In her essay "Salvation is the Issue," Bambara says "Of all the writing forms, I've always been partial to the short story. It suits my temperment. It makes a modest appeal for attention, allowing me to slip up alongside the reader on his/her blind side and grab'm." When her first collection of stories, Gorilla, My Love, which included the story "Raymond's Run," was published in 1972, it succeeded in "grabbing" the critics: the stories were lauded as "among the best portraits of black life to have appeared in some time" by the Saturday Review.

Bambara has been praised for her ability to capture the cultural richness of African-American communities, particularly as it is reflected in the voice of African-American people. Charles Johnson has noted Bambara's ear for language and dialogue in his study Being and Race: Black Writing since 1970 (1988). He comments that "Bambara's strength is snappy...