Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Ship of Fools

3.72 of 5 stars 3.72 · rating details · 892 ratings · 78 reviews

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...more

Paperback, 512 pages

Published May 30th 1984 by Back Bay Books (first published 1962)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Boat Books

31st out of 306 books — 291 voters

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

Best Books of the Decade: 1960's

146th out of 437 books — 508 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 1,863)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

May 10, 2007 Steven rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone

Katherine Anne Porter's powers of perception are so keen that she's the kind of person I would never want to have around as a friend. Everything would be stripped down in her gaze, leaving little room for cherished illusions.

The book captures this perfectly: She simultaneously depicts the short-comings of a world on the brink of World War II and scrutinizes those flaws that are endemic to all cultures and times. The meanness and arbitrary ways in which people subdivide who they consider equals a...more

like 6 likes · see review

Mar 05, 2013 Ursula rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

The year is 1931, and the action of the book takes place on or within sight of the Vera, a ship departing from Veracruz, Mexico for Europe, with its ultimate destination being Bremerhaven, Germany. The majority of the upper-deck passengers are German, as is the crew, and we follow along with quite a number of the people aboard. Among the Germans, we have an alcoholic professor and his long-suffering wife, a timid woman recently widowed (she is returning to Germany with her husband's body, in fac...more The year is 1931, and the action of the book takes place on or within sight of the Vera, a ship departing from Veracruz, Mexico for Europe, with its ultimate destination being Bremerhaven, Germany. The majority of the upper-deck passengers are German, as is the crew, and we follow along with quite a number of the people aboard. Among the Germans, we have an alcoholic professor and his long-suffering wife, a timid woman recently widowed (she is returning to Germany with her husband's body, in fact), a hunchback, a Jew, and an old dying man who is being angrily cared for by his nephew. Of other nationalities, there are Cuban students, a Spanish company of dancers, a disgraced Spanish Contessa who is being transported as a prisoner, an uncouth American man, an 18-year-old Swiss girl made miserable by her parents, and a couple of Americans who have been living together in Mexico and spend most the voyage arguing over where they should go next. At first, the array of characters is a little dizzying, and there is a useful list of everyone at the front of the book, including who they are cabin-mates with. Eventually though, you get to know them and their personalities.

Wikipedia says, "The ship of fools is an allegory that has long been a fixture in Western literature and art. The allegory depicts a vessel populated by human inhabitants who are deranged, frivolous, or oblivious passengers aboard a ship without a pilot, and seemingly ignorant of their own direction." And indeed, deranged, frivolous and oblivious are apt descriptors for the passengers of the Vera. A passage where a character thinks, "You might learn something about one or two persons, if you took the time and trouble, but there was not time enough and it was not worth the trouble..." clearly extends beyond the confines of the ship to castigate the world at large for its indifference. As humans, we are often careless with each other and too self-involved to see the consequences our actions (or more often inactions) are likely to have, and the undercurrents that shaped World War II are apparent in passengers' attitudes and in events on board. Generalizations and assumptions based on nationality and appearances run rampant; few are challenged or corrected through the course of the book.

I'm not usually a big fan of allegory, as I often find it heavy-handed, and this book is no exception. I was interested in a number of the characters and quite liked the close quarters as a means for forcing confrontation, but I found the overall effect to be ponderous as your choices in reading didactically are between a story that doesn't really go anywhere (even though the ship does) and being preached to.

Recommended for: fans of Orwell's Animal Farm, people who believe Lord of the Flies tells the truth about human nature, non-claustrophobes, anyone who thinks "hell is other people."

Quote: "We will go on for a while, and it will be worse and worse, and we will say and do more and more outrageous things to each other, and one day we will strike the final death-giving blows. There is nowhere to go back and begin again with this...there is no place to go. The past is never where you think you left it: you are not the same person you were yesterday -- oh where did David go, I wonder? The place you are going towards doesn't exist yet, you must build it when you come to the right spot."(less)

like · see review

Mar 19, 2013 Tristram rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classic-american-literature, favourites

„I Have Seen All This Before, Over and Over, Only Never Until Now Did I See It on a Ship.”

Dr. Schumann’s resigned words make it quite clear that Katherine Anne Porter’s famous novel “Ship of Fools” is not really about people on board a ship in the year 1931, but about our involuntary voyage through life – all the more so as the ship’s name is Vera.

