Ship of Fools: A Novel Kindle Edition

This is one of the best novels I’ve read. Almost every page contains a jewel of English expression. The freshness and vigour of its cynicism reminded me of Celine’s Journey to the End of the Night, but while his book retreats into the narrator’s inner world, Porter’s work is a study of clashing personalities. It’s also deeply compassionate, without a speck of sentimentality.It is 1931. The initial setting, Mexico’s “pestilential” port town of Veracruz, introduces the themes of social class, rage, inertia and ennui. One brief scene covers the antics of three pets, a monkey, cat and parrot, foreshadowing the further theme of confinement and of a shared suffering that begets no fellow-feeling.Then we set off on a mediocre German vessel carrying passengers and cargo from Mexico to Europe, pressing together different people of very different backgrounds, lifestyles and personalities. The ship and its journey provide the framework for the story. There are so many characters in play that the author provides a list of them; they are linked up like dominoes by fragile romances, antipathies, and shared cabins.Overseeing all is the German captain, a bitter, stunted, snobbish woman-hater, and of course he despises Jews. He is supported by the ageing ship’s doctor, who is a generally decent conservative.Of the passengers, Herr Hutten is a pontificating scholar. His loyal Frau holds him up, while he holds her down; together they dote on their child-replacement bulldog. Even less happy are the Baumgartners. The wife, a subtle piece of work, has drained their boy of all self-confidence. Her husband has sunk into self-destructiveness; she seems to conspire with him to deepen this moral ruin.Also desperately unhappy is Elsa Lutz, teen daughter of a dull Swiss couple. She shares a cabin with the trim, snappy, spunky Jenny, to whom she confides, in baffled anguish, the fact that no boys like her. Jenny offers bland false optimism but inside she “felt an anxious tenderness, as if she had been asked for help she was not able to give. What hope was there for the discouraged young face with its double chin, the crease of fat like a goitre at the base of the throat… And inside, there groped blindly, the young innocence and the longing, the pained confused limited mind, the dark instincts winding upon themselves like snails.”Jenny herself, nervy and restless, is entangled with David, who is dried up and emotionally constipated from his harsh religious upbringing; they torture each other in their joyless relationship, precarious yet endless.Jenny also flirts briefly with the handsome and gentlemanly Wilhelm Freitag, a German of good breeding whose social standing has been almost capsized by marriage to a French Jew, whom he is coming back to collect. David meanwhile shares with the Texan William Denny, obsessed with ladies of trade but unwilling to shell out a cent for sex. Like several other men Denny hangs around the edges of a group of four female Spanish dancers, pimped out by their sinister, wasp-waisted husbands; hanging off the group are the two scary children Ric and Rac.Then there is Herr Reiber, a short fat bald anti-semite with a pig-snout nose, and his girlfriend of sorts, the hysteric Lizzi: tall and gangly, “screaming like a peahen”, in Freitag’s mind a “half-witted rattle”; she “embodied to the last trait and feature everything the Captain found most positively repellent in womankind.” Lizzi shares with the dainty Mrs Treadwell: a 45-year old, attractive but single. Overprotected in childhood then brutalised in marriage, her past has left her vague, reserved and remote, less suited than most to Lizzi. “Perhaps the worst thing about her undesirable cabin mate was the extraordinary vulgarity of her talk about Jews. It cropped up no matter what the topic and gave Mrs Treadwell a creeping chill of distaste”.This is by no means a complete list of characters or themes covered in the novel. Though not a political book, it is of course set against the looming nightmare in Europe. Seen through a modern lens it has much to say about racism and sexism, without being didactic to the slightest degree. As a study of humanity it is unrelentingly skewed toward the cynical, but I found it absolutely hilarious.

Katherine Anne Porter is best known as a writer of short stories and essays, but she did publish one novel, Ship of Fools, in 1962. I’ve read all of Porter’s stories and essays, and consider myself a fan of her work, though with some reservations. In books like Flowering Judas and Pale Horse, Pale Rider, Porter has proven herself a master of short fiction, but her prodigious talents do not translate well to the long form, as evidenced by this arduous and frustrating test of patience.The title of the book is not merely an expression, but rather a literal representation of the novel’s contents. The story takes place in 1931 on a German passenger liner traveling from Veracruz, Mexico to various ports in Europe; its final destination being Bremerhaven. Porter based the novel on an actual voyage she took that year from and to those ports of call. An ensemble cast of characters of various nationalities and backgrounds comprises the passenger list, and the novel is essentially a series of scenes detailing the interactions between this disparate company of travelers thrown together into forced proximity by a sheer coincidence of booking. Throughout the novel, Porter’s prose is impeccable and her insight into human behavior authentic and perspicacious. Each succeeding vignette inspires the reader to remark, “What a beautifully rendered scene!” but regrettably in sum total they don’t add up to anything but a trying bore. Really only two events of note occur over the entire voyage form the New World to the Old. The rest is just overindulgent description. Perhaps Porter’s intention was to capture the relentless tedium and frustrating lack of privacy of nautical transatlantic travel. If so, she has succeeded, but such success does not translate into enjoyable or meaningful reading.Despite the “Cast of Characters” list at the front of the book, it’s difficult to even tell many of the characters apart. There’s little to distinguish one German Frau from another. Not a single likeable character exists on the entire boat. The smart ones are all evil; the nice ones are all stupid. Each is defined by his or her faults. Prejudice is a recurring theme in the book, and everyone on the ship proves themselves a bigot in one way or another. Race, religion, sex, class, nationality—all are grounds for social warfare in these international waters. Not surprisingly for this time period, anti-Semitism is rampant, and takes a prominent role in the tenuous plot. Porter does a fine job of depicting all these various shades of hate, but to what end? What’s even more baffling is how Porter displays her own prejudices—whether intentionally or inadvertently is unclear. Although she lived in Mexico for a few years and professed a love for the country and its people, her depictions of Mexicans and other Hispanic persons is far from flattering. The Mexican, Cuban, and Spanish characters in the book are all dancers, prostitutes, or drunks. While the Germans and Americans all have backstories complete with degrees and careers, the Hispanic characters don’t even get last names.As I said earlier, I’m an admirer of Porter, and don’t relish bashing her work. Having spent some time in Veracruz, I enjoyed the book’s opening passages and looked forward to embarkation with enthusiasm. Perhaps, however, I was too optimistic for a satisfying plot. What I got instead was the modernist description-for-description’s-sake approach in which every emotional inkling merits scores of pages. Despite all the navel-gazing, no one learns anything. No one changes. By all means, spare yourself this pointless and unpleasant voyage.

Classic novel from 1930's. Good insight into people and their prejudices.

This is a really well written book that is enjoyable to read. I wholeheartedly recommend it. The characters are well drawn and the story slowly unfolds in an unpredictable and always interesting way. I subsequently watched the film version which to me did not do justice to the subtleties and emotional power of the book.

Sorry, no subtitles even for hearing impaired! Did not enjoy it much. I wonder why you did not put them in?al

was enjoying book when ERROR appeared

Excellent read. Great deal. Good shipping time as well.