Robert Cormier

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William B. Hill, S.J.

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The most engaging feature of [A Little Raw on Monday Mornings] is its wonderfully honest realism. It is so plain at times that it is tiring; the reality is obvious, familiar, and occasionally a bit flat. At its best, however, the story is bright and appealing; and at its very infrequent worst, it still has the merit of a rare sort of artistic integrity….

There may be a touch of unreal coincidence in the circumstances leading to Gracie's pregnancy; and there is too much of the type, too little of the individual in the character of Terry, Gracie's fellow worker and confidante. Otherwise there is an abundance of real artistry in this clear, sometimes inevitably depressing account of a poor, stumbling woman caught in a sorry situation. The stuff of tragedy is not here—Gracie is much too pathetic to be tragic; but there is plenty of human sympathy expressed in and demanded by this living story about one of the sorry little faceless people who inhabit the ugly and nameless buildings in our drab streets. There is no tremendous relief at the book's end, no purging of pity and fear, but there does arise some wonder at heroism's many unsuspected dwelling places.

The author is a trifle awkward in a few very brief passages dealing with the actualities of sex; the interludes are embarrassing because Mr. Cormier seems to be trying to prove that he and his markedly Catholic publishers are as sophisticated as the next person. (p. 222)

William B. Hill, S.J., in Best Sellers (copyright 1963, by the University of Scranton), October 1, 1963.

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