SOURCE: “Bleak Generations,” in Christian Science Monitor, Vol. 63, No. 253, September 23, 1971, p. 21.

In the following review of The Condor Passes, Gardner raises questions about Grau's style and fictional depictions of the American South.

When is a cliché not quite a cliché? When it is cloaked in a novel by Shirley Ann Grau and redeemed by her versatile prose.

The Condor Passes, Miss Grau's first novel since her 1964 Pulitzer-prizewinning The Keepers of the House, comes dangerously close to being a 421-page cliché. Its Southern setting, conjuring up images of murky bayous, wide, sleepy streets, and Spanish moss dripping from live-oak trees, is the stuff stereotypes are made of. The plot—a poverty-to-prosperity saga encompassing three generations—is nothing that particularly warrants yet another retelling. Even the ending leaves an aftertaste of clichés: “Money isn't everything.” “Money can't buy happiness,” etc.

Yet, in an odd way, all this brinkmanship works...