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Book Reviews Title Shouting
At The Ship Men Fiction-Net
Rating Buy It
From Amazon.co.uk - BUY
NOW! Cover
Story Still haunted by
the death of her English father, Portia Mills
decides to leave Canada for London in search of
happiness and love. At first, Portia feels blessed
to have the charming Luke Bingham introduce her to
a world of privilege and wealth. But she soon
realises that England is not the seductive land she
had imagined. When Luke's friends fail to offer
Portia the acceptance she craves, she begins an
obsessive affair that is as doomed as it is
predictable. As Portia's world unravels, she comes
face-to-face with a secret about her father's past,
forcing her to accept the difficult truth about her
family and herself. Shouting at the
Ship Men is both a compelling portrait of a
restless young woman searching for her place in the
world, and a funny and acerbic look at contemporary
London through the eyes of a stranger. We
Say Writing this
particular review presented me with a problem. The
truth is, I can't decide whether I like the book or
not; as a reviewer, this puts me in an awkward
situation. So I've decided to come clean and tell
it like it is. I'm about to contradict myself
several times but in the name of candour I hope
you'll forgive me. Shouting at the
Ship Men was fairly enjoyable and slightly dull.
When Portia meets Luke after a spontaneous
flirtation in her home country of Canada, they fall
for each other and she moves to London to be with
him. As the homeland of her beloved father who
killed himself when she was thirteen, Portia has a
rose tinted view of England. When she enters the
world of the upper middle classes, Portia finds
herself struggling to fit in with the chattering
Charlies and Camillas as they drink white wine and
play croquet on the lawn. The author writes about
these characters with a kind of sneering sarcasm.
It's clear that he is not fond of them and has
therefore presented them in a deliberately shallow
way. However, this has the effect that they appear
caricature-like and are consequently quite
irritating. On the other hand, their presence
serves to illustrate Portia's feelings of
displacement very effectively. Portia herself is
full of contradictions. At times she is intelligent
and sharp whilst at others, she is self-indulgent
and lazy. She is the only truly realistic character
in the story but she is not easy to like. That
said, her journey of self-discovery is a valid one
and perhaps more moving at times because of her
faults. The plot does
have some surprises, mainly because Portia's nature
is so entirely unpredictable. Unfortunately, there
are also times when it meanders far too slowly and
you begin to wonder if anything of real consequence
will ever happen again. Overall though, the writing
style is good and there are some very powerful
images used. The best
recommendation I can make is to say that "Shouting
at the Ship Men" is definitely worth a look so that
you can decide for yourself. Review by: Rachel
Taylor |
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