A wonderful story. I read this years ago and found it powerful then, and it hasn't changed in it's impact. The exposure of the ugly side of humanity, with all the bigotry and cruelty towards each other is well described. Easy to visualize the day to day journey across the sea from Mexico to Europe in pr-WWII. Lots of gypsies, lots of Nazi sympathizers, etc. One of those stories that years from now you will still remember specific scenes. A well written story that is a must read. Highly recommend.

A masterful novel that cannot be rushed through. The novel takes place in 1931 on an ocean liner sailing from Mexico to Germany. On board, we have an eclectic group of people- Germans, Americans, Spaniards, Cubans, Swiss and 1 Swede.Throughout the book, I felt like an invisible bystander- I, with the author, moved from one group to another, eavesdropping on their conversations. The author spares no one in this aptly titled "Ship of Fools". Each person dislikes others based on their religion, class, nationality, gender; Each person feels they are the educated one while the other is the fool- but really they are all fools and foolish in their own way.
This was a German ship, pre World War II, with all the underlying animosities towards Jews already building. This book is an excellent depiction of that time.
It is in itself a metaphor for people blithely sailing into World War II.
An outstanding novel!!

I believe this is the only novel Katherine Anne Porter wrote. While not well received at the time of publishing and I did read it then, it has improved with age. It is a good story by a fine writer. She excels at short stories and if you like SHIP OF FOOLS you should turn your attention to her shorter fiction. For my review as well as other reviews go to LibraryThing.com, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon.

ARC for review - reissue.

This book is everything.

I understand that it's got an overall GR rating of 3.7, but this is also the type of book to be assigned in literature classes and it won't be for everyone (hey, even [book: To Kill a Mockingbird] has some one star ratings and I think that we, as a public, can agree that those people are crazy, right?). And I can understand why it might not appeal to some readers - it's long, it's old (published in 1962, but takes place in 1931), there are about a million characters and all the action (or inaction) takes place over a thirty day ship voyage from Mexico to Germany and is based on a similar voyage taken by Porter.

And I loved everything about it. Well, it took a few days before I could get the Robert Palmer song out of my head, and that was annoying, but that's hardly the fault of Katherine Anne Porter. Probably.

And even if it was her fault, I could forgive her, because she has created a masterpiece here - her dialogue, her description and her creation of an entire world on the second-rate Vera - I was often reminded of Paul Bowles.

The cast of characters may appear daunting (there are probably around forty named characters in the book, plus others who appear only briefly) but Porter manages to give life and color to each one - even the wonderful Bebe the bulldog has a distinct personality (an amazing achievement when so many authors struggle with one or two). Some are fairly bad, few are truly good and Porter strips everything away so that the reader sees the real person beyond the sex, race, nationality or class.

So, the plot. What happens? A ship's voyage, like so many others, shaded by what 1930s Mexico and Cuba were and what Germany was on the way to becoming. That's it. No murder to solve, no big event occurs, just many lives of people who normally might not have such close (or any) contact, but that ship life forces together. At the same time it's about everything in the world - life, death, family, love, hate, sex (both for love and money), honor, race, religion, class, youth, sacrifice, age, guilt and sin - a microcosm of our world.

I found myself highlighting way too many portions to list them all here, but I can't recommend this highly enough - I just wish I hadn't waited so many years to read it, and I'm glad it's being reissued so that it, hopefully, finds a new generation of appreciative readers.