The weakness of Ngugi's ["Petals of Blood"] as a work of the creative imagination ultimately lies in the author's somewhat dated Marxism: revolt of the masses, elimination of the black bourgeois; capitalism to be replaced with African socialism. The author's didacticism weakens what would otherwise have been his finest work. (p. 22)

Charles R. Larson, in The New York Times Book Review (© 1978 by The New York Times Company; reprinted by permission), February 19, 1978.