“The charm and power of the book lie in its welding of substance and form,—its ‘style,’ in the only sense that matters. Its pictures are conveyed as if by indirection. Yet they are as clear-cut as the work of a lapidary.” H. W. Boynton
+ Bookm 51:76 Mr ’20 1100w + Boston Transcript p6 Je 23 ’20 900w
“The embarrassing predicament of ‘The mask’ is that it is a reasonably good book. Now a reasonably good book is peculiarly elusive. One cannot tumble all over himself with praise of it, nor can he object to it without a futile qualification of every statement. Mr Cournos, like so many of our present-day writers, goes about his work with intelligence, an impeccable keenness of vision, and some thoroughly arrived attitudes. Consequently, one cannot get at him. He is impregnably aware. Such people are skilled in the art of giving just as much as can be endured, and no more.” Kenneth Burke
+ − Dial 68:496 Ap ’20 1700w
“If ‘The mask’ does no more than picture the struggle of an immigrant family in ‘The city of brotherly love’ it is a rich contribution to American literature. But it certainly does much more than that.” Alvin Winston
+ N Y Call p10 Mr 14 ’20 650w
“It is the poetry in this novel that makes its starkness endurable. Behind the welter of life that it presents is an irresistible impulse to live with mastery, with beauty, with meaning.”
+ N Y Times 25:85 F 8 ’20 550w + N Y Times 25:190 Ap 18 ’20 50w
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton