Reviews

Log of the S.S. the Mrs Unguentine by Stanley Crawford

dstuart's review against another edition

5.0

So so good. Why is this not better-known? Reminds me of Wittgenstein's Mistress.

jenenglish's review against another edition

4.0

Generally I avoid fiction involving the struggles and/or breakdown of marriage, finding it to be extremely tedious and boring. This was anything but that - bizarre and weird and funny. Also worth reading as an an interesting addition to the literature and film of the early 70s reacting to late 60s idealism.

kerrianne's review against another edition

3.0

The first two chapters are light, whimsical, read like a ship is narrating, which is seemingly Crawford's way of setting his readers up to be careened into rocky shores, because this book isn't light, is only whimsical in the way fiction can remain wholly unrealistic while trying to tell some semblance of a real story. Fiction is fiction is fiction is sometimes altogether insane, a cornucopia of visual acid trips, and Mr. and Mrs. Unguentine's floating barge/farm/forest/greenhouse/prison remains a perfect example of visual tomfoolery, and beauty, at its finest. But the idea that two people, married or otherwise, can occupy the same floating home for 40+ years and have actual conversations seemingly never, their primary communication relegated to curt notes left in amusingly practical places, is both unrealistic and maddening. No dialogue and no communication leaves not a whole lot of room for characterization and well-rounded storytelling, and in the end the S.S. Mrs. Unguentine, the ship itself with its stubborn and abundant life refusing to perish even as Mr. Unguentine attempts to altogether uproot it, is much more alive than either of its captains.

[Two-point-five stars for boat ingenuity, floating forest creativity, but oh, the painful comma splices.]