“The characters in these ten stories of imaginative squalor are truly conceived as portraits, but their speech is too often falsely poetic, Miss Yezierska has a firm command over her subject-matter; when she restrains herself she is artistic.” E. P.
+ − Dial 70:106 Ja ’21 60w
“It is undoubtedly one of the most brilliant books produced by an adopted American.” E. A. S.
+ Grinnell R 16:310 D ’20 150w
“When she leaves the East side neighborhood to which her art is native she never quite has the look of reality. And yet she has struck one or two notes that our literature can never again be without, and she deserves the high credit of being one of the earliest to put those notes into engaging fiction.” C. V. D.
+ − Nation 112:122 Ja 26 ’21 230w
“When one considers her own struggles to become an American her detachment strikes one as little short of miraculous.”
+ N Y Evening Post p10 N 20 ’20 190w
“Many realistic tales of New York’s ghetto have been written; but in point of literary workmanship and in laying bare the very souls of her characters, the superior of Miss Yezierska has not yet appeared.”
+ N Y Times p18 D 5 ’20 280w + Springf’d Republican p5a Ja 23 ’21 220w