The Gentleman Who Let Go

"Gentleman Overboard" by Herbert Clyde Lewis (Boiler House Press) 978-1-913861-23-0

Gentleman Overboard by Herbert Clyde Lewis (1937)
Review by Tosh Berman

I imagine myself alone in the ocean, without a boat or ship, surrounded by peaceful waters and endless horizons on all sides, as my muscles become sore or even cramp from keeping my head above the seawater. I can’t picture anything more hopeless or lonelier than such a stark scene. Herbert Clyde Lewis’s novel Gentleman Overboard captures that dread and fear like nothing else.

The novel was published in 1937, a time when the threat of war in Europe was looming and the aftermath of the Great Depression was still being felt in the United States and worldwide. The main character is a stockbroker, married with children, and a successful businessman. Yet he feels compelled to break out of his secure life by taking solo vacations on various ships. It’s clear that it’s not just a holiday but someone grappling with issues of identity, responsibility, and being a good husband. He feels empty, yet he performs for the world as a gentleman—or at least thinks of himself as one.

He’s on a merchant ocean liner that takes passengers on a route not popular with tourists. He is told that the South Pacific Ocean has calm waters, is usually warm, and has no sharks. Yet he somehow manages to slip on the deck and land in the ocean. His first concern is whether it’s gentlemanly to scream for help. It is after 4 a.m., and dawn is breaking over the ocean, as he watches the boat fade into the distance. He wonders whether anyone on the ship will notice he’s gone, or how his children and wife will respond. Or what he’ll say to the passengers and crew when they pick him up from the sea. He imagines the embarrassment. But as he removes his clothing in the water, it becomes clear he is also letting go of those fears of what people will think of him. He’s kind of in a shitty situation.

The psychological landscape of the character, I believe, is something readers will recognize. That is what makes Lewis’s novel so impressive: readers will relate to or understand that 20th-century fear of feeling lost in one’s world—or simply being a figure on the outside, without truly making a difference to the natural world. The term existentialism, in the modern sense, has been around since the 1940s, but in this 1937 novel, the explanation of such an existence (even though not explicitly named) predates Jean-Paul Sartre or Albert Camus’s exploration and acceptance of the concept. A man being stuck in the ocean can be philosophical, or it can be just an adventure narrative. However, this character is not planning to return home to his wife, kids, and well-paying job. He is seeking to become nothing, to fall into a void. In a literal sense, it’s someone working to cut himself off from civilization—and it’s noted that he’s lost his wallet, which contained a family photo as well as documents to prove he exists, now resting somewhere at the bottom of the sea. The ocean makes everything neutral.

There are twists and turns, but it’s the stillness of the environment—and how a person can place themselves in such a place, either by accident or design—that lingers. We don’t know which it is. However, it’s something I can see myself being drawn to—such an existence. And that is the quiet power of this almost-forgotten novel.

One can purchase this novel HERE