The Times Literary Supplement wrote in its review: "If The Voga Rises in Europe does not quite come up to the level of Kaputt, and one has very much the feeling that it has already been stripped of many of its plums for earlier and other use, yet it convincingly confirms Malaparte's right, whatever his faults, to be rated one of the most brilliant reporters of our time." International Affairs wrote that The Volga Rises in Europe and Kaputt share the same "virtues and faults", but that Kaputt covers some of the same events in a more substantial way. The critic called Malaparte an "epic scene-painter of extraordinary power" and wrote that his sociologicalreflections about World War II are striking, although ultimately unconvincing.