The Boat: Three Choices for America's Role in the World - Softcover

Nam Le

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0241015413 ISBN 13: 9780241015414

Publisher: Penguin Books Australia, 2008

Synopsis

Geopolitical thought leader Ian Bremmer issues a clarion call to America: redefine your place in the world, or the world will define it for you

America's identity abroad has long been defined by the second World War and years of Cold War struggle. But the new America has changed; its role and identity are in flux - and with them, the global balance of power.

In Three Choices for a Superpower, president and founder of the Eurasia Group, Ian Bremmer, calls for a completely new definition of America as a superpower - one that adheres to distinct priorities and values. He outlines the three choices facing the new America:

Be independent: America does not have an endless supply of blood and finances to spend on other nations. Rather, America will fare much better if it devotes its energies and resources to rebuilding strength from within.

Moneyball: America cannot afford every foreign fight in support of American values, but they must defend their interests wherever they are threatened. They must make tough decisions intelligently, with an open admission of America's limitations.

Be indispensable: To think that America can operate autonomously from the rest of the world is not only ignorant but also extremely dangerous. The world relies on American leadership, and America has international interests - they must continue their role as an indispensable nation and remain actively involved abroad.

As the 2016 presidential election approaches, America needs to define its responsibilities, opportunities, and most importantly, its limits. A foreign policy divided against itself cannot stand; as the world's greatest superpower, America must choose which path it will follow into the future.

Ian Bremmer is the president and founder of the Eurasia Group, the leading global political risk research and consulting firm. He has published ten books including the national bestsellers The End of the Free Market and Every Nation For Itself. He is an active public speaker and a contributor to the Financial Times and Reuters, among others.

About this title

Review

"Nam Le's lyricism and emotional urgency lend his portraits enormous visceral power. . . . A remarkable collection." --The New York Times

"Nam Le is extraordinary, a writer who must - who will - be heard. . . .The Boat's vision and its power are timeless." --Mary Gaitskill

"Astounding. . . . A refreshingly diverse and panoramic debut." --Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Extraordinarily accomplished and sophisticated. . . . Moving and unforgettable." --San Francisco Chronicle

"Wonderful stories that snarl and pant across our crazed world . . . . Nam Le is a heartbreaker, not easily forgotten." --Junot Diaz

"Lyrical . . . Powerful and assured. . . . [Le's] kaleidoscopic world view is on display throughout the stories, which seamlessly blend cultural traditions, accents and landscapes that run from lush to barren." --The Miami Herald

"Stunning. . . .These stories are so beautifully written and cross emotional barriers of time and place with such clear vision and strong command of language we can only wonder with awe what Nam Le will offer us next." --The Oregonian

"A collection that takes the reader across the globe. From Iowa to Colombia to Australia and Iran, the characters in Le's stories each shape the world around them. In each story, the protagonists create a new atmosphere. . . .While Le is a writer who seems to be interested in the issues of the world, he is also a writer interested in the young. . . . Le does not downplay the lives of his children as fiction often does when portraying younger characters but presents them with a seriousness and intelligence that is refreshing. . . . The Boat is an impressive debut from a writer with a lot more to give. A writer to be remembered." --Marion Frisby, The Denver Post

"Powerful . . . Lyrical . . . Devastating . . . A harsh and masterful effort, each tale a clean shot through the heart, the aim true. In seven stories covering six continents and an ocean, Le delivers a powerful and assured vision that offers a clear look at his impressive talents. . . . Le is the sort of writer who taps directly into the vein of desperation and offers no shelter. He's not for the faint of heart, but the reward for soldiering on in the toughness of his world is the welcome recognition of a voice clear and brave." --Amy Driscoll, The Miami Herald

"Captivating . . . An uncannily mature debut [that] distills time, experience . . . There's a streak of the naturalist in Nam Le that looks back to such writers as Emile Zola, Stephen Crane and Theodore Dreiser. . . . It is a searing portrait of survival, love and sacrifice, which seems revelatory and wise. It is [Le's] ethnic story that transcends ethnicity." --Robert L. Pincus, San Diego Union-Tribune

"[The Boat] takes the reader from the South China Sea to Medellin, Colombia, to Tehran and beyond-places that, in many cases, Nam Le has never visited. . . . What struck me about ['Tehran Calling'] was how vivid the imagery of the city of Tehran appears-the Shiite Ashura procession, with the self-flagellation, the rutted roads, [he] talks about the stale fluorescent writing at the airport . . . [Nam Le] writes so convincingly about these places [he's] never been to . . ." --Guy Raz, correspondent, All Things Considered

