[In "The Other Father," Laura Hobson] has written another study in human relationships. But the implications this time are less social and more exclusively personal….

The mother-son and father-daughter relationships, both of which are examined here, have been explored in literature since the time of the Greeks. Mrs. Hobson adds very little that is fresh or that goes beyond narrow psychological interpretation. What is needed in this type of book is a frame of reference, a basic morality against which the struggles and actions of the characters achieve significance. In "The Other Father" this is entirely missing. Under a veneer of family affection the behavior of the Dyneses appeared to this reader as superficial, selfish, and cheap. But Mrs. Hobson presents most of it as quite admirable. Conceivably, she has her tongue in cheek. In any event, by not making her position clear—by establishing no base in...