Reviews

The Ship by Hans Henny Jahnn

numerus's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

3.75

jake_'s review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

5.0

As masterful a weird tale as The Turn of the Screw but written in a stranger and more intense style... highly recommended.

From Eugene Lim's review:
 

the intro namechecks both melville and giorgio de chirico and the book indeed is an odd combination of nautical metaphysics and surrealism’s insidiously creepy emptying out.

an intense mystery story, not unlike the slow build-up of a bela tarr movie. in places it moves at a wild pace like a murder story’s final confrontation or a chase scene; other times it lingers endlessly over each character’s neurotics and guilt and anxiety–everyone in it an active raskolnikov. (and maybe the book is one long crime and punishment minus the denouement–just accusations and guilt.) 

qnx's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

wetigers's review

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated

4.75

jimmylorunning's review

4.0

But this frankness was like a clean cloth in the dark; no one could tell if anything had been spilled on it.

I had to check this book out of a nearby college library because it is out of print. I think nearly everybody on Goodreads who has read this neglected book was turned on to it initially by A Journey Round My Skull blog.

The book alternates between mysterious goings-on aboard a ship carrying coffin shaped cargo and circuitous thoughts within the characters' heads... "agonizing exertions" as Gustave puts it himself, full of paranoia, self doubt, moments of clarity, touching vulnerabilities, childish naivete, emotional outpourings, formal and/or ornate declarations, etc. etc.

The prose style is so unique, often the sentences are notable for their handsome bone structure, alternating between vague unknowns and specificity. I felt sea-sick the whole time.

Yes, it is laborious at points, especially in the middle when you have no idea where all this is leading, but the ending more than makes up for it.

Waldemar Strunck thought of his home and the joy of his loins.

sampulham's review

5.0

You can listen to an in-depth conversation about Hans Henny Jahnn's 'The Ship' on Sherds Podcast: http://www.holdfastnetwork.com/sherdspodcast/10/7/2018/10-the-ship-by-hans-henny-jahnn

jacob_wren's review

5.0

Hans Henny Jahn writes:


After all, guilt and innocence are terms that tell nothing of evil.

roba's review against another edition

This was a recommendation in Steve Aylett's Heart of the Original. You can see why as it's deeply weird and has a chef in it. The rhythm of the writing is very similar to Aylett's; maybe it was a big influence.

It's a sort of House of Leaves/Sapphire and Steel episode at sea, which in theory I'd love but in practice is way too cryptic to grab me. I ditched it halfway.

rogerb's review against another edition

3.0

I don't know how I came by this - perhaps Ginger John sent it to me (seems very plausible).

It's hard to rate this; it's a difficult book to read but getting from page to page is easy enough. What's it about? It's an allegory for ... something. The role(s) of men as they interact? The only woman in the book "disappears" and may have been murdered and may have been raped, and may not. As the preface says: "reading this book is like listening to the silence in public squares".

I'm glad I read it: if nothing else it's an insight into modern German literature in the inter-war years. It's the first of an unfinished trilogy, and I can live with the other two not existing. I suspect it was very hard to translate, and from time to time that is clear.

Hmmmm.