Writing this novel took twenty years of Porter’s life, from 1940 to 1960/61, which is reflected to a certain extent in the episodical character of the...more

like · see review

Sep 18, 2012 Kenny rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, favorites

"The idea for Ship of Fools originated in a voyage that Katherine Anne Porter took from Mexico to Europe in 1931. Some of the passengers she encountered on the ship became the models for the characters in Ship of Fools. Porter began work on the novel in 1941 and it took her twenty years to complete." Said Porter of the voyage -- "We embarked on an old German ship at Vera Cruz and we landed in Bremen twenty-eight days later. It was a crowded ship, a great mixture of nationalities, religions, pol...more

like 3 likes · see review

Apr 18, 2012 Virgilio Machado rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

O título deste livro é a tradução do alemão Das Narrenschiff, alegoria moral de Sebastian Brant (1458?-1521) publicada pela primeira vez em latim sob o título Stultifera Navis em 1494. Li-a em Basileia no Verão de 1932, quando ainda tinha bem vívidas na memória as impressões da minha primeira viagem à Europa. Quando comecei a pensar no meu romance, apropriei-me dessa imagem simples e quase universal da nave do mundo na sua jornada para a Eternidade. Não tem ela nada de novo, pois já era bastante...more

like · see review

May 12, 2013 Marty rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013-reading-challenge, seasonal-reading-challenge

This novel almost requires a cast list to keep track of all the 'fools' on the ocean liner the Vera which sailing from Mexico to Germany. On board are a very mixed bag of travelers, all returning to Europe in search of something they are missing in their lives or to get away from past mistakes or simply to reunite with loved ones. There are merchants, academics, businessmen, artists, entire families, dancers and even soft-core prostitutes among the passengers in the first class section. Add to t...more This novel almost requires a cast list to keep track of all the 'fools' on the ocean liner the Vera which sailing from Mexico to Germany. On board are a very mixed bag of travelers, all returning to Europe in search of something they are missing in their lives or to get away from past mistakes or simply to reunite with loved ones. There are merchants, academics, businessmen, artists, entire families, dancers and even soft-core prostitutes among the passengers in the first class section. Add to this heady mix the ethic, racist and societal tensions among Germans, Americans, Jewish, Spanish and Cubans and the reader knows form the beginning that this will be the quintessential 'bumpy ride' for all concerned.

Originally begun in the 1930's, Porter did not publish this novel until the early 1960's. Most of the characters are based on her own notebooks, written during one of her own voyages. None, besides the gentle Dr. Schumann, are very sympathetic, not even most of the children. Most of the Germans come off as stiff-necked, self-righteous and racist, the Americans are either self-absorbed, vulgar or unstable, and the Spanish passengers are depicted as brutal, opportunistic criminals. However, Porter does not turn all of them into two-dimensional caricatures - most have some sort of redeeming trait, whether it's Jenny Angel's boundless enthusiasm, the Hutten's devotion to their spoiled bulldog, Bebe, or Wilhelm Freytag's shaken but still relatively solid devotion to his Jewish wife, Mary. Even divorcee Mrs. Treadwell, wavering as she admits between being 'no-longer young and not-yet-old' uncertain about what to do with her life, has some appeal. The voyage proves to be life-changing in some fashion for each one.

What Porter does well is to present us human beings, with all their warts showing. The reader may not like many of the characters, in fact will probably be horrified by the anti-Semitism and stereotyping of some of the passengers, but the issues she raises in this book are those that we still struggle with today. This is not a quick or easy read since the plot switches back and forth between characters (most of the action taking place in their minds) and it is often difficult in the beginning to remember who is who. I stuck with it and found it to be a very rewarding experience.(less)

like 1 like · see review

Oct 04, 2009 Kaput rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: worth-reading, 2009

I was quite glad to finish this book as it was long and relentlessly bleak. I can only congratulate the author on such dedication to misery considering the amount of time it took her to write it.

Imagine the people you know at their worst, like having a really really bad day but for weeks on end and without let up and you have the characters of this book. At times it was a little much, endless misunderstandings and sinister intentions leap from every page. I guess it did its job of satirising ou...more

like · see review

Nov 22, 2009 Laura Waterman rated it 5 of 5 stars

Good writing slips by us when it is more than 25 years old and not part of a group of novels. Katherine Anne Porter is like Harper Lee (To Kill A Mockingbird) in some ways. She gives this book everything she has and then we have to wait in vain for the next large work.

