 Rosidi writes that Soeman's greatest strength in Kawan Bergeloet is in his description. He considers the writer to have avoided clichéd descriptions, instead using "new and original" descriptions, metaphors, and turns of phrase. Rosidi considers some of the stories' comic incidents to be overly complicated, but attributes this to Soeman's previous activity in the detective genre. The Dutch scholar of Indonesian literature A. Teeuw finds the sketches in Kawan Bergeloet to be "well-observed and realistically described" and Soeman's most interesting contribution to Indonesian literature.
