Stafford, Jean - Thomas Curley (review date 1965)

Thomas Curley (review date 1965)

SOURCE: A review of Bad Characters, in Commonweal, Vol. LXXXI, No. 21, February 19, 1965, p. 673.

[In this favorable review of Bad Characters, Curley praises Stafford's characterization and narrative technique. ]

I don't intend faint praise by saying that it's always a pleasure to read Jean Stafford but a distinction, since it is a pleasure, and neither instruction nor enthusiasm, that is Miss Stafford's gift. It is, however, somewhat qualified praise to say that it is a long while since I have simply enjoyed a new book so much. (Seven of the ten stories [in Bad Characters] appeared in the New Yorker, but they are all new to me.) Qualified, because Miss Stafford so manages her characters that you always like and dislike the ones she likes and dislikes.

Her intelligence is acute, her heart is in the right place and she writes well: it is rather like going through a...

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