Ian's review of Typhoon (original) (raw)

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Ian's Reviews > Typhoon

Typhoon by Joseph Conrad

Typhoon
by

31384949

I listened to the audiobook version of this novella, in which a ship is caught in a typhoon in the South China Sea. The audio was just over 3 hours long and was offered as “included” in my Audible membership (i.e., it didn’t require me to use credits).

I found this to be unexpectedly good. I say unexpectedly because I assume it’s considered one of Conrad’s minor works.

The two main characters are Captain MacWhirr, a native of Belfast, and Jukes, his young and animated first mate. In real life Conrad worked as first mate to a captain with a very similar name, so we can surmise that Jukes may be based on Conrad himself.

Captain MacWhirr is a stolid and imperturbable man, but he also possesses what the modern reader would regard as autistic traits. MacWhirr has lots of problems with communication. He says very little and takes a literal interpretation of things that are said to him. Early in the book there’s what, to me, was a very funny scene in which Jukes expresses unhappiness that the ship’s owners have transferred the ship’s registration from Britain to Siam (Thailand). He complains about sailing under the Siamese flag and a baffled MacWhirr can only imagine that Jukes is complaining about some technical error in the design or dimensions of the flag. I couldn’t help laughing at this dialogue of the deaf. The audiobook worked well here, with the narrator Roger Allam delivering MacWhirr’s lines with an excellent rendition of a Belfast accent, (at least as far as I could tell).

Despite his long years at sea, MacWhirr has never experienced an actual typhoon, and his lack of imagination means he cannot conceive of it as anything more than the storms he has seen before. He sails straight for it. Conrad employs brilliant descriptive language in relating the ship’s experiences, as well as the long agony of sailing through a storm in which any moment could be your last. As he says, in an earthquake or an avalanche a man is carried away in an instant, but a typhoon at sea seems an interminable stress.

Will the ship make it through? It’s a great adventure story!

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Reading Progress

March 12, 2022 –Started Reading

March 14, 2022 – Shelved as:fiction

March 14, 2022 –Finished Reading

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