Ship of Fools | Literary Criticism & Book Review

Ship of Fools Critical Overview

When it was first published, Ship of Fools received near universal acclaim from reviewers. Leading the admiring chorus was Mark Schorer, in the New York Times Book Review (reprinted in Katherine Anne Porter: A Collection of Critical Essays), who called the book "a unique imaginative achievement." He praised Porter's "perfectly poised ironical intelligence" and "the brilliance and variety of characterization." Louis Auchincloss, in the New York Herald Tribune (reprinted in Critical Essays on Katherine Anne Porter) was equally enthusiastic, commenting that Porter was able to sustain the reader's interest in a collection of unattractive characters such as the Germans "because this vivid, beautifully written story is bathed in intelligence and humor," and the reader is able to "feel how easy it would be for anyone to turn into even the most repellent of these incipient Nazis." For Moss Hart in New Republic (quoted in Givner's The Life of Katherine Anne...
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