Ship of Fools by Katherine Ann Porter Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Ship of Fools
Book Review: Which One Do You Get?
Summary: 5 Stars
I love this book and have read it a few times....that's why I give it 5 stars. I give amazon 1 star because they show a cover and send you a different cover. I want the blue cover and they send the stupid red cover with flowers on it. I have no idea why they advertise one thing and send you a different thing.Book Review: i adore this book
Summary: 5 Stars
'Ship of Fools' is the kind of novel that makes the whole thing seem easy. It's the kind of novel that makes you wonder how and why so many people have gotten it wrong. Enough with plot buildup, plot developement, plot twists! Katherine Anne Porter knows the truth about plots and it's this: you don't really need them. All you need are a handful of meticulously human characters interacting with each other. Each character seems molded by hand, and each is relatable, lovable, and hatable in their own way, much like the people in our own lives. I really cannot say enough how much I love this book. When you're done with it, check out KAP's short story collection 'Pale Horse, Pale Rider.' She is truly one of our great twentieth century writers, and should be taught in school right next to Hemingway and Fitzgerald, or preferably on top of them.Book Review: "Ship of Fools on a Cruel Sea"
Summary: 5 Stars
I got into SHIP OF FOOLS back in the day when I was a Deadhead and followed the band around from stadium to stadium. "Ship of Fools" as many know is one of their loveliest ballads and would never fail but put me in a trance. At one bookstore in the Bay Area I spotted lyricist Robert Hunter and I gathered together all my courage to approach him and to tell him how much his lyrics had meant to me and my kind. Somewhat to my surprise he asked me to name one of his songs that I loved. "Ship of Fools," I said. In the years since I have sometimes wondered why I didn't ask about "Row Jimmy" since that is even more puzzling. But anyway Hunter couldn't have been more receptive and even charming. I asked him where he found the inspiration to write "Ship of Fools" and he mentioned the Renaissance or medieval tradition of the ship of fools journeying out into the main without a solid plan and how it's a metaphor for the religious voyage of life. He mentioned other works based on this legend including Lewis Carroll's "The Hunting of the Snark" and finally, Katherine Anne Porter's novel SHIP OF FOOLS, which he said he had read in the 1960s, close to when it came out originally.
SHIP OF FOOLS tells the story of a group of German nationals on a boat from Bremen to the USA, and it is apparently based on a real life voyage. Jews by the boatload were attempting to escape from an atrocious abd repressive regime, and what they did not realize is that the shipboard lifestyle was a microcosm for the pains of the rest of the world. We meet dozens of characters, some more skillfully developed than others, including a young American couple through whose eyes we get to see the whole tragedy unfolding.
There is a tragic romance between a middle-aged countess and the ship's doctor, and a sense of foreboding about the whole voyage. The champagne and the crepe paper and the sparklers are out over the dark Atlantic, but we sense the lights going out all over the world.
Porter worked over thirty years writing this, her only novel, and when it came out it was a commercial success and a Book of the Month Club selection, though in general the critics were disappointed that it did not hit the heights of the short stories that had made her name starting in the 1920s. Some have criticized this book as too slow and too portentous. To me it hits the right note over and over again. There is a movie version of this novel, directed by earnest, plodding Stanley Kramer, but I think if I saw it, it could not begin to compare to my experience of either the novel nor the song. "Now I cannot share thy laughter, ship of fools."
Book Review: The Original is Much Better
Summary: 2 Stars
Does not surpass the original work published in the 1500's. There are better books. Read them first. This book lets the ship reach its destination and the fools get off. The book does not establish any personal attachment for any character to the reader; some catalogue of foolish behavior and temperment, but not as exhaustive nor as poetic as Original. At end of book, as a reader you feel like you were one of the fools along for the voyage for reading the book. Nice period piece that illustrates some of racial and ethnic prejudice at the time and forewarnings of the future.Book Review: Maybe it's just me...
Summary: 2 Stars
...but I abandoned ship halfway through. After enjoying the movie, and reading the great praise for author Porter, I assumed I'd enjoy diving into this good, long read. What I discovered was a rambling and excrutiating book...droning characterization page after page until I could no longer concentrate on the essentially non-existent plot.
I assume this is strictly for fans of Porter, who was a master at short story telling. She should have stuck to it. Anyone expecting a "Grand Hotel" or Maugham like saga will be sorely disappointed.