"Brilliant . . . The Boat will quicken your pulse and awaken every nerve in your being. For avid readers who have hungered for stories that can transport them physically, intellectually and emotionally, stories so well-structured and narrated they appear to reinvent the form itself, the literary American Idol is Nam Le. [His] dynamic prose and remarkable range of subjects and points of view defy explanation. . . . There is so much to say about Nam Le's genius that it would take a book and even that may not be enough. With The Boat, he defeats time, hollowness and cliche with every story, earning him the right to reap sheaves, buckets, reservoirs of generous, unabashed praise." --Denise Gess, Raleigh News & Observer
"Twenty-nine-year-old Nam Le demonstrates the aesthetic ambition and sentence-making chops of a much more experienced writer. . . . Each moment of technical brio [in the opening story] deepens the dramatization of the all-but-unspeakable power of love between parent and child. By the end, any perceptive reader will agree that the 'world could be shattered by a small stone dropped like a single syllable.' . . . The plot unfolds with remorseless logic, harsh beauty, and an almost unbearable tenderness that reminded me of Dubliners. [The story's] scenes [are] exact in their details and gorgeous in their musicality . . . I've been telling friends about The Boat for weeks now, saying 'This guy's got it.' Now I'm telling you. Pass it on." --John Repp, Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Astonishing . . . Not yet 30, Le effortlessly gives all seven tales in The Boat a different register, structure, vocabulary and tone.. . . . The miracle of these stories is how their author, by sleight of hand and virtue of skill, puts his searching, observant voice wherever he likes." --John Freeman, Newark Star-Ledger

"Moving . . . The opening story in Nam Le's debut collection, The Boat, is as dazzling an introduction to a writer's work as I've read. . . . 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, The Christian Science Monitor

"It is uncommon that a writer's first book can be described as masterful, especially when the author is not yet 30 years old. But The Boat, an extraordinary collection of seven short stories by Nam Le, is truly that kind of book. . . . As complex in its depth as it is accessible in its prose. . . . These stories are so beautifully written and cross emotional barriers of time and place with such clear vision and strong command of language we can only wonder with awe what Nam Le will offer us next." --Jim Carmin, The Oregonian

"[The stories in Nam Le's The Boat] flout the traditional maxim 'Write what you know, ' taking on characters as diverse as Colombian drug lords, Iranian feminists, and a New York painter who sounds a lot like Lucian Freud. All sincere works of the imagination, these stories yet bear a self-conscious riposte to conventional wisdom. . . . Mr. Le stands out from the crowd [of debut writers] because of the breadth of his research and the confidence of his imagination. He may prize the universal, but he doesn't skimp on concrete detail. In 'Tehran Calling, ' for example, he could have described the row between an American visitor and her Iranian friend with dialogue and a few descriptions, but instead he takes us walking on the streets, describes smells, effects of lighting, and the fine points of street wear. . . . I found 'Hiroshima, ' the most experimental story here, also to be one of the most absorbing. . . . There are many ticklish questions to ask about fiction and its sources, and they have been asked, recently, by many writers. Mr. Le's distinction is to ask them without once seeming other than a hardworking practitioner of quality American lit." --Benjamin Lytal, The New York Sun

"Leering. Sepia-toned. Dark. Dark. Dark. Light. Well-crafted. Intricately cut, sanded, steamed and stained. Striking. Aggressively schizophrenic. Crayola-esque (characters). Jim Shepard-esque (range)." --Esquire (All-Adjective Reviews)

"Sensational . . . There is something thrilling in discovering a gifted new writer on the American scene. And that is what we have in Nam Le, whose short story collection, The Boat, easily will be among the significant works of fiction published this year. . . . Stories that both crackle with immediacy and sport a cool, focused tone. His characters are drawn with an old master's depth . . . It's not often that a work of highbrow fiction moves like a suspense novel, but that's the kind of talent Nam Le displays. It reaffirms your faith in literature. . . . There is a spare architecture to his sentences, yet he has the ability to create complex worlds, shadowed by bleakness and heartbreak. . . . His first story alternates between playful satire and dread seriousness, showing the kind of balancing act Le can pull off. [In] 'Cartagena, ' Le vividly sketches the cardboard cities and muddy streets of Medellin . . . The story has the hypnotic power of a Graham Greene nightmare. . . . The book's masterpiece is 'Halflead Bay, ' an Aussie twist on Hemingway's Nick Adams stories. . . . It is full of rich description, an ear for native lingo and keen observations of dysfunctional family dynamics. As you read the last lines of The Boat, it is not a stretch to flash on 'The Dead, ' the legendary final story in Joyce's Dubliners. . . . A book filled with grace, texture and humanity." --Larry Aydlette, The Palm Beach Post

"The characters in Nam Le's The Boat are impossible to pigeonhole, ranging from an egomaniacal Manhattan artist to a Colombian gangster to a hard-drinking Iowa M.F.A. student. [The] standout [is] the brutal title story [which] dramatizes the plight of three Vietnamese boat people. Le's viscerally affecting writing and bold imagination mark an exciting debut." --Jennifer Reese, Entertainment Weekly

