The Boat

Nam, a student at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, is surprised by the unannounced early arrival of his father, whom he has not seen in three years. The visit comes at a difficult time: Nam is struggling with writer’s block, facing an imminent deadline, and feeling pressured by his instructors and peers to write an “ethnic story.” As his father settles into the apartment, Nam hurriedly hides evidence of his personal life, including a bottle of Scotch and a photo of his girlfriend, Linda. Their relationship remains strained, shaped by memories of his father’s strict, often harsh discipline and emotional distance. He remembers overhearing his father recount the trauma of surviving the Mỹ Lai massacre, during which his mother shielded him with her body.

That night, Nam begins writing a story based on his father’s experiences. The next day, Linda reads part of the manuscript at a coffee shop and accuses him of romanticizing his father’s past to excuse the pain he caused their family, a characterization Nam rejects. Later, he interviews his father over drinks. He recounts surviving the massacre at Mỹ Lai, serving in the South Vietnamese army, enduring imprisonment and torture in a reeducation camp after the war, and eventually organizing his family’s escape from Vietnam.