Orringer's collection of stories, How to Breathe Underwater, was well received by reviewers. Few singled out “The Smoothest Way Is Full of Stones” for special attention, although the comment of the reviewer for Publishers Weekly might well apply to Rebecca in that story: “Trapped in awkward, painful situations, the young protagonists of Orringer's debut collection discover surprising reserves of wisdom in themselves.”

Similarly, Lisa Dierbeck's general comment about the collection, in the New York Times Book Review, applies to “The Smoothest Way Is Full of Stones”: “children and adults operate in a secret world of their own. They seem to exist in an underground, beyond the scope of adults' radar.” This is certainly true of Rebecca and Esty; their parents have no suspicion of their secret reading of the forbidden book or their nocturnal excursion to meet Dovid.

Dierbeck also points out that “The shadow of...