"[6] Critic John W. Aldridge attacked Cheever's "nightmare tonalities", comparing the stories to "macabre" creations of cartoonist Charles Addams.

[7] The critical response to The Brigadier and the Grass Widow was largely positive and marks a period during which Cheever "began to attain his first genuine fame and wealth.

But in its obsessions with the bomb scares, it could be more accurately called an eschatological parable; that is, the entire focus of the story, its tone and theme, deals with the end of the world, the last judgment, and heaven and hell.

His specific use of Ovidian themes of transformation and metamorphosis becomes increasingly obvious from The Brigadier and the Golf Widow, until the end of his career, particularly in two of his most anthologized stories, "The Swimmer" and "The Music Teacher".

"[11] Critic Lynn Waldeland reports that the collection contains "the greatest number of frequently anthologized stories, including "The Swimmer", "The Angel of the Bridge", "Clementina", and "The Music Teacher"."