SOURCE: Van Doren, Mark. “A Twelve-Cylinder Idyl.” Nation 144, no. 8 (20 February 1937): 214, 216.

In the following review, Van Doren praises April for its power, energy, and humor.

Vardis Fisher's narrative muse is like one of those racing cars that cannot go less than sixty miles an hour and are therefore useless on an ordinary highway. Merely to crank them is to create thunder; low speed for them is the speed of a hurricane; they are not to be thought of, as indeed they are never seen, save on Daytona Beach or the salt flats of Utah. There of course they may be magnificent, but it is scarcely proper to inquire whether they are real automobiles. To the extent that they cannot turn a corner and convey passengers and stop for gas they are of course preposterous; though on their native stretches they may suggest all that an automobile can be in...