In The Making of Americans, Gertrude Stein sets out to tell "a history of a family's progress," radically reworking the traditional family saga novel to encompass her vision of personality and psychological relationships. As the history progresses over three generations, Stein also meditates on her own writing, on the making of The Making of Americans, and on America.
"This sober, tender-hearted, very searching history of a family's progress, comprehends in its picture of life which is distinctively American, a psychology which is universal." (Marianne Moore, Dial)
"It must be said that The Making of Americans is oddly moving, and can yield a new pleasure to anyone who is willing to learn Miss Stein's idiom." (Francis Fergusson, Saturday Review of Literature)
"Her major work deserves to be in print, and so it is shocking to realize that this is the first commonly available paperback of her magnum opus, one of those mammoth, monstrous books that's worth carrying around for weeks . . . One dips into these repetitive pages in the hope, usually justified, of learning something about the musical and syntactic possibilities of English prose. Many people find Bach tedious—all those variations and fugues—but in her way Stein is putting her sentences through the same kind of ingenious paces." (Washington Post Book World 1-21-96)
"Essential for all literature collections. . . . Several of Stein's titles returned to print in 1995, but none more important than The Making of Americans." (Library Journal Dec 95-Jan 96)
"It is a shame that Stein's works are not better known for there are many levels to her literary and descriptive projects that continue to reach right to the heart of expressive language. The introduction and foreword to this massive novel offer some guidance to its general themes and project. More than anything Stein's work needs to be read aloud to savor the spoken tangle of work sense. Highly recommended." (Reader's Review 1-17-96)