SOURCE: “A Dangerous Spark of Life,” in Saturday Review, Vol. XLVII, No. 44, October 31, 1964, p. 54.

In this negative review of The Burnt Ones, Stilwell sharply criticizes the style of White's writing, arguing that many reviewers have overpraised his writing talent and accomplishments.

It may seem perverse to suggest that the Australian Patrick White is among the more difficult practitioners of fiction now living and working. At first glance—and often at twentieth glance—his pages are likely to look shallow, ungainly, homemade, even simple-minded. You might suspect that, far from being masterful exploitations of language and experience, they were scribbled on rough-grained boards by a novice writer wielding a carpenter's pencil. Yet much of White's difficulty arises precisely from this unpromising “surface.” For before you can decide whether really profound matters are going forward within his work, you need a constantly reasserted act of faith to believe that such...