The First Critical Review

The first relevant critical article I found was published in Canadian Woman's Studies Journal in 1997. It is an interesting critical and comparative review of Fall On Your Knees. Unfortunately, it contained abundant spoilers as to the plot of the story. The author, Patricia Goldblatt holds a slightly favourable opinion on the novel. She addresses some of the major themes in the book in her essay, one of the first being the idea of voyeurism. She also addresses the fact that Fall On Your Knees has such a narrative structure that the reader feels as if they are actively rummaging through the characters's lives, finding photos, memories and thoughts about their past as we uncover their story. She describes us, the readers as being archaeologists in the discovery of the Piper families' mysteries; a comparison I found to be very truthful and accurate. Throughout the majority of the article she summarizes the plot, however, she makes some interesting comparisons to other literature, more specifically, fairy tales.  Goldblatt initially compares the beginning of the story is a fairytale, packed with forbidden romance and seemingly undying promised love. However, she wisely notes that: "As in most fairytales, a period of grace only delays the awful events that are to come" (Goldblatt 2). As the story progresses, the plot line becomes more skewed as more children are eventually born and raised. Goldblatt compares the ending of the story to Lewis Carol's Alice in Wonderland, filled with "oversized leering dismantled occupants as the story becomes stranger" (Goldblatt 2). MacDonald finishes Fall on Your Knees with a message: Everything terrible that has happened to this family has begun with James, the man of the household.