SOURCE: Harding, Anthony John. “In Debate.” Canadian Literature, no. 98 (autumn 1983): 102-04.

In the following review, Harding characterizes Layton's political viewpoints in Taking Sides as troublesome and bewildering, attributing the former to naiveté and the latter to poor editing.

Taking Sides is both annoying and embarrassing. It is annoying because of the careless way in which it has been edited (of which more later); it is embarrassing because Layton too often—on the evidence of the writings here reprinted—wants to be at once the farsighted political commentator or student of political theory, and the irresponsible wearer of motley, the garlanded innocent, of whom everything can be forgiven. There is every reason, of course, for poets to be political theorists and even political activists. There is room in politics—indeed there is a crying need—for the joy, the anger, and the life-affirming zeal that Layton brings to every...