PA RTISAN REV I EW
had a deep feeling for the mystery in life." This "Hello Mom" note in
Mr. Williams' personality is the real, indigenous thing. He is the Aldrich
Family and Andy Hardy and possibly Gene Tunney and bride's biscuits
and the mother-in-law joke. The cant of the intelligentsia (the jargon,
that is, of failure) comes from his lips like an ill-learned recitation: he
became, so he says, "that most common American phenomenon, the
rootless, wandering writer"-is this a wholly fitting description of a
talent which is as rooted in the American pay-dirt as a stout and
tenacious carrot?
Mary McCarthy
360
