"Comedy American Style" is one of those books where the matter is superior to the manner. Miss Fauset's thesis is a provocative one, and she handles it intelligently and honestly. Her well-to-do, half-white characters are cultivated human beings, seen from within, and in no way different from white people of equivalent tastes and social class. Miss Fauset wisely stresses their humanity rather than their race, forces one to face their problems as they themselves see them. On the other hand, her style is somewhat unfortunate, frequently sentimental, frequently strained and stiff, and in her effort to prove a point she loads the dice in a way that is too reminiscent of the outright propagandist. Like "Plum Bun" and "The Chinaberry Tree," "Comedy American Style" is an interesting novel. It could, however, have been written with more subtlety and skill. (p. 22)

"The Color Line," in The New York Times...