Criticism > Short Story Criticism > Gordimer, Nadine (Vol. 17) - Mary Doyle Curran (essay date 1960)

Gordimer, Nadine (Vol. 17) - Mary Doyle Curran (essay date 1960)

Mary Doyle Curran (essay date 1960)

SOURCE: "Many Views from the Veld," in The Saturday Review, New York, Vol. XLIII, No. 3, January 16, 1960, p. 64.

[Curran is an American novelist. In the following negative review of Friday's Footprint, she notes the uneven prose style and lack of psychological complexity in Gordimer's stories. ]

Nadine Gordimer's new collection of short stories (and a novella) is not the work of a novice. She has two other short story collections as well as two novels to her credit. Unfortunately, Friday's Footprint, the latest addition to her South African saga, betrays the enervation of the contemporary short story. The major flaw can be summed up in a quotation from one of the stories, "The Last Kiss": "When people become characters, they cease to be regarded as human . . . ." There is a lack of warmth and compassion here that is typical of the "objective" short story. Casting a cold eye is the...

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