BOAT PEOPLE

This tale of Vietnamese immigrants and others in Galveston, Tex., has some great moments, but it also has so many characters that none of them can be explored in depth. Hai Truong is a Vietnamese woman who has been hospitalized due to the presence of her ``ghost husband.'' Her husband, believing that American doctors can ``fix'' his wife, unknowingly gives his consent for her to have electroshock therapy. Her young daughter, Linh Nguyen, is trying to keep house for her father in her mother's absence. Linh Nguyen's friend Trang Luu lives with an abusive aunt and uncle and dreams of locating her American father. Lang Nguyen (no relation to Linh) is a resident at the hospital who interprets for the newly arrived immigrants but also feels distant from them due to class differences. Despite his claim that he is saving himself for marriage, he begins a sort-of flirtation with a white nurse. African-American Azelita works in a school office, while her sister encourages her to go to college and become a teacher. Xan Tuan My Van is in remedial classes at the same school and acts out by randomly performing kung fu. All of these situations are set up, but then little actually happens, and the characters rarely interact with one another in more than superficial ways. There are plenty of instances in which the Vietnamese are misunderstood. Well-meaning white people say things like ``Usually the Orientals are saints. Work done, smiles, eager to help,'' and when Xan starts to do better in school, his fisherman father shows up during class and delivers a load of shrimp to the boy's teacher in gratitude. Gardner (Milkweed, 1994) uses a steady third-person voice but struggles to present a multitude of points of view that never mesh. Sets out to show how unique and complex relations between different cultures are, but ends up singing a few rousing choruses of ``It's a Small World.''