Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice

I'll start by saying this is my favorite short story of the year!!

Before I get to all of the good stuff, let me say that I'm confused by the time in which this story is taking place because at one point someone tells him to use a typewriter to write his story so he'll be free to delete, but then at the coffee shop an iPod is mentioned. One thing I know for sure is that computers came before the iPod.

Anyway,

Being Nigerian and lacking the basic childhood memories of skating and bike riding, I definitely understand Nam Le's point of view on "the ethnic story". It's so easy to write about what you think you know. But in this story, it is shown that parts of the story may be missing or that not all of the details are known. I am aware of this when my dad tells me of the Biafra War. It's one of those things where you only tell the "good" parts and everything else is left to only those who witnessed it.

I love the father-son relationship in this story. It seems like Le had a rebellious childhood, but he comes to know and love his father. His father arrives in LA early, while the house is still a mess and hits him with a quick Vietnamese proverb about laziness: "A day lived, a sea of knowledge earned". Sounds like something my mother would say. Le states that his father "had a habit of speaking in Vietnamese proverbs. [That he] had long since learned to ignore" (4). I think that's also one of those things where on the surface, you aren't listening, but subconsciously one day he'll say it to one of his peers.

The diction and description in this story are borderline overwhelming, but add great emphasis where needed: "the double-storied houses, their smooth lawns sloping down to the sidewalks like golf greens; elm trees with high, thick branches--the sort of branches from which I imagined fathers suspending long-roped swings for daughters..." (11). But, what could you expect from a story about a writer with a final paper due? Did I mention that Iowa is also in this story? It seems like that's where all the great writer reign. Oh yeah, my favorite word used by this author is "goose-pimpled" on page four. Hahaha.

His relationship with Linda may be strange to the average American. I know that my parents would NEVER want to hear or see me talk about a guy, let alone have a relationship. It's just something you don't do, especially while you are still in school. I've always wondered how it is so easy for some people to just let boyfriends/girlfriends come over to their houses and meet their parents. That's not allowed in my culture, unless you are getting married. I think Linda may have taken offense to this and not completely understood the situation. Le doesn't understand his father that well, I wouldn't expect her too. I could go on for days about this, so I'll stop.

Am I the only one who doesn't like the fact that his father moved to Sydney, Australia while his mother lived in government apartments?

My second favorite paragraph of this work (favorite is the last!) is this one:
"That's all I've ever done, traffic in words. Sometimes I still think about word counts the way a general must think about casualties...When I was working at the law firm, I would have written that many words in a couple of weeks. And they would have been useful to someone" (8). Maybe Le is growing tired or frustrated with writing. I find it difficult to write as well. Sometimes writers just want the words to flow so perfectly that it takes the joy out of writing; after all, Le states "things happened in this world all the time. All I had to do was record them" (8).

The page about "ethnic lit" was hysterical! Loved the Nigerian shout-out! But, ethnic literature is filled with descriptions of food and language that you can't necessarily double check the validity of. But, since the whole point of writing is "not to write what no one else could have written, but to write what only you could have written" (23), I think any culture is worth diving into.

It's funny how people change, yet stay the same. "and I could no longer read his smile. He had perfected it during our separation" (12).

Since we just got off the topic of American Dreams, I decided to share my thoughts on that theme in this story. The Vietnamese immigrants go to the river and see a homeless man standing near a fire. His father tells the man about his son's work and when they leave, he gives the homeless citizen money as he says "welcome to America" while his head is lowered in shame. Wow.

I'm not going to lie. The story within the story was pretty incredible. The details about the bayonet slitting throats and the ace of spades carved into people's bodies were chilling. I love how he compared the story to a eulogy.

"How far does an empty stomach drag you?" (25). That's just a great line that shows that his father doesn't necessarily like the fact that he left being a lawyer to become an author, but he respects his will to continue. And will continue to respect him, but he just wants to see how long he can go on with writing if it doesn't feed him. Another well written line on that page is "I had nothing but hate in me, but I had enough for everyone". That just speaks volumes to me.

Before I comment on the last page, I want to talk about the title. It's a lengthy one, but it's legit. Although nobody every blatantly comes out and says their work is about love, honor, pity, pride, compassion or sacrifice, I believe most works fall into these categories. I'm pretty sure they are all mentioned in this story, but I love the example of pity on page 24. When talking to his father about the story, his father says that he wants pity and he becomes offended. But his dad explains himself, saying "'Only you'll remember. I'll remember. They will read and clap their hands and forget"'.

I had to read this last paragraph twice. I couldn't believe the father went out and burned the story his son had worked so hard on. I don't think that is a good way of dealing with your past. It leaves the reader hanging a bit because there is missing dialogue: "If I had known then what I knew later, I wouldn't have said the things I did" (28). I think their shaky relationship is described best with his realization of "how it took hours, sometimes days, for the surface of a river to freeze over--to hold in its skin the perfect and crystalline world--and how that world could be shattered by a small stone dropped like a single syllable" (28). Wow. After working so hard to get the relationship back on track, one minor incident causes the whole thing to break again. And Le describes that incident in terms of words: a single syllable--those of which are so carelessly thrown around. I loved this story. Perfect!