SOURCE: Fuller, Edmund. “2004 Sagacity.” Saturday Review 38, no. 33 (13 August 1955): 10.

In the following review, Fuller offers a negative assessment of Looking Beyond, finding it to be “awkwardly wrought” novel.

Dr. Lin Yutang has written a leisurely, fantastic novel called Looking Beyond to serve as a fresh medium for telling us some of the things that he has told us before in The Importance of Living. To this extent it is a philosophical novel. Also, he has many tart, critical comments to make about the way the human species is conducting its affairs today. In this respect it is a satirical novel.

Among the minor things Dr. Lin extols, in passing, are the pleasures and benefits of bare feet. It is a bare-footed kind of novel he has written—genially relaxed, soft-footed, and comfortable. He isn't rushing anywhere, he isn't trampling. He shows an amiable indifference toward his story, letting it...