I just recently saw the New York Times review of “The Boat”, a book which is penned by Nam Le. Instead of containing one entire novel, the book is a collection of stories which was tagged by the NY Times as a “world of stories from a son of Vietnam”. I just recently bought a copy for myself because I found the premise of the book interesting. As a ‘frustrated novelist’ myself, I am fascinated with how semi-novels or short stories are written and how an entire plot can be summarized into that many number of pages on a book.

Anyway, I am starting to read the opening story of the book which is entitled “Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice”. I admit to being guilty of skipping the pages and proceeding directly to the “Love and Honor” part because it was so poignantly described in the review. I am enjoying what I have read so far and I promise to go back on the other pages that I skipped and tell you more about it soon.