New York Times reviewer
Charles Poore described
Shadow on the Hearth as "a rather chintzy account of what happened to a Westchester family when the atomic bombs began to burst through the American air", noting that Merril "concentrate[s] on the creation of believable leading characters" and concluding that the novel "is generally entertaining reading, even if . . . not always for the reasons intended by the author". Another
Times reviewer, John Cournos, received the novel unfavorably, saying its story "seems more like a somewhat uncomfortable picnic than a manifestation of a catastrophe". Genre reviewers viewed Merril's effort more favorably.
Groff Conklin described
Shadow on the Hearth as "a masterly example of sensitive and perceptive story-telling."
Boucher and
McComas praised it as "a sensitively human novel, terrifying in its small-scale reflection of grand-scale catastrophe."
P. Schuyler Miller found it a "warm, human novel" comparable to
Earth Abides.
Startling Stories declared that "its beautifully rendered interlocking series of incidents and events . . . creates an almost too-vivid picture for the reader of what life in the very near future may become". Kenneth F. Slater wrote in
Nebula Science Fiction that "The emotions you will find here are in places hard and brutal, not softly sentimental".
Future Science Fiction. however, dismissed the novel for its "'true confession' level of writing". More recent reviewers also rate the novel highly. Lisa Yaszek writes that
Shadow on the Hearth "is one of the only postwar holocaust narratives that manages to work its way out from under the paralyzing shadow of the mushroom cloud and to imagine the possibility of women -- and men -- working together to build a more peaceful and rational future".
Judith Merril: A Critical Study notes that "contemporary critics respect Merril's novel for its originality in domesticating nuclear attack -- hence the story's power and darkness". David Seed reports the novel is "universally praised . . . for its understated method, avoidance of melodrama and unusually oblique description of nuclear attack". M. Keith Booker declares that
Shadow on the Hearth is "a relatively daring novel" and "a useful corrective to the heroic vision of post apocalypse life". ==References==