The critics seem to be evenly divided into good, bad, and indifferent opinions of Body and Soul. The phenomenal success of Frank Conroy's first book, Stop-Time, raised great expectations in the literary world. This autobiography of his youth demonstrated originality of style and masterful writing, so readers waited eagerly for a first novel. Conroy was only thirty-one years old in 1967 when he published Stop-Time, but he did not publish again until 1985 when he produced a somewhat disappointing collection of eight short stories. Finally, in 1993, at the age of fifty-seven, his first novel appeared to mixed reviews.

The main complaint of the critics who panned Body and Soul is that it is so similar to Stop-Time. Claude Rawlings is only a fictional version of Frank Conroy. Both grow up lonely and fatherless in poverty in New York City in exactly the same time period. Both pull themselves...