“[Caroline Gordon] is great on getting things there so concretely that they can't possibly escape . . . That is real masterly doing, and nobody does it any better than Caroline. You walk through her stories like you are walking in a complete real world. And watch how the meaning comes from the things themselves and not from her imposing anything.” —Flannery O'Connor, The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor

“The lessons of Henry James and [Ford Madox] Ford are applied to Southerners of all classes in stories shot through with a brilliant ‘solidity of specification.' A wonderful book.” —The Washington Post Book World

“In this collection one can see how a story speaks for its creator's sense of literary timelessness . . . [These stories] are records of the struggles of the human spirit to survive.” —The Christian Science Monitor

“Extraordinary vigor . . . Caroline Gordon writes with uncommon probity and assurance.” —Anne Tyler, The New York Times Book Review