"Greyhound People" has been referred to as one of Adams's most popular short stories, as well as the best story in the 2002 collection, The Stories of Alice Adams. "Greyhound People" appeared in Adams's sixth collection, which speaks for itself in terms of how many short stories she wrote in her lifetime. Most critics agree that the short story form was Adams's strong point; they often compare her style of writing to F. Scott Fitzgerald, Flannery O'Connor, and Katherine Mansfield—all great storytellers.

In his article for the Los Angeles Times, Michael Frank called Adams "a writer who has a natural, almost innate gentility, an ease of being with language, character, landscape, atmosphere and emotion that is both authentic and modest." Another critic who highly praised Adams was Ann H. Fisher, writing for the Library Journal, who described Adams as a "master fiction writer," one who creates...