SOURCE: A review of Childhood Is Not Forever and Other Stories, in The North American Review, Vol. 255, No. 1, Spring, 1970, pp. 73-5.

In the following excerpted review, Phillips observes that several of Farrell's more recent short stories are among his best short fiction.

Childhood Is Not Forever [is] a selection of stories written largely in the 1950s. While all the tales are not as impressive as the last novel [A Brand New Life], or many of Farrell's fine earlier stories such as "The Scarecrow" and "Calico Shoes", the collection does not deserve the indifference it has been met with in the popular press.

Most of Farrell's large body of work has been written with purpose and from a perspective. Childhood Is Not Forever fills in some of the cracks between his interrelated novels, especially the Eddie Ryan and Danny O'Neill cycles. Both characters are encountered within these stories. The...