SOURCE: "Saroyan with Trumpet & Tremolo," in The Saturday Review of Literature, Vol. 33, No. 4, February 4, 1950, pp. 15-16.

Peden is an American critic and educator who has written extensively on the American short story and on such American historical figures as Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams. In the following review of The Assyrian, and Other Stories, he states that the title story is respectable, though the remaining pieces are such that "even [Saroyan's most ardent admirers are likely to be quite unhappy. "]

William Saroyan's contribution to the American short story is a considerable one indeed. He brought to the American literary scene freshness of vision, simplicity, spontaneity, and gaiety. He possessed a sympathetic understanding of little people, a distinctly personal literary style, and a contagious sense of humor. He exerted a beneficial influence against the pretentious, the overwritten, the toofancily-plotted short story. Like Mark Twain, he opened the windows...