Rating: 
Summary: Maybe it's just me...
Review: ...but I abandoned ship halfway through. After enjoying the movie, and reading the great praise for author Porter, I assumed I'd enjoy diving into this good, long read. What I discovered was a rambling and excrutiating book...droning characterization page after page until I could no longer concentrate on the essentially non-existent plot.
I assume this is strictly for fans of Porter, who was a master at short story telling. She should have stuck to it. Anyone expecting a "Grand Hotel" or Maugham like saga will be sorely disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: The Original is Much Better
Review: Does not surpass the original work published in the 1500's. There are better books. Read them first. This book lets the ship reach its destination and the fools get off. The book does not establish any personal attachment for any character to the reader; some catalogue of foolish behavior and temperment, but not as exhaustive nor as poetic as Original. At end of book, as a reader you feel like you were one of the fools along for the voyage for reading the book. Nice period piece that illustrates some of racial and ethnic prejudice at the time and forewarnings of the future.
Rating: 
Summary: Eminently Re-readable
Review: I just finished Ship of Fools for the second time, and my opinion hasn't changed much: its brilliant. Porter's amazing use of perspective and the diversity of her cast of characters gives the story a richness that far exceeds the potentially sparse plot (a ship goes from Mexico to Germany). Though some might not like the static nature of both the characters and the story, I felt that Porter struck a perfect balance between telling an entertaining story with interesting, if somewhat extreme players, and illustrating the prevailing ideas, trends, etc. of European (and especially German) society in the interwar period. It worked on every level: as simply a good read, as an illuminating look at the period, and as a number of intertwining character studies. My only regret, having read this and Ms. Porter's short stories, is that this is the only novel she wrote.
Rating:
Summary: Eminently Re-readable
Review: I just finished Ship of Fools for the second time, and my opinion hasn't changed much: its brilliant. Porter's amazing use of perspective and the diversity of her cast of characters gives the story a richness that far exceeds the potentially sparse plot (a ship goes from Mexico to Germany). Though some might not like the static nature of both the characters and the story, I felt that Porter struck a perfect balance between telling an entertaining story with interesting, if somewhat extreme players, and illustrating the prevailing ideas, trends, etc. of European (and especially German) society in the interwar period. It worked on every level: as simply a good read, as an illuminating look at the period, and as a number of intertwining character studies. My only regret, having read this and Ms. Porter's short stories, is that this is the only novel she wrote.
Rating:
Summary: A Writer's Writer
Review: I stumbled across this by novel by accident only to discover that this must be one the 10 greatest works of fiction! While a darkish portrayal of the human condition, and man's inability to escape the pettiness of mankind, this is a very clever novel that entertains while thrusting more truth your way than you may be prepared to accept.
Rating:
Summary: Porter at sea
Review: I'm a pretty untiring reader, as long as I have faith I'm in competent hands, but I gave this book up at page 160, which was enough of an investment to convince me that Porter was lost, lost, lost. I'm an admirer of her short stories, but all she's done in this larger form is expand the cast of characters, forgetting to give them anything to do. The characters are really only cartoons, which Porter seems aware of, since she doggedly gives us paragraphs and pages of analysis for most of them. But in a novel, characters define themselves by what they do, not by what they think about themselves, or what their creator thinks of them. The sheer number of them just hanging around listlessly becomes so unwieldly for Porter that you feel sorry for her -- you can almost hear her thinking, "Wait, what about So-and-so, we haven't seen him come out of him cabin lately, maybe I'll have him get drunk and make a scene."
Rating:
Summary: Porter at sea
Review: I'm a pretty untiring reader, as long as I have faith I'm in competent hands, but I gave this book up at page 160, which was enough of an investment to convince me that Porter was lost, lost, lost. I'm an admirer of her short stories, but all she's done in this larger form is expand the cast of characters, forgetting to give them anything to do. The characters are really only cartoons, which Porter seems aware of, since she doggedly gives us paragraphs and pages of analysis for most of them. But in a novel, characters define themselves by what they do, not by what they think about themselves, or what their creator thinks of them. The sheer number of them just hanging around listlessly becomes so unwieldly for Porter that you feel sorry for her -- you can almost hear her thinking, "Wait, what about So-and-so, we haven't seen him come out of him cabin lately, maybe I'll have him get drunk and make a scene."
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but trundling.
Review: I'm an avid, dogged reader, and I plowed through Tolstoy's War and Peace at a quicker clip than I managed Porter's Ship of Fools. I love Porter's short stories--I cannot recommend more highly purchasing her collected fiction in paperback--but her talent doesn't translate as well into the long work. Unfortunately, I found the characters in this novel uninteresting, the lack of plot without much underlying substance somewhat tiresome, and the entire book as slowly moving as the ship these characters are traveling on from Mexico to Germany in the 1930s. The writing is good, the observations sharp, but I had trouble engaging with this book and, therefore, found myself reading other things before picking it back up. Ultimately, this is a good book by a good author, but it probably is not worth the effort required to trudge through it.
Rating:
Summary: Closely Observed; A Superior Work
Review: Less a plot-driven novel than a closely observed portrait, Porter's famous novel deftly exploits the author's ability to focus on the telling details of personality--and the result is a sometimes funny, often touching, and ultimately stinging examination of the insularity, hypocrisies, and pretensions of shipboard passengers en route from Mexico to Germany on the eve of World War II. Porter's cast of characters are primarily German, but a handful of Spanish, Mexican, Swiss, and American characters give the novel an international perspective. Whatever their individual backgrounds, the characters tend to adopt reactionary postures toward and make assumptions about their fellow travelers based on both class and nationality; consequently, they tend to regard each other in a stereotypical light--but even as they fail to understand the truths behind the stereotypes, Porter highlights their lack of comprehension in a frequently comic but extremely disconcerting manner, thus demonstrating that her characters are at sea in more ways than one. There is obviously a certain symbolism to the novel, but Porter does not belabor it, and we are free to decide if we wish to read for pure pleasure or for deeper meanings. Fortunately, there is an abundance of both. Still, this not a novel to read quickly or casually. It requires time to develop clearly in the mind, so readers are advised to approach it with ample time in which to enjoy this superior work.
Rating:
Summary: This Book Will Grow On You
Review: Ship Of Fools is a bone chilling account of a world moving into the second world war. Those seeking to get inside the German frame of mind should read this book for it predicts(the book was written before the concentration camps were even discovered)the horrowing images of German hate toward the Jewish Religon. Through all the hate and "Proud German Order" Porter asks us to perform a difficult task; to find love or forever be lost on a ship of fools.
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