SOURCE: "Pilgrims, Plunderers," in Christian Science Monitor, Vol. 62, No. 278, October 22, 1970, p. 9.

In the following assessment of The War of Time, Good-sell finds Carpentier's tales inferior to his novels, but considers them significant for the light they shed on Carpentier's craft.

Coming through Cuba's curtain of suspicion, the writings of Alejo Carpentier are like a warm sun as it penetrates the mist and clears the atmosphere. For Carpentier, a Havanaborn Cuban of French and Russian parentage, is one of the most versatile authors on the Latin American scene today. He is thoroughly Cuban, but his themes are wide-ranging, frequently universal, and generally quite imaginative. War of Time is a smallish collection of stories—three first published in Spanish in 1963 and two first published in French in 1967. They open up still more insights into the thought of this distinguished Cuban novelist and storyteller.

The collection's most important story, "The Highroad...