14 書香人物 P E R S O N A L I T Y & B O O K S SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2008 • TAIPEI TIMES [ HARDCOVER: U S ] SUNDAY PROFILE ‘The Boat’ marks the debut of a major writer The publication of Nam Le’s first collection of short stories has made the Vietnamese- Australian author a literary sensation BY BRADLEY WINTERTON COntRIBUTING REPORTER The Boat, the first book of Vietnamese-born Nam Le, has taken the English-speaking literary world by storm, certainly in Australia and the US. The author left Vietnam when very young and eventually arrived in Australia. He subsequently began work as a lawyer but gave that up to enroll in creative-writing German conductor Gunther Herbig will guest-conduct three courses in the US. He now divides his time between these concerts with the National Symphony Orchestra this month two countries. The book consists of seven BY BRADLEY WINTERTON PHOTO: COURTESY OF NSO COntRIBUTING REPORTER short stories (itself unusual for a first publication) and each of them is entirely different — in setting, style, and the point of view of the narrator or principal character. Only the first and last Herbig brings his poise to the NSO stories, both immensely strong, feature Vietnam, though neither THE BOAT has it as its principal location. nstrumentalists of the Europe and the US. But how to “The NSO has a young is far higher than in the US. The When I asked Maestro Herbig Others are set in Colombia, Iran, BY NAM LE National Symphony Orchestra get our three children out was the spirit,” he continued. “They’re level of instrumental training here what he did for recreation he Japan, Australia and the US. 272 PAGES I (NSO) like working under problem. Eventually we managed enthusiastic, and they already in Taiwan is exceptionally high.” looked rather surprised. Perhaps Every story is a tour de force KNOPF the internationally renowned it, but we were unbelievably have a wide repertoire.” What plans did he have for music was such an all-embracing of imaginative sympathy and conductor Gunther Herbig for lucky. Without the help of the They had a Composer in opera, I asked. passion it sufficed for both work thoughtfulness. The one set in two reasons, I gather. One of US government I believe it never Residence, he added — David “It hasn’t been officially and recreation, as it does with Japan, for example, is entirely them is that he has a natural would have been possible.” Chesky, the only American announced yet,” Herbig said, “but so many musicians. There was phrased in the words of a small authority on the podium that He first visited Taiwan in jazz composer ever to have let’s say that one of the most silence. Did he canoe on the lake girl in Hiroshima in the days It isn’t only that Nam makes them give of their best. 1991, he told me, with the been nominated for a Grammy popular operas ever written will perhaps, or play chess, I asked. before the unleashing of the The other is that, when he stops Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Award in the Best Contemporary be performed by the NSO next “Ah yes, I play chess,” Herbig atomic bomb — she talks with Le“ often writes with the orchestra in rehearsals, he They played two concerts in the Classical Composition category. year. Yes, there was an idea replied laconically. And again, I gentle innocence of butterflies, invariably puts his finger on National Concert Hall. Then last He should certainly widen the for a production of Debussy’s left it at that. flowers, the revered emperor, the immense power. He’s also what’s wrong. The musicians year he was invited to conduct orchestra’s horizons. Pelleas et Melisande, but this has war effort, and the lack of danger understand this because as often two programs with the NSO, and I next asked about musical life now been shelved. The music is PERFORMANCE NOTES: posed by single American aircraft uncompromising ... , in as not they too know what the at around that time was asked for classical musicians in the US wonderful, but there’s almost no — they only drop leaflets that it’s particular problem is in advance. if he would be interested in the and Europe. action, and that isn’t much to the Gunther Herbig will conduct two forbidden to read, she muses as deadly earnest, and writes Herbig has recently been post of Musical Director. Because “Standards are very high in the taste of modern audiences.” concerts with the NSO in Taipei, she plays in the dust. appointed the NSO’s Artistic of other commitments he found it US,” Herbig said. “Sponsorship Maestro Herbig has his home this afternoon and on Thursday The Colombia story is set