The story is ostensibly the journal of a working man. He was not always thus, this son of the idle rich, of New England birth, who had lived fifty years of inactivity, addicted to theoretical speculations of a critical and analytical nature, when the European war broke out. The war brings him a sudden realization that he has been but a looker-on in life, has not been a good citizen, not in immediate touch and sympathy with his fellow men. He must act, must become a worker, must undertake a handicraft. He chooses cobbling, settles in a typical New England coast town, and gradually works himself into the confidence of his fellow townsmen and into local influence. His journal records his experiences, is full of philosophical criticism of American life and character in general, of the flaws in our democracy, of our attitude to the war before our entry into it and of the imminence of a regenerated world after the war. Our actual participation in the war fills him with satisfaction and pride and the hope of future greatness.
+ Booklist 17:119 D ’20
“Of the high earnestness of her mood there are visible manifestations. The delicate play of humor which we have so often noted in her work is absent. The poetic trend of her prose has been almost as ruthlessly stifled. Yet in spite of the handicap of abandoning two of her largest assets, the spell of the book is very strong. Miss Sherwood here as in ‘The worn doorstep’ has lived up to the magnitude of her opportunities.” D. L. Mann
+ Boston Transcript p8 O 16 ’20 1250w + Cleveland p105 D ’20 40w
“The cobbler of Mataquoit is a good thinker. He thinks through his problems, whether they be of government, economics, education, religion or sociology. He is, moreover, the master of a high style which sounds the tocsin of hope for literature in America once again.”
+ N Y Times p23 N 14 ’20 460w Outlook 126:515 N 17 ’20 60w
“Miss Sherwood has genuine literary power, and whatever she writes is worth reading from the point of view of style as well as for its subject. Miss Sherwood has spiritual insight and, looking through her eyes, we have at least a vision of how the new world should be built.”
+ Springf’d Republican p12 O 20 ’20 240w + Springf’d Republican p8 D 9 ’20 360w
SHESTOV, LEO. All things are possible. *$2 McBride 891.7