“A gem of Americana . . . These stories span the early decades of the 20th century and address with nuance the Black characters’ negotiations with youthful turmoil, sexual desire, and race in the U.S. . . . Anderson’s feat is in finding the poetry of everyday moments among marginalized people. This deserves a place on the shelf of mid-century classics.”

– Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Models of subtlety and sparsity . . . Anderson’s short story ‘Signifying’ is a masterpiece of the genre.”

– Henry Louis Gates

"One of the lost names of Black literature ... His style is straightforward, but the simplicity is deceptive, the calm surface at odds with the depths sending up their clues . . . His ear, like Hurston’s, can be faultless . . . A portrait of black postwar migration from the lusty, incestuous-feeling, small-town South to the war-changed streets of Harlem, where there is bebop and heroin and a boxer answering the door in his underwear who is maybe also rough trade."

– Darryl Pinckney, New York Review of Books

"Taut short stories about African American outsiders . . . Anderson’s writing is taut, the narrative voice beguiling . . . [His] clean prose belies his narrative trickery . . . Fresh and unsettling."

– Douglas Field, Times Literary Supplement

“A genuine talent . . . Racy, ribald, robust, and startling.”

– Orville Prescott, New York Times

"What distinguishes Alston’s stories from the usual white American variety—derived from O. Henry at however far a remove—is that there’s no inevitable whip-crack ending. In fact, he makes his points by judicious ‘signifying’ . . . We see [his subject] clearly from the part of the retina that has not been fogged by too much direct staring."

– Robert Graves

“The [herald] of a new literary renaissance . . . [The] so-called bourgeoisie will regurgitate over Mr. Anderson’s stories. They'll want to say ‘’Taint so!’ But it is so, and the only reason the bourgeoisie will object is because Mr. Anderson has drawn our picture for everybody (including white folks; in fact, mostly white folks) to see. There’s the rub.”

– P. L. Prattis, Pittsburgh Courier

“In spite of some strong themes, [these stories] are told with a rare delicacy, by what Mr. Anderson calls signifying rather than direct statement; they have no tricks and yet how clever they are . . . I do not remember a small book which has given me such a large experience.”

– Rumer Godden