Critical Essay | Critical Review by William Brown

Critical Review by William Brown

SOURCE: A review of The Short Stories of James T. Farrell, in The Canadian Forum, Vol. XXVI, No. 313, February, 1947, pp. 260-61.

In the following excerpt, Brown argues that Farrell, despite frequent stylistic infelicities, remains an important writer who asks crucial questions about the direction and consequences of American capitalism.

For readers of Farrell there is nothing new in the excellent Penguin selection of 13 stories. Dating from 1928 to 1943, they serve to remind us once again of the continuity of Farrell's work. Alone of the major figures of the 'thirties he has forged steadily ahead, undisturbed by the shifting winds of doctrine—or by the hysterical attacks of the literary hatchet men whom he characterized, with customary truculence, as the League of Frightened Philistines. By the same token he remains a major figure of the 'forties while his contemporaries have retired into a profound and apparently unbreakable silence.