‘‘The Gold of Tomás Vargas’’ has received mixed reviews since it was first published in the story collection, Cuentos de Eva Luna, in 1990, and in English as The Stories of Eva Luna in 1991. Since the story was first published as part of a collection, the majority of the criticism covers the entire collection.

Even then, many critics, like Donald L. Shaw, did not consider The Stories of Eva Luna an important work in Allende’s career, saying that the stories ‘‘in general seem marginal to Allende’s mainstream development as a writer of fiction and as a representative of the Post-Boom.’’ The ‘‘Post-Boom’’ that Shaw refers to is the group of Latin-American writers who grew up reading and being influenced by ‘‘boom’’ writers such as Gabriel García Márquez. Other negative criticism includes Jane Urquhart’s review in Quill and Quire, where she said that the book features a ‘‘barrage of multiple situations and characters,’’ and that Allende’s writing in the book would benefit from ‘‘a moment or two of reflection and a clearer view of the inner lives of her characters.’’

Other reviewers discussed the damage that Allende, who is considered by most critics to be a feminist in her other works, has done with her portrayals in her short stories. Eleanor J. Bader of Belles Lettres, who considers Allende ‘‘a master storyteller,’’ nevertheless is concerned by the author’s ‘‘troubling blind spots.’’ As Bader noted, in both The Stories of Eva Luna and Eva Luna, the novel that inspired the story collection, ‘‘several of the stories involve middle-aged men lusting after teenaged girls.’’ Bader said that when these ‘‘prepubescent nymphs’’ express interest in these advances, ‘‘it is as if Allende, in one fell swoop, is attempting to wipe out the two decades of important work feminists have done to publicize and condemn’’ such situations. On a similar note, Suzanne Ruta, in The Women’s Review of Books, said she was ‘‘less enthusiastic’’ about The Stories of Eva Luna than Allende’s other work because ‘‘The heroines of these stories are almost never sad, weary, defeated.’’

Not all reviews have been bad. In her Library Journal review, Mary Margaret Benson said that Allende created ‘‘a vivid world full of humor, passion, pathos, and color,’’ and said that she ‘‘highly recommended’’ the book. In addition, Patricia Hart, in her review in the Nation, noted that, ‘‘The range of stories is quite broad and demonstrates Allende’s ability to move easily from one stratum of the social register to another.’’ Boston Review critic, Daniel Harris, was one of the most complimentary, saying that ‘‘The lush and moody pieces collected in The Stories of Eva Luna are some of her finest work to date.’’ Harris thought that Allende was better writing short stories than novels, which he felt suffered from ‘‘an irrepressible garrulousness and a narrative style that occasionally tends to be slack and improvisational.’’ Even those who made negative comments about the book occasionally had something good to say, like Urquhart, who noted that ‘‘What one takes away from this collection is a sense of the richness of life with all its attendant mysteries, celebrations, and miseries.’’

Like the book itself, the very little criticism that has been written about the story, ‘‘The Gold of Tomás Vargas,’’ has been mixed. Ruta compared the story to Alice Walker’s The Color Purple , which also featured a ‘‘really nasty tightwad and wifebeater’’ who ‘‘gets his come-uppance,’’ and said that she had the ‘‘same complaint’’ with Allende’s story as she did with ‘‘the last chapters’’ of Walker’s story. The ‘‘complaint’’ is that the women...