I was stunned by the film made from the book. It seemed a blasphemy in some parts but in others, it went beyond what I think Porter intended - and for the better.

I learned character development from reading Porter. I felt as if I k...more

like · see review

Mar 22, 2009 James rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, lplib-classics

Ship of Fools, a novel by Katherine Anne Porter, was published in 1962 on April 1 (April Fools' Day). It is the tale of a group of disparate characters, from several different countries and backgrounds, who sail from Mexico to Germany aboard a mixed freighter and passenger ship. In her note prefacing the novel Porter notes that :

When I began thinking about my novel, I took for my own this simple almost universal image of the ship of this world on its voyage to eternity. It is by no means new --...more Ship of Fools, a novel by Katherine Anne Porter, was published in 1962 on April 1 (April Fools' Day). It is the tale of a group of disparate characters, from several different countries and backgrounds, who sail from Mexico to Germany aboard a mixed freighter and passenger ship. In her note prefacing the novel Porter notes that :

When I began thinking about my novel, I took for my own this simple almost universal image of the ship of this world on its voyage to eternity. It is by no means new -- I am a passenger on that ship. (p. 1)

The ironic epigraph for the first section of the novel, from Baudelaire, is "Quand partons-nous vers le bonheur?". On the very first line of the novel, however, we see a truer sign of what is to come, as the port city of Veracruz is described as "a little purgatory'. Soon the ship that sails becomes just that for the passengers in this complex tale. The ship is populated with a grand complement of passengers (so many that the publisher thoughtfully included a listing of characters preceding the novel proper, xi - xiii). While the majority are Germans there are Americans, Swiss, Spaniards and others, including the masses in steerage.

Porter deftly weaves the stories of each of the several couples and individuals who can each be seen as on a journey into hell as their passions simmer during the voyage. Episodes are encapsulated within the frame of embarkation and disembarkation where characters are presented in their interactions with one another during the voyage, and histories and relationships of several dozen are explored extensively. It takes less than a month in the year of 1931, but the end of the decade and the war it will bring seems to be foreshadowed in some of the tensions that develop during the story.

While leavened with comic moments, it was the presence of love and death and, unfortunately, not a little inhumanity that impressed me the most. The pessimism sometimes seems to be overwhelming and her satire suggests the rise of Nazism and looks metaphorically at the progress of the world on its "voyage to eternity". The sum of the multiplicity of moments and personal details is a tapestry of life that results in a great novel.(less)

like 2 likes · see review

Jan 31, 2013 Erica rated it 5 of 5 stars

"Ship of Fools" took me a long time to read. I took lots of breaks. There's no real plot, just people, politics, and an Atlantic crossing. It's a perfect slice of social commentary; just as you've committed to disliking a character (what an anti-semitic bore!), you see them limping in ill fitting heels around the deck, as a tribute to a dead husband, who always walked after meals, and writing beautifully potent observations in her journal... Or deciding that one character is great, authentic, ve...more

like · see review

Jan 30, 2010 Will rated it 4 of 5 stars

Relatively unambitious in terms of plot...you're just sort of immersed in the lives of these Trans-Atlantic passengers of the late 30's. And in the end it felt mainly like an exploration of a number of disfunctional and antiromantic male/female relationships. But the writing is quite good; I love her easy turn of phrase and sense of nuance and transition. The book is said to be culled from a number of published vignettes over the course of 30 years, and it does have that painterly quality. I rea...more

like · see review

Jan 29, 2013 Rongwei Huang rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: semester-1-2012-13

Since I was doing a resarch paper on Katherine Anne Porter, I decided to read one of her works. This novel Ship of Fools is her first and only novel. Her experience in Mexico greatly inspired her to write this full length novel. This novel tells the lives of a bunch of mixed passengers on a ship from Mexico to Europe aboard a German freighter. The novel is an allegory and depicts Nazism. It attacks the weakness of society as the result of World War Two.