"Stories [that] engulf you and transport you to another time, another place-give you a window into someone else's soul almost deeper than if it were your own. . . . Long on character, depth and emotion: you'd swear that [Nam Le] has lived in every one of those stories [that make up The Boat]. When you finish each one, you will feel as if you have read a novel, your breathing will be heavy and your heart will be pounding as you return from a deeply personal adventure that has, in some strange way, become your own. . . . The thread tying the stories together in The Boat is the dramatic humanity, the poetic language, and most of all, the idea that that depth and intensity of human emotion is expressed on every continent. We are not so different after all." --Faye Levow, Portsmouth Herald News

"Four stars . . . The stories [in The Boat] connect across country, class and circumstance-not only through Le's ambition to nail each milieu, but through his obsession with the ways people live in and reveal their cultures . . . Each story immerses readers in its own distant setting. The book's success isn't just a matter of scene-setting; it also depends on Le's characters and his classic, coincidences-explained-later plotting. He'll make you marvel at the web his South American hit men are caught in, and he'll make you worry for them. . . . In a piece about an Iranian activist and the clueless white friend who comes to visit her, he writes the part of the American interloper with sympathy and aplomb. . . . Le offers real insight." --Sophie Fels, Time Out New York

"Seven stories set around the globe-from Iowa to Tehran, Manhattan to Australia, and Colombia to Hiroshima-make up Vietnam-born Nam Le's dynamic debut collection, The Boat, in which achingly familiar alliances converge in ingeniously unlikely places." --Lisa Shea, Elle

"Wide-ranging, knife-sharp stories by a masterly 29-year-old. Nam Le was born in Vietnam and raised in Australia, yet his debut collection of stories, The Boat, reveals as mature and certain an American voice as just about any native-born writer twice his age. His prose evokes Philip Roth's-sure of itself, clean, and invisibly effective. These muscular and psychologically rich narratives take place in the United States, Australia, Colombia, and in a storm-tossed boat in the South China Sea [and] contend with a startlingly wide array of characters . . . What's notable is the structural soundness of these powerful and far-ranging pieces: Each one is built to exactly the shape, and flows in exactly the tone and language, that will suit the needs of the story. The final and longest story in the book, 'The Boat, ' takes on the deepest issues of life, love, and death, something worthy of Conrad or James. Nam Le is a remarkably sophisticated new writer." --Vince Passaro, O, The Oprah Magazine

"Stories rooted in war and history [that] frequently zoom in on the affairs of characters who have to live with the consequences. . . . Le uses his wonderfully flexible prose style to explore Vietnamese ethnic identity, writing workshops, and even plain old drunkenness." --Colin Marshall, The Santa Barbara Independent

"Stories [that] are reflective of their writer: eclectic, diverse, true in their toughness and giving in their complexity. . . . Two gems [are] 'Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice, ' [which] is art at its highest form, incorporating satire, metafiction, homage, and social critique into a story about a writer and his father and the infamous My Lai Massacre, [and] the title story 'The Boat' [which] is filled with so much emotional truth, it borders the line with non-fiction. . . . It turned a tale into an experience and brought us that much closer to one another." --Ky-Phong Tran, Nguoi Viet Daily News

"[Nam Le's] personal history is as compelling and engrossing as any of his writing. . . . A debut collection of seven taut, geographically diverse stories . . . Le could be the next big thing [and] the opening story, 'Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice, ' goes a good distance to proving it." --Robert Birnbaum, The Morning News

"So engaging, so unequivocally well done, [The Boat] is sure to appeal to any fan of good writing. From the opening tale, it's hard not to be giddy. ['Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice'] is a brilliantly self-conscious and humorous slice of the writing life, which doubles as a poignant story about fathers and sons and family tragedies. . . . Things only get better from there. Nam Le is a chameleon of voices and points of view, leading the reader through the experiences of an older man, a disillusioned young woman, a boy on the cusp of adulthood, and a teenage girl. The Boat takes us all over the world with fantastic verisimilitude. . . . 'Halflead Bay' is an enviable achievement-an adolescent's battle to find courage as his life begins to turn upside down, the story developed with perfect suspense. . . . And the title story offers urgency, poignancy and heartbreaking tragedy. As if the stories themselves weren't enough to make The Boat a worthy summer read, the skill of the author is a spectacle to behold. He manages to avoid so many pitfalls. He doesn't shy away from stark and disturbing images, for example, yet he doesn't rely on the grotesque to create effective writing. The reader can sense his personal investment in the work, but the stories aren't even close to self-indulgent. It's enough to give a person a literary crush. Each story is dark and deep, exquisitely constructed and beautifully told. Nam Le is a studied, competent and graceful writer, and The Boat is both a contemporary treasure and a harbinger of g...

Book Description

A remarkable debut collection from a prize-winning and highly promotable author

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Books Australia
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0241015413
• ISBN 13: 9780241015414
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240