for good reason. The breadth of settings, narrators, and even styles among the collected stories of "The Boat" is impressive, and they are well executed across the board. I will say that not every piece grabbed me, and one went on long after I wished it would end, but Le is an author to watch. He writes with a sense of honesty that feels very refreshing.
daiprideaux
Feb 5, 2009
Prize Winning Debut
Nam Le deservedly won the £60,000 Dylan Thomas Prize with this stunning debut collection of seven short stories. From the opening story, set in Iowa, where the reunion of a son and his visiting father allows the writer to explore the meaning of homeland and the strength of the ties that bind fathers and sons the writing is consistently astonishing in its quality. The stories range throughout the world. In Cartegna we share the life and thoughts of a 14 year old hitman (hitboy) plying his filthy trade in the Colombian barrios. In 'Meeting Elise' a New York painter has to face the reality of his ageing body as he forces himself to meet his daughter on the eve of her Carnegie Hall debut. And in Haflead Bay, Australia we face an incisive dissection of family and teenage relationships as well as kinds of courage. Nam Le has the poise and technical skill of a master as using his pen as a scalpel he gets right to the heart of what it means to be human. As readers we learn what we would sometimes prefer to forget that when it gets right down to it each of us must face our individual demons alone. The book is quite simply a modern masterpiece.
