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A review by sunrays118
The Boat by Nam Le
3.0
An uneven collection of short stories written well but told a slow, often languid way. The stories drift between long stretches of descriptions and short bouts of action. I would call these more vignettes. None of the stories have a true plot or go anywhere, instead they all seem more atmospheric, giving off a vague impression of a character and, more over, a place before ending a bit randomly.
They writing is fine but it is not quite fleshed out enough. The pacing seems off. The order of the stories doesn't flow. The characters all seem a bit underdeveloped.
I think this book had promise but was a bit too lofty - it never quite took hold of something real.
In truth, I would have given this collection two stars but the final story, the title piece, was so much more polished than anything else that I did round up.
One extra note, the last story in this collection was made into an interactive web comic that is absolutely wonderful. By itself, that comic should be rated five stars - it is superb.
They writing is fine but it is not quite fleshed out enough. The pacing seems off. The order of the stories doesn't flow. The characters all seem a bit underdeveloped.
I think this book had promise but was a bit too lofty - it never quite took hold of something real.
In truth, I would have given this collection two stars but the final story, the title piece, was so much more polished than anything else that I did round up.
One extra note, the last story in this collection was made into an interactive web comic that is absolutely wonderful. By itself, that comic should be rated five stars - it is superb.