'The Boat' by Nam Le

Well, I didn’t read it, so here goes with general commentary. How divine though, to see you all and sample Raj’s very fine hospitality. A warm welcome to Alena, welcome aboard ... do excuse the sinking ship image!

The Boat, comprises seven short stories which take the reader to such places as Colombia, New York City, Iowa, Tehran, Hiroshima, and small-town Australia. In the opening story, Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice, he writes about a Vietnamese-born character called Nam Le who is attending a writing workshop in Iowa. In a conversation with Michael Williams he said about the practice of using a narrator close to "self" in a story.

Andrew observes that Le “gazes towards the shadow not the sunshine, and therein lies the difficulty – a strong voice but what he says is negative”. This is somewhat at odds with The Independent review which describes it as” A tongue-in-cheek collection of short stories that questions what is authentic and what is assumed, Le's book takes a playful swipe at the good intentions of liberal America”. Having not read the book I was a little nonplussed by this difference, but well, that’s what you get for being so lazy.

The group felt that the teasing out of issues the ethics of Hiroshima and the Nazis were worth exploring, demonstrated by Dennis’ comment (and what BBC blog post be compete without that!), that “the craft of it is breathtaking despite the chill”.

Scores were:

Raj 9
Kevin 7
Dennis 8
Leanne 8
Andrew 7
Alena 8
Mary 8

Average 8

So quite a high scoring book, thanks Raj!

Here is Mary's review, in our borderless world:

I LOVED this book. While some of the material was harrowing, I cannot remember having last read a book that so dripped with poetry and meaning and clarity. I gave up on the audio version, and bought a hard copy from Amazon.com for all of $2.50 second hand. Now I can hold the well ear-marked version in my hands an enjoy it again and again. The previous owner clearly enjoyed it as much as me.... it is well underscored and dog-earred.

The last story, The Boat was especially moving. I sponsored 240 Vietnamese refugees into New Zealand about 18 years ago. I got to know their stories from all sides, their hopes and dreams and griefs and joys. This story was so in tune with the grit that they had, the language, the dignity.

The language in each story was crafted with it's own flavour, like one would craft a Thai meal with lemon-grass, then a Chinese meal with Szechwan pepper .... god, it was amazing . A banquet!

I am scoring it 8.5

The next book is Brooklyn by Colm Toibin, and looking like 20 Sept at this stage.

Here’s a clip from Nam Le.