Reviews

Amok ou le Fou de Malaisie by Stefan Zweig

dennyb1's review against another edition

3.0

“Unico diritto umano che alla fine ti resta è quello di crepare come credi… senza essere scocciato dall’aiuto altrui”.

felixb's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

3.5

jess_mango's review against another edition

4.0

Short Story? Novella? Call it what you want. I rate this one somewhere between 4 and 4.5 stars.

Amok is a tale of a tale. The narrator is on an ocean liner headed from India to Europe when he meets another passenger on a dark deck. This mysterious passenger hides mostly in the shadows and offers the narrator a drink and begins to tell his story. The man is a German doctor who was assigned to a remote station in the Indian countryside...hours from the nearest town. He is not living his best life. Then a white woman shows up at his door. The doctor wavers back and forth between his professional duty as a doctor, his personal desires and pride. So begins the doctor's slide into running amok.

This was a very intense story that just hooked me right in. I definitely had a few "oh no he didn't!" moments. :) I will definitely look into reading more stuff by Zweig.

sma_olivia's review against another edition

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

yoshin's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

noemie_0612's review against another edition

emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism and Abortion

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, and Sexual harassment

cnd's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

imge's review against another edition

4.0

Even though it is a short story, the characters are very deep, and you can feel their emotions.
I've never lost interest during the story. I like the discussion about responsibility.
But it was little disturbing to read because of the doctor's racist, misogynistic, and colonialistic mindset. And since it was written in the 1920s, this shouldn't come as a surprise, but still, these things were also never addressed in the story. It sure didn't age well.

well the doctor needs to get a life asap

kiberen's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

cjt64's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Xenophobia, and Abortion