The Boat
January 19, 2009
The Boat by Nam Le is worldly in scope, taking the reader from Iowa to Columbia, Tehran, Hiroshima and the South China Sea, touching briefly down in New York City, just long enough to unravel yet another story full of characters experiencing the true pain which life and the living of it, brings. While I certainly was lost for a while in the story, Cartagena, which is set in Columbia and tells the story of teenagers deeply involved in the violent warfare brought upon by drug cartels, I found my place by the story’s end. This happened throughout the collection, I’d find myself suddenly transported to a new setting full of very complete characters tangled in the heartbreak of the human condition, a son watching his dying mother, an assassin who must target his best friend. From one corner of the planet to another, our emotions, our suffering, our joy unites us. Our shared experiences, as diverse as they may be are the boat on which we journey through this life. See for yourself why Pushcart Prize winner, Le, fiction editor of the Harvard Review is making waves in the world of short fiction.
Read the first story from the collection, Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice originally published at Zoetrope: All-Story to get a feel for his style, though this one is certainly his most routed in the familiar, included in the collection.
reviewed by Jonas
