Reviews

Editorial Review - Kirkus Reviews Copyright (c) VNU Business Media, Inc.

A ghostly, symbolic-mystery novel, The Ship is the work of a well-known German Expressionist. Though it belongs to an experimental school of literature, it is also, however, a highly polished and striking work of art. The ostensible story takes place on a peculiarly built ship, which carries an unknown cargo, and is sailing for an unknown destination. On board, are a last-minute, nervously-suspicious crew; the supercargo -- microphones and other instruments hidden about the ship; the Captain's beautiful daughter, Ellena, and her fiance, Gustave...and, possibly, concealed in a secret hold, the ship's owner. A sense of foreboding reaches a crisis when, midway in the voyage, Ellena disappears. Wild rumors spring up among the seamen: that the ship carries coffins, or a brothel, or the mad carpenter's mother; and Gustave, prowling in the ?? blackness of the hold, finds a cargo of, indeed, coffin-shaped crates, and two secret?? passages??. The fear-maddened?? crew mutiny, and in attempting to how open ?? one of the secret?? chambers, sink the ship. She goes down, carrying all her unsolved mysteries, and revealing a hither to unseen?? figurehead. The mystery and terror is sustained by a marvellously?? intricate, arresting prose; and by working the symbolism ?? (presumably, the Ship of Life, haunted by the twin mysteries of sex and death) into startling, highly visual scenes?? of panic amid?? a nightmare architecture. Intellectually interesting; but also as emotionally compelling as a murky, terrifying ghost story.