SOURCE: "Springs of Tragedy," in Times Literary Supplement, Vol. 39, No. 1989, March 16, 1940, p. 133.

In the following review of The Crazy Hunter, the critic claims Boyle has found her best literary form in the novelette.

Are there varieties of literary talent for which there is no recognized form of aesthetic expression? Young people who "write" or who "want to write" are inclined to think there are. Yet talent is surely specific, a gift for this or that specific form of literature, and what the young people in question may have in mind is only that there are numerous types of literary facility or accomplishment which are not easily adapted to any of the two or three popular forms of literature at the present time. First and foremost, of course, is the novel, and the not very surprising thing is that to an increasing extent abilities of one sort or another...