Aktion	Zweigstelle	Standorte	Status	Frist	Vorbestellungen
Vorbestellen	Zweigstelle: Bücherei der Raritäten	Standorte: FS.E DR Mort	Status: Verfügbar	Frist:	Vorbestellungen: 0

THE WITCHING SHIP predates many of Morton's other books by a substantial number of years, so what we find behind the story is a younger, less experienced author, yet the novel still allows numerous glimpses at Morton's skill as a wordsmith and his verbal artistry. It is always pleasurable to spend time in the company of a writer who is comfortable, creative and adroit with the English language, who is aware of the nuances of that language, and who nearly always chooses the the best word available to evoke the desired response in the reader. In this ability, Morton strides far ahead of the rabble of writers who churn out far too much forgettable trivia, though, to fairly balance the scale, do not expect quite the skill of a Nabokov.

As for the plot of THE WITCHING SHIP, what we find is a small, isolated universe of diverse travelers aboard the Dutch ship Syngdam. Nazi Germany is on the march, and many of the passengers on the Syngdam are refugees fleeing a Europe that is suddenly no longer their home and heading toward the strange and unknown land called the United States. The Syngdam, however, has until now been a cruise ship, and her trappings seem strangely out of place for a refugee carrier. Her bar and her ball room now see a wider variety of passengers than they have heretofore.

Uncertainty and fear intrude into this little universe as the ship receives the news that the Neatherlands have been bombed, ending Dutch neutrality. The bright lights on the ship's side spelling out "NEUTRAL" are replaced by curtained portholes and shielded lanterns, as thoughts turn toward the German submarines prowling the seaways.

Still, this is all stage setting for the play in which all the passengers are actors. We see young adoration bloom, flirtation imagined, and the inevitable admission of reality hitting hard and cold. We see strange liaisons bloom on the ship only to die on the gangplank at the New York dock. We see the odd, the antisocial, the naïve, the experienced, and the foolish intermingle in this microcosm of humanity, each striving to make sense of his or her place in this little universe and actually accomplishing it--until the unyielding reality of the immigration desks and of the gangplank to the strange, crowded dock rips this developing universe to shreds and swallows citizens and aliens both.

The reader becomes friends with his fellow passengers on this unusual voyage and feels a sense of loss as they vanish into the faceless crowd. Somehow, the reader has grown to relate to even the strangest and oddest of these travelers and watches them leave with a feeling of emptiness as he is deprived of their future company. Morton has done a very credible job of integrating his reader into this temporary, floating universe.