Ship of Fools
by Katherine Anne Porter
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Book Summary Information
Author: Katherine Anne PorterEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1984-05-30
ISBN: 0316713902
Number of pages: 512
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Book Reviews of Ship of Fools
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."
Summary of Ship of Fools
The story takes place in the summer of 1931, on board a cruise ship bound for Germany. Passengers include a Spanish noblewoman, a drunken German lawyer, an American divorcee, a pair of Mexican Catholic priests. This ship of fools is a crucible of intense experience, out of which everyone emerges forever changed. Rich in incident, passion, and treachery, the novel explores themes of nationalism, cultural and ethnic pride, and basic human frailty that are as relevant today as they were when the book was first published in 1962.Literary Books
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