The Boat
The opening story in Nam Le鈥檚 debut collection, The Boat, is as dazzling an introduction to a writer鈥檚 work as I鈥檝e read.
鈥淟ove and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice鈥� begins as a metastory about a blocked, Vietnamese-born student at the Iowa Writer鈥檚 Workshop. His estranged father visits from Australia just when he鈥檚 struggling with his last assignment of the semester. What first appears to be a story about not knowing what to write 鈥� yawn 鈥� becomes, through sophisticated literary legerdemain, a devastatingly powerful exploration of a fraught father-son relationship and the son鈥檚 gradual understanding of how his father鈥檚 brutal wartime experiences at the hands of Americans affected them both.
The story works on several levels, and the business about finding your subject matter as a writer is a key element. Nam Le, like his character 鈥淣am,鈥� was born in Vietnam in 1979, named after the homeland his family fled by boat, and raised in Australia, where he became a lawyer before attending the Iowa workshop.
鈥淗ow can you have writer鈥檚 block?鈥� the character Nam quotes one of his classmates. 鈥淛ust write a story about Vietnam.鈥� Visiting agents also push him to milk his ethnic roots, urging students to write what makes you 鈥渟tand out.鈥�
Another friend agrees. 鈥淵ou could totally exploit the Vietnamese thing. But instead, you choose to write about lesbian vampires and Colombian assassins, and Hiroshima orphans 鈥� and New York painters with hemorrhoids.鈥� 鈥淐atalogued like that,鈥� Le鈥檚 alter ego comments wryly, 鈥淸M]y stories sank into unflattering relief.鈥�
鈥淟ove and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice鈥� takes its title from William Faulkner鈥檚 admonition to 鈥渨rite about the old verities.鈥� Le not only takes that advice to heart, he practically uses it as a checklist.
From Cartagena to Tehran
But, as five of the seven far-ranging stories in this collection show, he goes to great lengths to resist exploiting 鈥� or being pigeon-holed by 鈥� 鈥渢he Vietnamese thing.鈥�
It could be argued that he goes too far. The two strongest stories, which bookend the collection, both involve Vietnam.
Others, such as 鈥淐artagena,鈥� a tense tale about Colombia鈥檚 鈥渘ever-ending culture of violence,鈥� show off Le鈥檚 versatility to the point, almost, of literary preening. It is narrated by a teenage Colombian hit man facing repercussions for failing to carry out an order to kill his only friend. Ron dreams of becoming a fisherman, wondering, at the ripe old age of 14, 鈥渉ow many times a person could start over.鈥�
鈥淗alflead Bay鈥� more effectively evokes the dread felt by a teenager in an Australian fishing village as he tries to prove himself man enough to face both his mother鈥檚 imminent death and an impending fight with a thuggish soccer teammate over a girl.
Several stories are told from a female point of view, and all put a human face on horror. In 鈥淗iroshima,鈥� a hungry, scared third-grader who鈥檚 been sent to the hills by her family for safety from American bombs tries to be brave. Alerted by the title, a reader鈥檚 dread mounts.
鈥�Tehran Calling鈥� is more complex, involving an American woman鈥檚 gradual realization during a frightening trip to Tehran that she has misjudged her Iranian-born college friend. Sarah visits Parvin after a romantic breakup leaves her unmoored. Parvin had left Iran in her teens but returned to fight for the liberation of Iranian women. She had never told Sarah about her family鈥檚 grim history (they had been marked as subversives by the Iranian government) because 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 want to be defined by it. The exotic friend with the traumatic past.鈥�
And back to Vietnam
One suspects that Le has similar qualms. Fortunately, they did not prevent him from writing his moving title story about 16-year-old Mai鈥檚 harrowing journey from Vietnam to Malaysia on a storm-tossed, overcrowded, ill-equipped junk. Mai learns 鈥渉ow necessary it was to stay on the surface of things. Because beneath the surface was either dread or delirium. As more and more bundles were thrown overboard she taught herself not to look 鈥� not to think of the bundles as human....鈥�
Nam Le digs beneath the surface and unfailingly sees the bundles as human in these accomplished stories about the terrible reverberations of violence.
Heller McAlpin is a freelance critic in New York.
