SOURCE: "Distress Signals," in Newsweek, Vol. LXXXVIII, No. 13, September 27, 1976, pp. 100, 102.

In the following review, Prescott praises the artistry of Fox's novels but finds them too deliberately difficult to be enjoyed by readers.

Paula Fox is so good a novelist that one wants to go out in the street to hustle up big audience for her.

"Here. Read this novel. Please."

"Is it any good?"

"First rate."

"Will I like it?"

"Not a chance. It's for admiring, not liking."

"Oh. Well, I like to like a book."

There's the problem. Most readers of novels want to be entertained, not subjected to art. For them, art without entertainment is difficult. They know very well that novelists long ago agreed that families are hell and marriages something worse, that characters in novels come in varying degrees of pathos and despicability. All this they will accept if the novel is likable. Paula...