Wright Morris Critical Essay | Critical Review by Edwin Seaver

Critical Review by Edwin Seaver

SOURCE: A review of My Uncle Dudley, in Direction, Vol. 5, No. 2, April-May, 1942, p. 19.

In the following review, Seaver finds Morris's first novel My Uncle Dudley lacking in depth.

American is the word which emerges immediately from this story of a young man's trip across the country with a remarkably shrewd and yet casual Uncle, who is able to inveigle a number of other men to come along as paying guests, to cover the expenses of the trip. The tale is certainly realistic, but it has not the variety nor originality of other work by Mr. Morris. The characters he has chosen are convincing but have little to make them linger in the mind. Tire trouble and the continual breaking down of the car they ride in make an artificial drama, rather than a human one. We know that Mr. Morris has a much deeper feeling for...
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