Cozzens, James Gould (Vol. 92) - John Brooks (review date 25 August 1968)
John Brooks (review date 25 August 1968)
SOURCE: "The I in Henry Dodd Worthington," in The New York Times Book Review, August 25, 1968, pp. 3, 33.
[Brooks was an American critic, novelist and journalist. In the following review of Morning Noon and Night, he examines the novel's structure, Puritan themes, eccentric prose style, and plot.]
In 1957, when James Gould Cozzens' By Love Possessed finally appeared, nine years after his last previous novel, Guard of Honor, it was instantly pronounced a masterwork by critical and popular acclaim and, an almost incredibly short time thereafter, it was dismissed (by what eventually came to be at least general critical assent) as a fake masterwork. On rereading, it seems to be neither, but rather a sound, skillful and entertaining portrayal of a part of American life marred, as Mr. Cozzens' earlier work had seldom been, by pretensions to both a style and a significance that were...
[The entire page is 1541 words long]
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