This book is well written. Similar to many...more

like · see review

Nov 17, 2011 Chris Gager rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Just started last night. So far, so good. She seems to be a pretty good writer. My only previous reading has been a short story or two. I saw the movie many years ago and am intrigued at how Hollywood made "certain changes". The Lee Marvin character is not in the book literally but is there in much different form. No doubt the number of characters was reduced to a more manageable number as well. Now I'm well into the second half. It's not a good idea to read this book without close attention. Lo...more Just started last night. So far, so good. She seems to be a pretty good writer. My only previous reading has been a short story or two. I saw the movie many years ago and am intrigued at how Hollywood made "certain changes". The Lee Marvin character is not in the book literally but is there in much different form. No doubt the number of characters was reduced to a more manageable number as well. Now I'm well into the second half. It's not a good idea to read this book without close attention. Lots of characters, dialogue, internal monologues and KAP's own reflections on the characters. Skimming won't work. There's too much detail. Certainly one goal of the book was to illuminate the the moral corruption of German culture and society. The anti-semitism of "common" people and indifference of more educated ones is there to see. The small bit about duelling is a choice illustration of what she's getting at. If KAP is present at all in the book it's in the character of Jenny but also perhaps in Mrs. Treadwell(the Vivien Leigh character in the movie) and Frau Rittersdorf. The latter two characters seem kind of repetitive. She doesn't let herself off the hook either. All present are described in their complications and short- comings and all are used also to represent their cultures of origin: German, European Jew, Swiss, Spanish, Catholic, unbeliever, Lutheran, pagan savage(Ric and Rac), American etc. There's plenty of bad behaviour and as much sex as she was able to get away with. I'm leaning toward 4 1/2 stars. I'm all done now and I'll go back to 4 stars. Things kind of peter out at the end but I guess that's the point. The voyage ends and the voyagers follow their separate paths. Not a whole lot of "change and growth" takes place. The disaster of World War II and the insanity of genocide loom a few years ahead. Jenny and David, the wandering Americans, soldier onward for a while at least. A favorite moment: when Freytag tells Jenny to stop saying "O" so much. I think I do that too! I'll need to read more of KAP. I just re-read a New Yorker profile of KAP from a couple of years ago and they pointed out that the author seemed to pull her emotional punches as she got older and that caused "Ship of Fools" to seem shallow and the author remote and equivocal. A fair criticism I'd say. (less)

like · see review

Oct 18, 2010 Gwenyth rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The thing some of the other reviewers on this site seem to miss about this book, I think, is that none of the characters are really that bad.

At least, they aren't any worse than most people.

Porter sums it up well when she says, "What they were saying to each other was only, Love me, love me in spite of it all! Whether or not I love you, whether I am fit to love, whether you are able to love, even if there is no such thing as love..."

In other words, she shows up characters unvarnished - both thei...more The thing some of the other reviewers on this site seem to miss about this book, I think, is that none of the characters are really that bad.

At least, they aren't any worse than most people.

Porter sums it up well when she says, "What they were saying to each other was only, Love me, love me in spite of it all! Whether or not I love you, whether I am fit to love, whether you are able to love, even if there is no such thing as love..."

In other words, she shows up characters unvarnished - both their good little moments and also their bad ones - but in seeing how they all look down upon one another, we become complicit, looking down on them too.

The most striking example of this is in the seen where the professor and his wife, reunited over the near-death of their dog, have passionate sex on the floor (in front of the seasick dog) and a moment later, can't remember the name of the man who saved him. I, the reader, was so distracted by their behavior, that I had completely forgotten the man's name too.

Acts of goodness in "Ship of Fools" are rare, and usually accidental. When they occur, it's usually in spite of the character's own inclination and "better" judgment. However, like the Mexican couple, who hover together at the edge of every scene but never become involved in the action, love is still present, lurking, because everyone so desperately desires it. When Ric and Rac huddle together, and Ric is ready to go live on the streets with Rac in the moment she thinks their parents will abandon him - or when Jenny tells the old gypsy woman off for implying that David "isn't the one" - you see that these are people who feel as much love and loyalty as they are are able.

