[Walk Gently This Good Earth] hardly seems like fiction. It's comfortable and honest. The characters are like old pieces of pewter, showing a faint, stubborn luster…. [It's] not a leaden saga. It concentrates on strength, and the three characters who express it variously: the father, his daughter, her beloved.

Margaret Craven's [Walk Gently This Good Earth], a family saga, again demonstrates that she is an author of considerable talent…. All is not blissful in the Westcott home. There is a death and a rejection by one daughter. The family must also cope with the social turmoil caused by the Great Depression and World War II. Yet as Craven simply and evocatively depicts, the Westcotts are a strong, close-knit group, and in their family the traditional values are dominant. Their love for each other an...