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kbenessa 's review for:
Ship of Fools
by Katherine Anne Porter
It's difficult to know where to start with this book. It's fascinating and quite long: it took me almost 2 months to read, but I never thought of putting it down.
Take Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie, with it's long list of characters, all strangers confined to a ship and forced to relate to each other, but instead of a murder, it's just life: getting to know one another, creating snap judgments, or being intrigued, and eventually growing bored. In the end none of the characters seem to have any redeeming values -- all are defined by some level of nationalism, antisemitism, xenophobia, or their naivety about the power of those prejudices.
What I couldn't get over was how someone would go about writing a book like this, between the juggling and intersecting of so many lives, their actions and conversations, as well as their own internal dialogues. It's so complex! And Porter's powers of perception are genius. Most every night after putting the book down, I thought, My God, how is she doing this?
Note: I finished the book a few days ago and find I miss checking in with all the characters at night.
Take Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie, with it's long list of characters, all strangers confined to a ship and forced to relate to each other, but instead of a murder, it's just life: getting to know one another, creating snap judgments, or being intrigued, and eventually growing bored. In the end none of the characters seem to have any redeeming values -- all are defined by some level of nationalism, antisemitism, xenophobia, or their naivety about the power of those prejudices.
What I couldn't get over was how someone would go about writing a book like this, between the juggling and intersecting of so many lives, their actions and conversations, as well as their own internal dialogues. It's so complex! And Porter's powers of perception are genius. Most every night after putting the book down, I thought, My God, how is she doing this?
Note: I finished the book a few days ago and find I miss checking in with all the characters at night.