Hatter Fox (Critical Overview)

Critical Overview

As a "popular" rather than a literary novel, Hatter Fox did not attract many reviews. The reviews it did receive, however, were generally favorable, although with some sharp dissenting views. A reviewer for Newsweek declared it to be a "touching, skillful melodrama," adding that "Fate conveniently glues a 'Love Story' ending onto this romantic fantasy." (The allusion is to the tragic love story that was made into a movie in the 1960s, starring Ali MacGraw.) High praise came from Pamela Marsh in Christian Science Monitor, who described Hatter Fox as "a steel trap of a book. Advance a few pages and you'll be stuck fast until [Harris] sees fit to let you go." Marsh offered this interpretation of the novel's theme:

Perhaps Hatter Fox stands for the whole Indian nation, puzzling whites by violent reaction to mistreatment, puzzled in their turn by violent suppression of that violence, and constantly suspicious of muddled men of good will who attempt to help.

James Brockway, in Books and Bookmen, wondered how much of the material in the novel was authentic and how much the product of the author's imagination: "how much is an accurate picture of what really happens in such 'reformatories?'" He continued, "The novel raises issues, moral, psychological and social, which are really quite frightening." His overall evaluation of the novel was largely positive, although he argued that the first part of the novel, "engrossingly told," was superior to the second part, which "tends to become a report on [Summer's] efforts to save [Hatter], with various incidents inserted, sometimes a little artificially, to maintain the interest, while the dénouement is not free from sentimentality."

A negative review came from the Listener's Sara Maitland, who complained of the book's "sentimental idealism, sloppy writing and generally inadequate characterisation." J. K. Yenser, the Library Journal reviewer, expressed a similar highly critical view: "However well intentioned, the themes of social injustice and institutional mistreatment are handled in a heavy-handed fashion. Both plot and character fail to convince."