About this title: Katherine Anne Porter's long-anticipated allegorical novel is set on a German ship sailing from Mexico to Germany in 1931 with an international passenger list. Conceived as symbols of their respective nations, the more than 40 characters' interactions and involvements with each other on the course of a tense month-long voyage vividly reveal their ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Edition: Atlantic Monthly Press. Book of the Month Club.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Little, Brown, Boston, MA
Date Published: 1962
Description: Good in poor dust jacket. Binding tight pages clean. some notes in margin and sm. stain on 4 pages.; dj chipped and torn. 497 p. 22 cm. A fascinating novel about passangers traveling from South America to the Azores; high relief and interplay between characters. read more
Edition: Book Club Edition.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Little, Brown, Boston
Date Published: 1962
Description: Fair in fair dust jacket. Signed by previous owner. Nice hard cover, lightly read, wear, tear & aging to dust jacket, wear to top corner of front cover, corners lightly bumped, light aging to pages, light shelf wear to edges of cover, stk #913j7. 497 p. 22 cm. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Date Published: 1984
ISBN-13:9780316713900ISBN:0316713902
Description: Acceptable. A readable copy. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact (the dust cover may be missing). Pages can include considerable notes-in pen or highlighter-but the notes cannot obscure the text. read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Signet Book
Date Published: 1963
ISBN-13:9780451077783ISBN:0451077784
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Satisfaction Guaranteed, fast shipping, please feel free to ask any questions! Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. Audience: General/trade. read more
"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 our follies rather well. In its portrayal of race relations it left a bad taste that I can only presume was its intention.
Towards the end I started enjoying it more. I became more involved once I'd got over how depressed it was making me. I stuck with it and was rewarded with a series of powerful set pieces that seemed the logical conclusion of what had happened previously.
An interesting point was how it viewed men and women. On the surface it gave a very old fashioned view of how men were strong and women were second class citizens. Underneath I noticed that in every couple it was the women who led, either in thought or action whilst their men often ended up drunk or ridiculous. I would say that the women were treated (slightly) more sympathetically whilst the male characters were left to posture.
I thought the writing style solid, with some excellent insights but sometimes a little over wrought. The interaction between characters was very strong, the way they constantly misread each other was interesting, but the internal monologues and self justification I often found dull. I'm glad I read it but I don't think I will again."
"It started out slow, but I'd heard it was very good so I stuck it out and was pretty well rewarded. Not the pleasantest story, but an interesting one, well told."
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