SOURCE: "Kay Boyle's Experiments," in New York Times Book Review, November 16, 1930, p. 8.

In the following review of Wedding Day and Other Stories, the critic argues that Boyle is at her best when she combines experimentation with structure.

These short stories and five-finger exercises by Kay Boyle represent both the good and the ephemeral that have come out of the experimental epoch that is now closing. And, because the best of Kay Boyle is quite good (as in "Episode in the Life of an Ancestor"), it is easy to forgive the inclusion of the worst of the five-finger exercises (let us choose "Spring Morning" as the scapegoat) in this slim volume. An example or so of the ephemeral, indeed, helps to show us how Miss Boyle gets her happiest effects—effects that derive from a wide-open sensibility that enables her to fasten upon amazingly apt images. The merit of...