Of Love and Dust (Gaines)

Book Reviews
(Books prior to the Internet have few, if any, mainstream press reviews online. See Amazon and Barnes & Noble for helpful reviews.)

Ernest J. Gaines has set out to tell us a familar story and told it well—the tragedy of Mracus, a young Louisian Negro rebel brave and desperate enough to pit his life againsst the Olympus of the Southern power structure.... [I]n general, the false notes are few. Aside from occasional technical awkwardness, the writing is clean, and Mr. Gaines paints some vivid scenes and fine portraits.... Yet despite these qualities, Mr. Gaines's second novel is still an "undergraduate" work, in which the author trusts craft formula too much, himself too little. Perhaps he will dig the same ground a little deeper next time and turn up a little more of himself—and me.
Robert Granat - New York Times (1967)