The Ocean Container

by Patrik Sampler

In this surreal and lyric debut novel, an environmentalist accused by a North American petro-state of "economic terrorism" takes refuge in a compound for vagrants. Surrounded by a variety of social and political outcasts--dubious charity providers, a spiritual healer, a man with two right eyes, contraband exotic species, and a theatrical company that may be a front for prostitution--the "terrorist" gradually embraces the exile of his improvised home, a shipping container, where the division between imagination and external reality will irrevocably blur.

196 pages, ebook

Published June 16, 2017

About the author

Patrik Sampler is the author of Naked Defiance (New Star Books, 2023) and The Ocean Container (Ninebark Press, 2017). His short form writing has appeared in The Guardian, The Millions, and The Scofield. Sampler was a contributing editor for the surrealist journal Peculiar Mormyrid, and devoted much of a postgraduate degree to the late-career work of Abe Kobo.

Reviews

[Merl Fluin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An NGO worker gets a sudden visit from a colleague who tells him to go into hiding - right now, no time to pack. He ends up living in an abandoned shipping container amid a colony of equally homeless outcasts. As he observes the strange world outside his container, he also begins to fall into another word inside it. Who contains who?

This is a small jewel of a book, glittering with many facets. One facet is speculative fiction: it's set in the near future (or possibly a slightly alternative present) where surveillance capitalism and ecological disaster bite ever more deeply. Another is satire: its take on politics, charity and NGOs is sly and pitiless. But above all it's wistful, poetic, lyrically erotic, and full of Surrealist optimism and hope.

[Patricia L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like shipping containers as much as I do this is the novel 'pour vous.'
Must love surrealism.

[Sylvia Torti · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this to be one of the most poignant treatments of the implications of the environmental crises from the geopolitical level to the ultimate personal level (of one's own container). It's so beautifully written and ultimately about human resilience. I highly recommend it.

[Tashfin Awal · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book for free through Goodreads Giveaways and have chosen to give my honest opinion about it.
The book seemed almost melodramatic in its own way and overly-complicated, placing relevance on things that seem unimportant; I had a difficult time following it and lost interest at times. That being said, the setting was definitely unique and the characters interesting enough to follow the story along.