[In Paul Theroux's Waldo the hero] is a shadowy, passive young man, who moves from one intensely symbolic site to another until he has turned into a slightly older shadowy, passive young man…. The novel is introduced with a quotation from Tristan Tzara, a founding father of Dadaism, which is an omen of the bizarre turns in the road ahead rather than a clue to where it is leading. The conclusion—"It didn't have anything to do with love"—is as good a conclusion as any to the collection of flashy insights and observations and snatches of overheard conversations that mark Waldo's development. These are presented in an unending procession of flat declarative sentences, most of which are not bad taken one at a time.

A review of "Waldo," in The New Yorker (© 1967 by The New Yorker Magazine, Inc.), Vol. XLIII, No. 38, November 11, 1967, p. 246.