Updike
again complained about RPJ
's refusal of sympathy to her characters. Robert Towers
went further: linking this with Jhabvala's gender and (British) nationality, he accused her of revelling in her characters' discomfiture and degradation...
Literary responses
Alice Walker
The New Yorker found this novel beautifully presented and utterly convincing,though it complained of occasionally high-flown language.
White, Evelyn. Alice Walker. A Life. Norton.
292
Several individuals (or in Walker's words all my white women friends)
