[John Ehle's Time of Drums] reminds me once again that one of the most talented of American regional novelists—and I do not use "regional" in a restrictive sense, but simply to indicate the author's concern with a particular region, which happens to be the South—has been shamefully and inexcusably neglected…. I know that this sounds exaggerated, but no living southern writer of whom I am aware has Mr. Ehle's sympathetic understanding of the "southern way of life" nor his deep and loving involvement in the people who live that life on either side of both the "color line" and the doctrinal line. His talents overwhelmingly support his emotional and intellectual commitment. His narrative skill, his projection of character, his sense of the dramatic and of the living realities are something more than first rate. (pp. 486-87)