SOURCE: A review of French Girls Are Vicious and Other Stories, in Commonweal, Vol. 63, January 27, 1956, pp. 436-37.

Below, Getlein argues that Farrell's commitment to truth, his humility, and his compassion outweigh any stylistic defects.

In the longest of these nine short stories, "Ruth and Bertram," we find Bert, at the end, comfortably into bourgeois middle age after a youth of dissipation with Ruth. Like most of Mr. Farrell's people, Bert is a simple soul, and, as often in this volume, we walk right into his mind and let him reveal himself to us while the author invites us to smile ironically with him. In his exquisitely decorated apartment high above Chicago's Near North Side, Bert sips a drink and vaguely remembers Ruth: "He would like to see Ruth again, but perhaps he never would. He was mildly sad. Life was not important enough for one to feel it...