Ursula LeGuin said about this book: "In most novels about the Middle Ages, the deck is all face cards. Jack Straw is rare and admirable in its uncompromising, unpatronizing identification with a peasant—an intelligent, vulnerable man caught up in the dream of equality that flared into the Peasant Revolt. The novel lets the reader stand at that crossroads of politics and mysticism and see 1776, 1848, 1917, Tiananment Square—the same dream, the same betrayal. A very moving, honest book."

Kirkus Reviews: "A fast-paced, intriguing account of the failed Peasant Revolt in 14th Century England: First-novelist Zelitch provides a rendering that is evocative and plausible as well as convincing in its historical sweep...Zelitch offers a satisfying variety of incident, with enough texture and historical detail—costume, festivity, songs—to evoke the medieval milieu. The Middle Ages are rendered not on silver plattersor thrones but on the dusty roads and straw beds of peasants, who are given center stage here, not limited to comic relief."

The Confession of Jack Straw won the Hopwood Award for Major Fiction.