Walton’s obvious affection for his characters, his dry, understated humor and his fine ear for the significant subtexts that lie beneath the banalities and half-sentences that intelligent people usually utter to one another give his better stories a gentle power.

—Russell Banks, New York Times Book Review

Often whimsical but finally quite acute presentations of middle-class hopes and desperations.

—Alan Cheuse

There are many pleasures in Evening Out, not the least of which is Walton’s sharp ear for the facades in our consumer society.

—Bloomsbury Review

—James Frakes

The overall impression is one of originality and an attempt to explore life as it is, without manufactured drama or histrionics.

—Booklist