The Ship of Fools Book

Most debut novels tend inevitably to draw on the limited life experiences of their young authors. But in his debut book The Ship of Fools, 25-year-old Gregory Norminton draws on the powerful archetypes of medieval fabliau and folk tale to come up with something that seems oddly novel in our new millennium. The book’s conceit can be taken from the title. A ship is sailing with a crew of, what might uncharitably be termed, "fools" and they each have a tale to tell. In its assembling of stories related in character by a motley crew--the swimmer, the drinking woman, the nun, the penitent drunkard, the fool, the monk, the chorister, the sleeping drunkard, the glutton--The Ship of Fools naturally invites comparison to The Canterbury Tales. And certainly, in his clever ventriloquism of individuals who also stand as telling social types, Norminton is inspired by Chaucer. But in its tone and its love of--nay, deliberate wallowing in--filth in all its myriad forms The Ship of Fools owes its biggest debt to Francois Rabelais.This is a book that delights in expressing the natural functions that modern society likes to repress. For a typical example, try the account of milkmaid Belcula, bastard daughter of Hildegard von Spewer, as she attracts male attention while dropping her turds, finding in "the boyish titters a thrill like the shudder of an eel in a poacher’s pantaloon." Not for the prudish, but bawdy, earthy and inventive, The Ship of Fools is a welcome brash corrective to our antiseptic, allergy-ridden modern lives.--Alan StewartRead More