Talk:The Fascinating Stranger and Other Stories

Reviews
Extracted from "The Editor Recommends," in The Bookman, June 1923:

IT is a pity, in a way, that "The Fascinating Stranger, and Other Stories" (Doubleday, Page) isn't more nearly a unit than it is. So many of the characters—and what distinctive characters they are—run through most of the stories, that it might easily have become a loosely constructed picture of a town, or a boy, or Lucius Brutus Allen in the prime of life. Again we come to the realization that Mr. Tarkington is one of the few Americans who have the ability to, or care to, draw character portraits that are individuals. He does not bother so much about the color of their souls as he does with the kind of trousers they wear. This is good! Souls, after all, in the final instance are much alike—trousers aren't. Passion is common to all men. Suspenders aren't. Let us rejoice that Daisy Mears, one of Tarkington's best little girls, I think, has "small bright eyes" and is filled with mischief instead of complexes. Dialogue in these stories sparkles and twitters. There are whole pages of young love making that could be pasted into an act of a Tarkington comedy, probably will be. —J. F.

The Outlook, 6 June 1923: Short stories. That which furnishes the book's title is rollickingly humorous in its ending, while the others differ considerably in their inventive and entertaining qualities.