in about the age-old concerns Advisor and Principal Guest impossible to accept, but agreed accounts for around 40 to 45 in the Detroit and Lake Michigan evening, both in the National the drug capital of Medellin and Conductor until 2010, and is to the idea of advising on the percent of funding there, whereas area. I asked him how he liked it. Concert Hall. This afternoon’s is narrated by a teenager with of the greatest artists currently in Taiwan to conduct whole NSO program and visiting in Europe government support Wasn’t it rather industrial? concert features Wagner’s orders from his gangland boss three concerts. The first of these three times a year to conduct. is more usual. In the UK it’s “Oh no. Detroit is the center Prelude to Die Meistersinger, to kill his best friend. Grenades, — love, death, fear, takes place in Taipei’s National He’ll be here again in December, somewhere between the two, with for much of the American Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. pistols and machine guns are Concert Hall this afternoon. and then in late spring 2009. support from the National Lottery automobile industry — General 20 in D Minor, and Brahms’ part of his everyday life, but hope, and the profoundest When I spoke to him earlier “So far virtually all I’ve seen and a little from government in the Motors, Ford and Chrysler have Symphony No. 1. The soloist by an extraordinary effort of this week I began by asking of Taiwan is my hotel room and form of the Arts Council.” their headquarters there. But that in the Mozart concerto is the empathy he’s presented by the human dilemmas. him where he spent his youth. this concert hall,” he said.” But I asked him about classical doesn’t mean that their vehicles 28-year-old Russian pianist Alex author as the adolescent he is, Internet sites had disagreed, I I’m looking forward to getting to music in Asia, and whether it are all built there. They’re built Kobrin. Thursday’s concert will and with an adolescent’s attitudes ” found, one stating it was the know Taiwan’s incredible cultural interested the young. all over the world these days, contain Weber’s overture Oberon, and loyalties, but forced into a disease, broken-down engines, no former East Germany, the other heritage of Chinese art and culture “The young are likely to be including in China. Sibelius’s Violin Concerto and terrifyingly adult predicament. drinking water (let alone food) the former Czechoslovakia. during the times I’m here.” more interested if one of their “We live practically in the Schubert’s Symphony No. 9, “The The story set in Teheran and sharks. Yet curiously there’s “Both are correct in essence,” I asked what the NSO’s peers is appearing, for instance woods. The climate is a central Great.” Leticia Moreno will be features an American woman nothing intrinsically sensational Herbig replied. “I was actually strengths were. as a guest soloist. There are continental type. It’s not unlike the violin soloist. The concert in who’s visiting an Iranian friend about Nam Le’s writing. These born in what is now the Czech “The orchestra has a very high an incredible number of young Taiwan’s in the summer — hot Kaohsiung on September 20 will she got to know in the US. She things happened, and they’re Republic. But we were Germans standard,” he said. “It possesses pianists, violinists and cellists and humid. In the winter it’s very repeat the Meistersinger Prelude labors under multiple levels part of our world, he implies, as and my family later moved to what I call a professional quality emerging at the moment cold — a bit like Siberia.” and the Brahms Symphony No. of incomprehension, and yet are seagulls with their stomachs East Germany where I was — a determination to be as good worldwide, often from Asian Was the proximity of the 1, and add the two Beethoven Iranian society is displayed in torn out by fishermen’s hooks, brought up.” as possible.” backgrounds. Japan used to be an automobile industry in Michigan Romances for Violin and extraordinary detail — the food, child soldiers, and raped and then Born in 1931, Maestro Herbig Didn’t that apply to all orches- important source, and now China good for sponsorship of local Orchestra, and another by Pablo the furnishings, the views from executed children. was able to move to the West in tras, I asked. is coming to the fore. orchestras? Sarasate for two violins and the city, the religious and other In place of sensationalism, 1984. Was that difficult, I asked. “No,” replied Herbig. I couldn’t “It’s true what’s often said, “When the economy is strong, orchestra, played by the NSO’s customs.