To me, Ship of Fools is a book about how we treat each other and how easy it is to justify one's bad behavior towards others. Despite that, I wouldn't say that I really found it depressing, because the characters do change and progress throughout their voyage. Like most people, they are unhappy and want something more than what they have - like most people, they haven't figured out how to achieve it. (less)

like · see review

Jan 22, 2011 Margaret Dillon rated it 3 of 5 stars

First published in 1945, Ship of Fools depicts a shipload of mostly German expatriates returning to the Fatherland after living in Mexico. Among the various characters we observe during the long voyage, are displayed the very traits that explain how Hitler was able to come to power: a blind worship of authority, a rigid sense of class which assigns almost everyone to the category of subhuman and therefore candidates for extermination. It is telling that the only example of authentic love in the...more

like · see review

Jan 25, 2011 Anne rated it 5 of 5 stars

Such elegant savagery! Set on a cruise ship traveling from Mexico to Germany in the early 1930s. An enviably seamless omniscient narrator carries us through this meticulous study of human frailties. It's an ensemble book, too--a rare feat: no single protagonist--and it works. (This was given to me as a masterwork to contemplate as I revise my own, far poorer, fleet of vices.) The book takes its time without lagging, painstakingly rising to violence--every kind of subtle violence.

I found Porter's...more

like · see review

Jan 24, 2013 Larry Bassett rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

From the trailer of the 1965 movie: “There are many stories here but there is only one Ship of Fools.”

OK, I don’t know what “Quand nous partons vers la bonheur ?” means. So I am feeling stupid and I am not even on page one yet. Any translators out there?

We meet many of the characters fairly quickly. They are a variety thrown aboard a ship on a month long voyage across the Atlantic to Germany from Mexico. There is the normal shipboard class division from First to Steerage but there are dynamic di...more

like 3 likes · see review

Dec 10, 2011 Kristy rated it 3 of 5 stars

I wasn't sure if I was going to like this book when I first started reading it. I'm not a big fan when a book has many "main" characters-it tends to get a little confusing. However, Mrs. Porter did include a chart at the front of the book, which helped immensely. I do like when you get to "see" into lives of the characters. I feel like I am let in on the secrets in their lives. The book is set before WW II and you can feel the tension in the air and that a war is approaching. There is a lot of h...more

like · see review

Aug 25, 2011 Myles rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literary

A novel that took her over twenty years to write, Ship of Fools is a large sprawling thing with many characters (you will be grateful for the passenger manifest at the begining) and a grand ambition to illustrate the world in the early 1930s in the form of a group of people on an ocean liner en route to Germany from Veracruz.

All of the people on board are guilty, with the possible exception of the mostly faceless, nameless people in steerage. But even they allow themselves to be herded from one...more

like · see review

Jun 18, 2011 Donna LaValley rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorite

This is one of those books that gets better in your mind after you've read it. Without reading serious critiques to go by, I think her purpose in writing Ship of Fools was to try to explain how the German people could eventually accept Hitler and his Reich. On this ship, the reader experiences the voyage from the thoughts of many of the passengers, the majority of them German. The Captain and the destination are German. There are Americans, "gypsies," a Jew, and misc. other nationalities, and cl...more

like · see review

Jul 20, 2012 Steven rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literary-fiction

This is a leisurely paced and highly engaging panorama of humanity by a writer with a gift for creating subtle, picturesque prose and beguiling characters. Porter presents a microcosm of the human comedy in this account of the passengers aboard a ship headed from Mexico to Germany in 1931 whose lives become intertwined in various ways during the voyage, sometimes comically, sometimes heroically, sometimes tragically. She wrote it well after World War II, and infuses the story with a poignant sen...more

like · see review

Sep 23, 2012 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

Loving "Pale Horse, Pale Rider" as much as I did, I've been anxiously waiting for years to read this book. I guess I hoped that is was a novel-length version of the same kind of magic. I suppose that wasn't fair, and it isn't as far as I saw. Instead, it seems to be a scathing indictment of humanity and our hopes. Everybody thinks they are better than everyone else, and they aren't. Everyone hopes for salvation, but that hope isn't going to be realized. The indictment certainly seems truthful, a...more

like · see review

Jun 27, 2008 Sarah Sammis rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: released

Katherine Anne Porter's long novel Ship of Fools modernizes the old Christian allegory to trace the roots of Nazism. It doesn't take more than 100 pages to understand the point of the book, it continues on for 400 pages as the ship slowly makes its way from Argentina to Europe.

Porter took her inspiration for the novel from her first sea voyage from Mexico to Germany. She took the trip in 1931 and wrote a long letter describing her fellow passengers with the hope of turning it into a short story...more

like · see review

Mar 06, 2013 maven rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1930s, europe, fiction, immigrants, mexico, traveling, historical-fiction, germany, spain

It's a long book, and some of the philosophical bits are a bit tedious to get through, but I still liked it, for what it was.

