Iyasere identifies two main points in Larson's argument: "(1) that the African novel is frequently different from its Western counterpart and that the differences can be attributed to cultural backgrounds; and (2) that in spite of several typical unities which are generally considered to hold the Western novel together, that is, to give it its structural background, the African writer has created new unities which give his fiction form and pattern".
[3] In addition, Larson identifies five categories through which he analyzes African fiction: "initial exposure to the West, adaptation to Western education, urbanization, politics, and individual life style and estrangement" (summarized by Robert Morsberger).
[5] Individual chapters focus on Things Fall Apart (1958), on the mass-market literature coming from Onitsha, on The Palm-Wine Drinkard, and on Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, of whom he treats six novels.
He remarked, "In general the criticism of African literature has been superficial and unanalytical.... Larson's detailed analysis of style, structure and form is an improvement in this field."
In addition, he thinks that Larson does not pay enough attention to the variety of influences at work in African literature, including Christianity, religious mysticism, and Western writing.
Rather, Leslie argues, Larson effaces his authorial persona while building an ostensibly objective argument about African fiction based on personal thoughts and beliefs.
His Western point of view shows itself throughout, for instance in the discussion of the popular Onitsha literature, where Larson disregards specific African points of significance (such as in the treatment of the older prostitute in Cyprian Ekwensi's 1961 novel Jagua Nana), and in the constant referencing of Western authors and books—such as the title "Pamela in Africa" for the chapter on Onitsha literature, in reference to Samuel Richardson's Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded.
[9] Armah, who rarely interacted with critics, responded to Larson's book in a scathing article,[10] in which he used the term "larsony" to mean "the judicious distortion of African truths to fit western prejudices".
[9] Brown's assessment of the revised edition is that only a few phrases pertaining to Armah had been changed (to save the expense of having to type-set the book again), and that the bibliography had been updated a bit—but not enough to bring it up to date.
[8] Decades after publication, Larson's book was still cited in academic articles discussing African literature's form and structure, but critics continued to find fault with it.
Chiwengo Ngwarsungu, in 1990, while discussing characterization, denied Larson's thesis that "situational plots are being replaced by works which concentrate on individual character", or that description and the handling of time and space were becoming more European.
In 2010, Charles E. Nnolim confirmed the important status of the "much-discussed, much-vilified, controversial work", which "tries desperately to fill a void by trying to advance some theory of African fiction": it was flawed, and used stereotypes as standards, but it pointed in the right direction.
[15] In 2021, Gambian poet and prose writer Tijan Sallah, who in an obituary for Larson referred to him as "a great bridge builder across cultures", said that The Emergence of African Fiction was a trailblazing book.