Amazon.co.uk Review

In 1764, two Englishwomen set out to prove that swallows - contrary to the great Linnaeus's belief - do not hibernate underwater. But they must be patient and experiment in secret, such actions being inappropriate for the female of the species. In 1862, a hopeless naturalist heads off for yet another journey, though he can't seem to rid his conscience of the thousands of animals that have already died in his service. In 1971, a pregnant young woman, ill at ease with her socially superior husband and his stepchildren, hears of a Tierra del Fuegan taken hostage by the commander of the Beagle in 1835. This unwilling specimen was, we read, "captured, exiled, re-educated; then returned, abused by his family, finally re-accepted. Was he happy? Or was he saying that as a way to spite his captors? Darwin never knew."

Many of the characters who populate Andrea Barrett's National Book Award winning collection, Ship Fever, feel similarly displaced in the world. They long to prove themselves in both science and love, but are often thwarted by gender, social position, or the prevailing order. In "The Behaviour of the Hawkweeds", the wife of a genetics professor has learned that each narrative of discovery is matched by one, if not more, "in which science is not just unappreciated, but bent by loneliness and longing." Barrett's astonishing tales of ambition and isolation convey the meaning and feeling behind the patterns--scientific and emotional--but slip free of easy closure. The two women in "Rare Bird", like the swallows, depart England for more conducive climes, or so the brother of one believes. The reader is left to hope, and imagine. Much has been made of Andrea Barrett's interlacing of history, knowledge, and fact - and rightly so. But equal attention should be paid to the brilliant serenity and exactitude of her style.


Synopsis

Exceptional tales of emancipation and evolution at the birth of the modern era. 'Beautiful stories about the wonder and work of science. The title novella describes the horrors of typhus in the newly arrived Irish immigrants to Quebec, and suggests that, in epidemics, medicine is more a piece of politics than a form of science. In Barrett's hands, science is transformed from hard and known fact into malleable, strange and thrilling fictional material.' Boston Globe 'Many of these stories are set in the late nineteenth century, the adolescence of modern science. Barrett's women are often scoffed at for their love of learning. Some try to use science as a currency with which to buy acceptance in a male-dominated world. But no character relates only to his or her work. Barrett builds her fictions like stones thrown into prose ponds: science is the stone, while human dramas, personal and social, are the concentric rings that radiate beautifully outward.'

Reserved for my 2008 International Secret Santa recipient.

So YOU’re my Secret Santa! Thank you so much, AliceF! Two books — both by my wishlist authors — and massage bar...just what I needed. How on earth did you know?
I’m happy. :)

I don't remember why I put Andrea Barrett and Ship Fever on my wishlist in the first place. I knew nothing about the author and the book, I'm sure. Now that I've read this book, I think I may have visited one of those sites saying, “Tell us your favorite author and we'll tell you whom you also might like.” I imagine I gave them Alice Munro's name and they told me to read Andrea Barrett.
I've been reading lately some pretty good short stories. Yet they seem to be like excerpts. You know the characters have lived and experienced this and that before the story begins, and you know they'll go on doing so after the story is finished. When Munro or Barrett is telling the story, you also know the characters have lived etc., but still the story is complete somehow, there's nothing one could add or take away, not a single word.
However, the two authors have totally different themes. Munro writes about ordinary people, like you or me, in ordinary situations. Nothing special happens in their lives and that, I think, is very special.
There's nothing ordinary in the characters of Ship Fever. They are extraordinary people with extraordinary lives. The way Barrett weaves history of science, human experiences and life into fiction is totally captivating. The stories are not too happy but they're so real and so great, they're like life itself. The book is perfect. Ship Fever was absolutely one of my best reads this year, perhaps even the best. Thank you for this marvelous reading experience, AliceF!

Three BookCrossing friends of mine will be visiting Tampere soon. I don't think they'll leave with out Ship Fever... (If they do, I might just take that as a sign and put the book in my PC.)

Andrea Barrett at Wikipedia

T-trion Tampere-viisiittiin.

Tarna has to be the best person to convince anyone to take a book from a pile and get them interested in it. I've never heard of Andrea Barrett,the blurb on the book is lousy but I'm really looking forward to opening the book and starting on the journey. Thank you for a great Saturday visit and once again widening my literate horizons :)

Ship Fever travelled to Rome and back with me, and it kept me highly entertained on the flights! I can't believe this masterpiece has sat on my book cabin all these years... I'm not usually much of a fan of short stories, just because they only give you a glimpse into another reality and leave you wanting more, imagining things in vain. In a way that bothered me this time as well, but on the other hand that short moment of someone's life was just enough. The English Pupil was breathtaking in the intensity of that one (last) evening in life, when again Rare Bird in all of its ever growing misery somehow left you convinced that Sarah finally got the life she had always yearned for. The bleak undertones in every single story were almost disheartening, but what else would life be, if not struggles and surviving? The Ship Fever was the only story I found a little too long, the conclusion perhaps a little too obvious, but what an amazing piece of history had been woven into the story! Winter and nights was the perfect time to read the book, it certainly isn't one for the summer.
Thank you ever so much for making me take the book ages ago and experiencing all these moments of literary magic!

Book is travelling forward to a birthday girl looking for short stories. Hopefully Barrett will make new friends, wherever she goes!

Thank you. A new author to me. I surely will take this with me when I travel somewhere.

I red this between the school essay writing and doing my work. Some of the time I just liked to continue readin longer than I had time. I liked this book. And I am happy I got it as a present. Now I take it with me to the airport and I´ll leave it there. I hope someone takes it and reads it.

...and somebody did. It's always nice to see an oldie still travelling and even better when it has been liked. I'm on my way to London Town to see Jeremy Irons live and Ship Fever gets to see him, too.

On the first night went to see Agatha Christie's A Witness for the Prosecution in the Old County Hall, so we were sitting in an old court room and watching the court case. Those who sat where the jury used to sit even had to give oath! Very well done.

On the second day found where John Keats had had his student digs...

...where he studied...

...and what he ate.

Went to see Lady Windemere's Fan by Oscar Wilde. Look who is all grown up and playing the Duchess? Edwina from Absolutely Fabulous! And she could actually act, I was never quite sure before.

Released a fellow book in Soho.

Ebookeers had placed us across the back door of Fortnum & Mason in Mayfair. Best service I've ever had.

So I just had to go and see what F&M had planned for the upcoming Easter.

Have I remembered to mention that I've began to read this book and like it. One of these writers who manage to keep the reader turning pages just to find out what happens next, because anything might. Unpredictable plots. I wonder has the writer herself studied biology?
By the way, I was good on this trip, bought only one book. Hatchard bookshop has been around since 1797, so I wanted to contribute to their well-being. Perhaps it wasn't necessary, as the customer ahead of me bought books worth of 315£! Felt rather small with my 8,99£ purchase.

Pic: A well-worn reading sofa at Hatchard's. Possibly dates back from 1797.

For some reason I hadn't finished the book, so took it along to another trip to the UK. On a bus tour towards Devon and Cornwall we stopped in New Forest, where Arthur Conan Doyle is buried.

This is where my love affair with England began 37 yrs ago. Spent a month in a vet's family, living the "Herriot life".

Wow! Amazing botanical garden.

Even bigger wow! One woman's dream come through - an amphitheatre built on the cliffside by her own two hands. The Minack Theatre.

Poldark country.

For some reason the book had lost its flow. Or I was too dead in the evenings. I had released all my other BC-books, but when I got to Jane's house I had an urge to make yet another release and this was the only one left. It was gone in ten minutes, I noticed from afar.