Without looking up the author I would like to take a wild guess and say he’s an ex-convict who found Jesus. This book is raw, tough and grimy. It’s hard to believe it was written in 1936.
We’ve got eleven convicts who are escaping from a French Penal colony. Each with a strong personality. Each with a crime they were put in jail for. Murder, rape/pedo, a doctor who performed an abortion, thieves, smugglers, and other lighter crimes. There is a homosexual relationship between two of the men. Some of the men are older with failing health. One is mentally disabled. Three macho bullies. And the strange eleventh man whom no one knew from the colony who just appeared right before they were about to escape named Jean Cambreau.
Much like the real world, the ones with the money get a ticket out of hell. The ringleader and toughest guy in prison, has procured a sloop- a one-masted sailboat, with the help of everyone’s throw down money. They are to split into pairs that night and escape through the dangerous swampy jungle to rendezvous at the beach. Our main man is the Doctor. He is the storyteller.
One man dies in the jungle. The other, the leader, is bitten by a very venomous snake. Doctor tends to him. Everyone eventually shows up on the beach. This little adventure gives us an introduction into each characters personality traits and most of them aint pretty. Jean Cambreau gives prophetic hints as to what the future lays. He’s not shy in telling the Doctor not to worry about the snake bite because the man will die anyway. He tells the Doctor the boat will be a sloop before seeing it. He’s not worried about anything and seems to be enjoying himself. The Doctor is like, who is this guy?? The Spanish inmate along for the escape thinks Cambreau is the devil.
On the sloop we go for ocean adventure. We get lots of arguing between the men. Philosophical debates between the doctor and Jean Cambreau. Death. Suffering. Odd changes in some of the convicts. All of a sudden, a sickly older man is doing much better health wise. Jean Cambreau keeps giving prophecies of what will happen. It’s hard to really explain too much about the boat ride as it’s a bunch of little things that happen that build suspense of who/what this man actually is mixed in with the survival adventure. Every night I couldn’t wait to pick it back up and see what would happen. But then it seemed to venture off too far into parable land. I was worried my soul was about to be saved and all I wanted was to see what happened to that well-oiled babe on the cover when the convicts landed on her beach. Which, by the way, holy moly, she is stunning. Kudos to the artist. But also, shame on the publisher because that scene is not in the book. Nor is she. The red-haired guy manhandling her is though. He’s a German and one of the convicts and he is an asshole, so that’s right.
Along the way Jean Cambreau performs miracles but tells the Doctor he isn’t Jesus and that he learned the essence of life or something like that. He even teaches the doctor how to do the same, so we veer off away from standard Christianity into a more mystical spirituality. I’m still trying to figure it out. It’s like the author was saying, use ideas from the bible but not literally and you are in control of your destiny not some God in the sky. Much like all religion it’s pretty wishy washy and open up to endless interpretation that I really don’t give a shit about.
This book was way ahead of its time. First off, there was nothing negative about the homosexual relationship, it was all matter of fact. Second, when the doctor is somewhat lamenting on the abortion he performed, Jean Cambreau tells him that the fetus wasn’t a human yet so don’t worry about it. So, in this book the Christ figure is pro-choice. Interesting. There is some fucked up part with the pedophile rapist, as I’m sure you would imagine but it’s something in a story you would imagine now not in 1930.
What can I say?? After rereading this review, it sounds like I didn’t really like it but I totally loved it. It’s very much a prison escape adventure first with the philosophy/ religious stuff peppered in. The nitty gritty was indeed gritty. It really read like it was written by an ex-convict. The way he talks about the terribleness of the men in such a way that is so non-judgmental. Like being in prison and these types of people make up your day to day interactions so to have a rapist pedophile along is just par for the course.
I looked into it and Richard Sale was definitely NOT an ex-convict, just a well-educated guy who knew how to write a story. He wrote for the pulps, then the more mainstream publications and then became a Hollywood director. This novel was turned into a movie called Strange Cargo in 1940 and it stars Joan Crawford and Clark Gable. I’ve yet to see it but I’d gather it’s quite different from the book as the book as zero female characters in it.
Popular Library 1936
Review by Nick Anderson
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