Emily's Reviews > The Boat

*sigh* Where do I even begin with what went wrong with this book. It started off so well. Certain scenes are so well described that I was really invested as a reader. However, I hate the way he ends each story... or rather, doesn't.

The first story felt like a good introduction chapter to a novel, except it's not a novel it was just a short story on its own. In turn it made the story have a horrible ending with a quick sum-up of what the character understood from the events in a few sentences.

It's an interesting book because it asks the question of whether or not anybody can write a story about a time, place, culture, language, etc that is not their own. I think it's possible because he does it decently in two/three of the stories. However, the rest were crap. I didn't believe them. They lacked a certain insight of someone who has lived that life or lived in that place or understood that culture. "Write what you know" should be plastered across his computer screen or above his typewriter. The stories were like the Hollywood version of certain stories. (No wonder certain critics were giving such high praise of it.) These stories were stories that were clearly imagined about other places and other times while the author rests comfortably in a pampered lifestyle thousands of miles from the actual locations.