The Rope Eater

by Ben Jones and Ben Jones

Book Overview

When Brendan Kane accepts a stranger's offer of work--two years on a ship departing the following morning--the nature of the journey isn't divulged. It matters not, though, for Kane is directionless... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385509774
• ISBN13: 9780385509770
• Release Date: December 2003
• Publisher: Doubleday Books
• Length: 294 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.8" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

allegorical adventure

Part way through the book I looked up "narthex." It's an antechamber of a church in which penitents wait. That, plus the opening with the heart beating strongly, the quest for an "Eden," the silver "chalice," which the narrator finds in Asiz's frozen hands, the strange story of the rope eater, the birth canal experience in which the narrator slithers through the glacier, looking for a way out to paradise only to return to hell make me think there's more to this story than I have quite figured out to my satisfaction. That's one of the reasons I like it so much. The details ring true without self-conscious display of scholarship. The narrator remains enigmatic, and I am hoping someone has some insights into allegorical interpretations.

Stunning and brilliant

I saw this reviewed in the New York Times Book Review on Jan. 11th and decided to read it. It's a deep and brilliant novel that gives a vivid account of the challenges of artic exploration as well as a thoughtful analysis of the good and the evil that exists in the world. It's a wonderful read and you will come back to it again and again.

Amazing...

While home for the holidays I picked up The Rope Eater after reading a review of it in the Denver Post. Jones's use of language creates a richly mezmerizing and haunting world that envelopes the reader completely. I haven't enjoyed a book this much since Cold Mountain. And like the main character's unrelenting heart, which drives him out into the world, the reader is driven out on a journey that is as much a spiritual and philosophical thriller as it is a seafaring adventure. The passages describing the tribe of rope eaters are terrifying and breathtaking and the resolution left me profoundly moved. This is an unforgettable book.

The new hot book

I was in Chapter 11, the bookstore chain not the legal state, when a salesperson said that this would soon be the new hot book. Her book club was reading it and she said she was only 120 pages into it, but that I should buy it. I had been well steered by her in the past. What a find. This is a thriller more than a historical novel. I read it in one weekend. That is rare for me. Damn fun reading.

Completely excellent

Excellent book. I read a review in the Washington Post, having never heard of the novel before, and bought it on a whim. It was completely worth it. Some other books I read over Christmas break were The Bridge at San Luis Rey, The Hunters, and The Satanic Verses, and the The Rope Eater was by far the one I most enjoyed. This is an excellent novel with (as every review points out) echoes of Conrad and Melville, and I know that I'll be reading it again in the next few months.