Blacks and whites, avant-garde and mass culture, politics, even Reed's alma mater, the University of Buffalo, have their turn [in The Free-Lance Pall Bearers], Features of the Gothic novel superimposed on an already flimsy plot do not help matters much…. The attempt to turn Bukka [Reed's anti-hero] into a revolutionary ten pages from the end … seems tacked on and insignificant. I know that it was not a last-minute device to wrap up the story because I had the opportunity to read the last chapter and portions of others in manuscript. At that stage the book seemed tighter, more consistent in imagery and subject matter, and much more successful structurally. The printed version may represent misguided editing.

One flaw which must be blamed on the author is the failure of his experiments with dialect in the narrative portions of the book. His rendition of Negro and lower-class white accents (mostly New York-ish) sound all right from the mouths of the appropriate characters but they mingle uncomfortably together mixed in with the dominant Standard English of the narrative…. In considering the book's stylistic blunders, however, one cannot help but note that the direction of Reed's experiment deserves attention. Perhaps his next book will resemble a sort of third-person Huckleberry Finn, amalgamating many tongues of black and white America. For the moment we have only a disorganized collection of excellent ideas and brilliant but isolated vignettes. (p. 411)