Richard's Reviews > The Boat

Wow! Beautiful. Disturbing. I just read an Advanced Reader's Copy of this book and was particularly impressed by Le's ability to create characters that all convincingly inhabit so many different landscapes and cultures. I was expecting a more specific cultural tone or flavor from this book--but the stories and persepctives are radically different, and are able to stand alone as their own worlds, which to me signals an astounding stylistic range--clearly the writer could have stuck with just one of these modes and been successful. But the stories also cohere as a collection, bound by the same deeply feeling, fiercely compassionate subjectivity, whose great skill is to manifest in such distinct--and distinctive--voices. I'm bowled by this book.