Treating with lightness and dexterity a number of subjects usually discussed only with the highest seriousness of the sort commonly labelled "Social Problems," Mr. Maxwell in ["Bright Center of Heaven"] has put together an admirable satiric comedy, bitter-sweet in flavor, yet always humorous. "Bright Center of Heaven" exhibits few of the weaknesses present in most recent efforts by American writers to achieve subtlety and a graciously detached viewpoint in dealing with human relationships. Nevertheless it is essentially original, and does not imitate the prevailing British and French conventions for such fiction. (p. 109)

[The] core of the plot has a peculiarly native quality for which the author is to be congratulated…. Besides this, the rest of Mr. Maxwell's material is sufficiently timeless and universal to be anyone's property, such themes as adolescent love, the musical temperament, and the servant problem supplementing his more novel central idea.

Technically, Mr. Maxwell...