+ Booklist 17:159 Ja ’21
“As a story it is very little more than a string of episodes reported with pitiless minuteness. If ruthless and harrowing verisimilitude is of service to you, accept it in this book. Why the publishers should assert that it is a new thing, is not clear.” H. W. Boynton
− Bookm 52:69 S ’20 880w
“There is real emotional power in the author’s handling of her calamitous theme. She seems to lose subtlety at times because of her very sincerity; the book is in spots too wooden in its realism, and there is some careless workmanship. But the characterization is acute.” F. E. H.
+ − Freeman 1:407 Jl 7 ’20 300w
“There is no relief, even in the scenes between the young children, and we wonder if the story is not too photographically realistic, missing some worth or beauty under the bald surface.” L. W. M.
+ − Grinnell R 15:259 O ’20 420w
“A rather amorphous but by no means talentless book. Miss Pearl has a very keen and clear eye for the physical conditions of her people’s lives—both in the Ghetto and beyond it—and a genuine gift, despite her blunt and sprawling style, for rendering the atmosphere of bleak and homeless places. There is no reason why Miss Pearl should not do admirable work as she grows in self-discipline of both style and feeling, and acquires a cooler spirit and a more tempered surface.”
+ − Nation 110:730 My 29 ’20 320w
“It does more than present a partially new viewpoint of matters with which we are familiar, it brings a new range of material within our understanding. Here is an American book with a straightforward story, in the main well told and without sentimentalism.” R. V. A. S.