Criticism > Short Story Criticism > Auchincloss, Louis - Carolyn F. Ruffin (essay date 1970)

Auchincloss, Louis - Carolyn F. Ruffin (essay date 1970)

Carolyn F. Ruffin (essay date 1970)

SOURCE: A review of Second Chance: Tales of Two Generations, in The Christian Science Monitor, August 20, 1970, p. 13.

[In the following review, Ruffin discusses the puritanical nature of the characters in Second Chance.]

The Puritans are always with us.

They are particularly with American literary men, even today. It's as though they didn't get in enough licks against the irreverent scribes of this world during the last century, haunting Hawthorne and shooting up out of the deep to disturb Melville.

Now they are after Louis Auchincloss.

Apparently in this collection of some new, some previously published, short stories [Second Chance: Tales of Two Generations], he set out to write about New Yorkers of that notorious generation. He confronts them with their own hypocrisy and weakness, and gives them the chance to decide whether or not it's too late to change.

[The entire page is 1128 words long]

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass