Ship Fever (1996)
By Andrea Barrett
Darwin; Gender; Genetic code; Historical fiction; Linnaeus; Mendel; Short story collection
A series of short fiction traces connections between the lives of early evolutionary theorists and their contemporary counterparts.
Ship Fever is a National Book Award winning collection of short fiction in which the lives of prominent scientists – Darwin, Linnaeus, Mendel, Wallace – become counterpoints to both their scientific advancements and contemporary individuals whose lives they have inadvertently affected. The stories shift between the lessons of the past and the difficulties of the present, each illustrating the interconnectedness of the personal and professional lives of scientists.
The following stories are discussed elsewhere on this web site:
• “The Behavior of Hawkweeds” – A contemporary geneticist and his neglected wife each find similarities between their personal shortcomings and Mendel’s failure with the hawkweeds.
• “The English Pupil” – An elderly Linnaeus attempts to classify memories much as he had classified species, only to find them blurring into disorganization.
• “Soroche” – A woman sees similarities between her own transformation following her husband’s death, and an anecdote she’d learned long before about Darwin’s voyage on the Beagle.
• “Birds with No Feet” – Collector Alec Carrière imagines a rivalry with his contemporary Alfred Russell Wallace, one that parallels Wallace’s own relationship with Darwin.
Evaluation: The relationship between science, scientists and those who study the discoveries is subtly illustrated in this collection. Rather than focusing on specific genetic issues, Barrett forces us to consider the impact of these theorists in nontraditional, seemingly non-scientific scenarios.
– Natalie Champ