Jason's Reviews > The Boat

These are quite simply some of the most amazing stories I have ever read. I am not typically an avid fan of short stories. I typically find them little more than character sketches (like E. Annie Proulx's Postcards) or short scenes that are surely a part of a greater whole but simply leave me with a literary hole. But Nam Le has done something amazing with most of his stories -- they smack of realism, the characters are full, the stories hold up on their own and are not just false starts of novels, and while many of these pieces cover difficult terrain (quite literally and figuratively) with the exception of one rather formulaic story (Hiroshima), I never felt these were cookie cutter, maudlin pieces. A wonderful (and quick) read!