In Partisans many of the situations … seem contrived….
[Too] often [the] characters do not merely express or even embody the ideas they discuss; they are engulfed by them. In spite of the insistence of detailed, sensuous observation, of personal and idiosyncratic behavior, the characters do not fully emerge from the dialectic in which they are involved. Embattled concepts, not engaged people, are presented to us. We are left with a novel of ideas that does not quite come off.
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Read the rest of this Criticism with our Matthiessen, Peter 1927–: Critical Essay by James Finn Access Pass.