There were a lot of characters to keep track of throughout, but it did feel like you were in each of their heads as the perspective switched. The writing would shift so well, portraying each person's thoughts and feelings, so I felt like their true character came through.

I did feel like the story petered out a little, especially towards the end, with regards to the gala, b...more

like · see review

Nov 02, 2011 Raelene rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: literature, the-books-of-2011

Intricate weaving of human fears, intolerances, inadequacies and failings; a moving portrait of fallible beings all somehow inexorably deficient, but strangely moving as a whole. Porter's prose is intoxicating, concise and often sparse, but always poignantly true. Her themes and her characters stay with the reader and demand careful thought and attention well beyond the last chapter.

like · see review

Aug 01, 2012 Gretchen rated it 3 of 5 stars

This novel is an allegory representing discord in Europe in the 1930s leading up to WWII. It is long, complex, and has many characters – and thankfully a character list. The story takes place on the ship Vera as it sails from Veracruz, Mexico to Bremerhaven, Germany, overloaded with a mismatched, dysfunctional, and diverse group of passengers. It’s well written, and has in depth characterization with interiority revealed by the omniscient narrator. Plot tension is adequate. That said, to me the...more

like · see review

Apr 13, 2011 Amanda rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is the first novel I have ever read by Katherine Anne Porter and I absolutely loved it. As usual, her characters and the complexities of their relationship are what made this such an interesting read. There is so much tragedy in the history of the characters and they come to the story (or the ship) with so much more than their literal baggage. It was interesting to see the interactions that occurred once they were aboard the ship and unable to escape each other. Characterization is the stro...more

like · see review

Aug 28, 2012 Stephanie Ricker rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics, southern-american-lit

Finishing Ship of Fools took me approximately an age. Porter is undeniably a talented writer, but never was a book so aptly named: every character in it was one kind of idiot or other. After 500 pages, I liked some of them even less than when I started. Maybe that’s why it took me so long to read it; if there isn’t at least one character with whom to sympathize, it’s difficult to care about what happens next. At the same time, however, I do recognize that her insights into human nature are extre...more

like · see review

Nov 13, 2012 Allison rated it 3 of 5 stars

I liked it, but it was somewhat disturbing in terms of attitudes and beahaviors. Easy for me to get in to, I thought she wrote well, but there was not one character that I liked. And no one ever gets any better. By the time everyone disembarks, I thought there would be some profound change, but everyone relapsed into their stagnant selves. I felt she did a good job portraying the inner dialogues and struggles.

like · see review

Jun 30, 2009 Holly rated it 4 of 5 stars

finally read porter's masterwork novel. amazing! there isn't really much of a story arc and the action that does happen never builds into any sort of crescendo, but the interweaving of characters is wonderful to get caught up in.

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 62 63 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
unfairly neglected?	5	6	Apr 25, 2013 12:28pm

combine
Other Editions (25)

More editions...

Genres

Classics

13 users

Literary Fiction

7 users

Historical Fiction

7 users

Novels

6 users

Literature > American

5 users

Literature

4 users

Literature > 20th Century

4 users

Modern

2 users

Book Club

2 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Katherine Anne Porter

Katherine Anne Porter was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and political activist. She is known for her penetrating insight; her works deal with dark themes such as betrayal, death and the origin of human evil.
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherin...

More about Katherine Anne Porter...

Books by Katherine Anne Porter

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About Ship of Fools

2 trivia questions

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from Ship of Fools

“Could she fall so low? No, there were limits, and she believed she still knew where some of them were.” — 10 people liked it

“Mrs. Treadwell moved away again, from the threat of human nearness, of feeling. If she stayed to listen, she knew she would weaken little by little, she would warm up in spite of herself, perhaps in the end identify herself with the other, take on his griefs and wrongs, and if it came to that, feel finally guilty as if she herself had caused them; yes, and he would believe it too, and blame her freely. It had happened too often, could she not learn at last? All of it was no good, neither for confidant nor listener. There was no cure, no comfort, tears change nothing and words can never get at the truth. No, don't tell me any more about yourself, I am not listening, you cannot force my attention. I don't want to know you, and I will not know you. Don't try to come nearer.” — 1 person liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: Ship of Fools
avg rating	preview: Ship of Fools Goodreads rating: 3.72 (892 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/410760.Ship_of_Fools?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1355075058l/410760.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/410760.Ship_of_Fools?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter[/url]

Ship of Fools

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website