SOURCE: A review of Mysteries of Motion, in The Washington Post, December 31, 1983, p. C2.

In the following review, Piercy offers a positive assessment of Mysteries of Motion.

Hortense Calisher’s ninth novel, Mysteries of Motion, takes large chances under which its structure and its prose at times crumple, but the vision is extraordinary enough for us to allow for its faults and still praise both the ambition and the work highly.

Mysteries of Motion belongs to the genre of “Ship of Fools” and “The Bridge of San Luis Rey,” centering on a situation in which diverse characters with diverse histories are brought together. In this novel, the past occupies the bulk of the novel. However, if the form is venerable, the content is slightly in advance of 1984.

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