SOURCE: "The I in Henry Dodd Worthington," in The New York Times Book Review, August 25, 1968, pp. 3, 33.

Brooks was an American critic, novelist and journalist. In the following review of Morning Noon and Night, he examines the novel's structure, Puritan themes, eccentric prose style, and plot.

In 1957, when James Gould Cozzens' By Love Possessed finally appeared, nine years after his last previous novel, Guard of Honor, it was instantly pronounced a masterwork by critical and popular acclaim and, an almost incredibly short time thereafter, it was dismissed (by what eventually came to be at least general critical assent) as a fake masterwork. On rereading, it seems to be neither, but rather a sound, skillful and entertaining portrayal of a part of American life marred, as Mr. Cozzens' earlier work had seldom been, by pretensions to both a style and a significance that were simply beyond its natural scope. One...