To be compared with Chekhov, to be compared with Turgenev, that’s what the greatest man of American letters of our time, Edmund Wilson, said when this Morley Callaghan masterpiece appeared in the early fifties.
With the story in Montreal, young Peggy Sanderson has become socially unacceptable because of her association with black musicians in nightclubs. The black men think she must be involved sexually, the black women fear or loathe her, yet her direct, almost spiritual manner is at variance with her reputation. A socially acceptable Jim McAlpine falls under the sway of her personality; he becomes fascinated by her quest, he falls in love, and as a consequence lives are ruined and careers broken, yet overall the feel of charity that is a hallmark of Callaghan’s tone overrides this terrible tragic story.