PositiveThe New York Times Book ReviewHaslett has wisely concentrated his gifts, choosing to give only the perspectives of Peter and Ann, who have been estranged for many years. He has also embraced his predilection for back story by making the narratives people tell to explain themselves the subject of the novel itself ... Mothers and Sons is Haslett’s best novel. By limiting his area of inquiry, he achieves new levels of moral depth and narrative push. But he has not escaped old problems; in some ways he has entrenched them ... Everything fits, too neatly and tightly.
Garrard Conley
PanThe New York Times Book ReviewConley’s book is... short on action, but without a compensating depth of character analysis ... There is promise in the idea of two families growing and warping around the secret of queerness, in such a time and place. Yet its development here is circular and shallow ... Sensibly, Conley doesn’t attempt to recreate the speech of 18th-century Puritans ... The issue with his dialogue is that it’s undifferentiated, every character sounding the same. And what can’t be forgiven is his profligacy with verbal cliché.
