Reviews

If I had to bet, I would say Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller were both B. Traven fans. The Death Ship is in tune with the underdogs of the world, commenting on class, discrimination amongst classes and even amongst people who work shoulder-to-shoulder with each other. It will definitely make you hate your boss a little bit, but at no point turns into some high-handed polemic. Traven takes the character from hell to heaven and back to hell again, over and over. Beside the underlying themes, there is a fantastic and terrifying finale.

9blums's review against another edition

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5.0

one of these books you read once and never forget

corylevialexander's review against another edition

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4.0

Funny. Beautiful. Sad.

kyle_paddock's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

thisiscourt's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

el_entrenador_loco's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

zoey222's review against another edition

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4.0

It starts off with some dark, humorous satire about bureaucracy, and ends with a brutal and unrelenting crash course in the horrible lives of bureaucratically enslaved sailors. B Traven has a bit of the "Buzz Killington" vibe, which was the style at the time of this writing. As such the story tends to slog at some points, but the subject matter and overall execution is good enough to forgive his occasional meanderings and trite tangents.

Even B Traven, a man filled with progressive and radical pro-human ideas, was still a raging sexist, racist ass hole. My god, how white men paraded about with their pricks in hand. No wonder we are still reckoning with sexism and racism in modern times. This author's casual remarks about beating women and obviously ignorant stance on people of color are only sufferable because he cares so deeply about the working class.

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