The Professor's Daughter is a good fictional portrait of our American malaise. Here a father and his daughter find that their search for a meaningful cause is an oppressive condition. Their dilemma is that material wealth has deprived them of any social need. And this cunning, cynical tale suggests that our motivation for changing the status quo is frustrated by the freedom from want. (pp. 164-65)
The narrative smoothly alternates between events in the lives of father and daughter, interweaving and unifying them with a superb dramatic rhythm. On the basis of his two previous novels, Monk Dawson and The Junkers, Read has been compared to his compatriot, Graham Greene. At least from a technical view the comparison seems justified. Read has a fine sense of timing. The scenes in The Professor's Daughter are never boring; and at moments the action is almost sensational. But the Greene influence is definitely there; the professor and his daughter reflect an unmistakable concern for the moral fate of our affluent culture…. Read's message seems to be that life is not meaningful unless it is rational; and necessity, not possibility, makes it so. (p. 165)
Carl Senna, "'The Professor's Daughter'," in Commonweal (copyright © 1971 Commonweal Publishing Co., Inc.; reprinted by permission of Commonweal Publishing Co., Inc.), Vol. XCV, No. 7, November 12, 1971, pp. 164-65.
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