While Yamamoto's reputation as a writer primarily rests upon the stories published in the collection Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories, many critics believe her to be one of the most gifted Japanese-American short story writers of the twentieth century. Ruth Y. Hsu, writing in The Reference Guide to American Literature, notes that Yamamoto is "widely considered to be one of the most accomplished Japanese-American writers." And in her piece introducing Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories, King-Kok Cheung asserts that many of Yamamoto's stories are on equal footing with the writing of such short story masters as Katherine Mansfield, Flannery O'Connor, and Grace Paley.

Critics reading Yamamoto's short stories are struck by her compassion and empathy toward characters who are marginalized and ignored by society, such as Alden, the young Eskimo prisoner in "The Eskimo Connection." Cheung notes that Yamamoto's "sympathy is invariably with those who are...