SA Literary Review, Volume 2, Number 4, Peter Wilhelm:
The centre of gravity of these writings is the Eastern Cape, its people, language and landscapes, interwoven into brilliant narratives that penetrate the meaning of the past – the presence of the past – and are resonant for the future. They range far in theme and locale but return to this centre, drawing strength from it, particularly as it is seen by children and the marginalised. They have considerable power – for a number of reasons
… The genuinely successful stories – Mad Dog, Joshua, My Cuban, The Resurrection of Olive – perfectly bridge the gap between the teller of tales around the fireside and modernism. They break free of the cliché not only of the Afrikaner … but also of the liberal idea of the Afrikaans writer as a combination of oppressor, victim and dissident, which fits few of the facts.
Van Heerden is an important writer because he fills the terrible emptiness of our physical and moral landscape with human figures drawn on human scale, preoccupied with the past, dreaming of the future, incapable of breaking free of the violence of the present.
Weekly Mail 3 December 1992, Shaun de Waal:
These stories, I think van Heerden’s best, balance on a knife–edge of credence, teasing and haunting one. Van Heerden realises them with panache … For the most part, Knox has managed to capture the dark energy of van Heerden’s prose …