Amok by Stefan Zweig

[Diane]

Rating: 5 Stars
Read: July 2016

This is one of the shortest selections on the 1001 list. It is a powerful and beautifully written story, despite its small size. The book uses a clever story-within-a-story type framework. In the story, two men meet by chance aboard a ship sailing from Indonesia to Europe. One is the book's narrator, the other is a mysterious man the narrator encounters in the shadows of the ship. The mysterious man relates his dramatic tale to the book's narrator over the course of a night - and what a story he tells!. Great example of psychological suspense.

Zweig is known as a master of concise tales. His strategy was to write a story and pare it down as far as possible to its essential core. His other book on the list, Chess Story, is similar in this respect and others.

Note of caution: Do bear in mind that this book was written in the 1920's and may not fit the definition of political correctness we adhere to today. I always try to be mindful of the societal norms present at the time before I pass judgment regarding political correctness.

[Gail]

As Diane's description above gives us an overview of the framework of the story, I will only say that I found the telling to be a bit overly melodramatic. I believe that a person can come down with a psychological fever and be overtaken by the conflict between societal norms and personal desires, but I found the "I had thrown my life away" telling to be a touch much. That said, the twists of the short story were quite good and I appreciated the concise manner of the telling.
I also appreciated the view of a woman's dilemma in the 1920's when faced with an honor versus life itself equation. I gave it 4 stars.

[Kelly_Hunsaker_reads]

This review is of the story Amok only. A few months ago I read Zweig's novella Chess Stry, but found this one less unique and powerful. I find Zweig's style slightly offputting. He likes to cast himself in the story and have his characters break the forth wall. It doesn't work well for me. The main character is unlikable and irredeemable. The story lacks hope, which is what propels me through a story when there is so much about the characters and events to dislike. However, I was quite impressed that in 1922 Zweig tells a story about abortion, legality of such, and the ramifications.

[Tatjana]

Rating: 3 stars
If I could write on the Amok the moment I finished it, which was ten days ago, I would have said I liked it a lot. But now, after some time I find it difficult to connect to the story and its main characters.
I did like this frenzy, insane building up of events in the story. They reminded me to some European writers of the same time, such is Canetti or Kafka, even though their stories and characters are better.

[Diane]

Amok by Stefan Zweig
4/5 stars

“'Running amok?' Yes, I think I do ...a kind of intoxication affecting the Malays...”

At at mere 66 pages (according to Kindle) this story really packs a punch. I thought the character development was quite good given the length of the story. I enjoyed the beginning of the book with all the descriptions of the area and the ship. I also liked the mystery of the stranger in the dark. The story then continues from the doctor's point of view and how he ended up on this ship alone heading for Europe. I really felt the sense panic and dread from both the doctor's point of view and the woman's. The ending was a little flat and probably the weakest point of the book for me. Overall, I enjoyed the author's writing and look forward to reading more of his work.

“...only an hour after that woman had entered my room, I had thrown my life away and was running amok, careering into empty space.”

[Kristel]

My first time reading Stefan Zweig. Read for February BOTM, Reading 1001. I enjoyed this short work exploring what it means to run Amok. I've heard of this term in discussions by mental health colleges so it was interesting to read this story. A man is unable to sleep and goes on deck, he finds himself standing by a stranger, a doctor, who confesses in the night why he is hiding in the dark from others on the boat. Its a bit of a mystery but mostly it is a psychological exploration of choices, consequences, responsibility and duty.

[Jessica]

Short Story? Novella? Call it what you want. I rate this one somewhere between 4 and 4.5 stars.

Amok is a tale of a tale. The narrator is on an ocean liner headed from India to Europe when he meets another passenger on a dark deck. This mysterious passenger hides mostly in the shadows and offers the narrator a drink and begins to tell his story. The man is a German doctor who was assigned to a remote station in the Indian countryside...hours from the nearest town. He is not living his best life. Then a white woman shows up at his door. The doctor wavers back and forth between his professional duty as a doctor, his personal desires and pride. So begins the doctor's slide into running amok.

This was a very intense story that just hooked me right in. I definitely had a few "oh no he didn't!" moments. :) I will definitely look into reading more stuff by Zweig.

[Hilde]

Amok by Stefan Zweig - 4 stars

Finished this one in almost one sitting. A passenger traveling from India to Europe telling his rather unsettling story to a stranger about how he went amok during his last days in India. Important underlying message, sadly still relevant today in some countries 100 years after the story was first written.

Not very likeable characters, but I really liked the writing - it pulled me right in! My first Zweig, will definitely read more. Clever storytelling!

[Paula]

Compelling short story about an unlikable character. I enjoyed reading it, but wouldn't have included it in the list. 3 stars

[Daisey]

I liked the writing of this story more than the story itself. I enjoyed the figurative language and obsessiveness of the doctor that made me curious to keep reading. It‘s a short story with no happy ending.

[Jessica-sim]

After finishing this novelle I needed to do some research into why it was selected to be in the 1001. I enjoyed the story, but not to the extent that I thought its classic status obvious. Apparently, it was selected because it serves as a good introduction to the works of Zweig. Indeed even though the story is very short the elements of psychological insights are very present.

I enjoyed the story, mostly because of the colonial setting and family stories that relate to that. The scene on the deck of the ship was also very compelling to me. I think I will adopt the narrator's strategy to turn my day/night rhythm around if I were to find myself in such circumstances (our a corona quarantine cruise to keep it topical).

The book was printed in 1922 and needs to be viewed in that time, but against that backdrop, it can still easily be read today.

[Patrick]

****

A classic novella where a doctor retells his terrifying infatuation story to a fellow passenger on the ship sailing them back to Europe from the Dutch East Indies. It's a story about sudden, almost irrational obsession, with a main protagonist who is reminiscent of several 'deranged' characters haunting works from Russian writers of the 19th century, whether Pushkin's short stories or Dostoievski's epics or Chekhov's plays. I really liked the manner in which Zweig maintained some suspense throughout by delivering the important elements of this story gradually.