An entertaining spoof of American politics with energetic characters and sharp repartee.
A modern-day man trying to emulate the masked do-gooder of the Old West finds it harder than he expected in Taylor’s raucous adventure.
Taylor’s yarn begins in February 2021, when Joe Smith, laid off from his public relations job at Toyota, decides that what America—and especially his hometown of Lexington, Kentucky—needs is for him to become a new Lone Ranger, dedicated to righting wrongs and quelling strife. He acquires a sidekick in Teresa “Ta-Ta” VanDerveer, an attractive lawyer with money and time to burn; her autistic sister, Margie, has apparent right-wing sympathies, suspecting everyone she meets of stealing the election. The trio patrol Lexington’s streets and Starbucks shops in Ta-Ta’s Mercedes Cabriolet—which is silver, of course—looking for people in distress to help. Unfortunately, the new Lone Ranger’s methods of doing good—mainly handing out $20 bills and Good & Plenty candy—usually fail miserably. His attempt to calm a domestic squabble earns him a crack on the head from the wife’s skillet. After he tries to cheer up a depressed woman, she shoots herself. And his repeated efforts to help a scornful teenage sex worker result in more violence from her pimp. Along the way, the Lone Ranger takes in a satirical vision of American culture, awash in bizarre protests: “If you can love and coexist with dogs, then you should love and coexist with Covid!” exclaims a zealot at a coronavirus-rights march. Adding sardonic commentary on the scene is a magical figure known as Coyote, who often appears in the guise of a goat and performs offensive japes.
Taylor’s rambling picaresque features offbeat characters and gonzo situations, all in service of a sendup of extremism across the political spectrum, which he portrays as a cacophonous mashup of incoherent slogans and conspiracy theories: “They got Trump and Biden secretly together!” shrieks one protester. “To keep Bernie from winning! They want to topple Gamestop! We gotta build an underground Wall to stop Them!” Amid the rants and exclamation points, the Lone Ranger and Ta-Ta are depicted as the last halfhearted believers in hangdog American normalcy: “To make America heal, to bring back jobs, to make America function as a cohesive unit, respectful of the individual and of individual differences” is The Lone Ranger’s summary of his mission. Despite the vehemence of the politics on display, the novella’s mood is relaxed and generous; it’s bemused, rather than outraged, and seemingly convinced that masked adventuring is less important than quiet kindness in the face of misery. Margie turns out to be the story’s true hero; her orneriness evaporates when she comforts a bereaved mother with a heartfelt hug. Taylor’s dialogue sometimes suggests classic screwball comedy with its colorful eccentrics trading snappy banter—with Margie again stealing the show with snarky one-liners (He: “I am The Lone Ranger.” She: “Well then, why can’t you be more alone?”). Readers will root for the masked man as he undertakes his gallant, if seldom effectual, quest.
An entertaining spoof of American politics with energetic characters and sharp repartee.Pub Date: April 7, 2025
ISBN: 9798309579617
Page Count: -
Publisher: Nat 1 Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.
Stockett heads to Mississippi for another historical novel about feisty women.
This time, perhaps recalling criticisms of cultural appropriation in The Help (2009), she sticks to feisty white women, with one exception. The setting is Oxford in 1933. For two miserable years, 11-year-old Meg has lived in “the Orphan,” a county asylum for parentless girls. Chairlady Garnett—a villain so one-note she’d twirl a mustache if she had one—makes it her mission to ostracize the older girls she deems unadoptable, stigmatizing them as offspring of the “feebleminded” mothers who abandoned them. She particularly has it in for smart, sassy Meg, who refuses to believe her mother’s mysterious disappearance was deliberate. Elsewhere in Oxford, Birdie Calhoun comes to visit her sister Frances, who married a wealthy banker, to ask for money on behalf of their mother and grandmother back in Footely. Frances isn’t thrilled by this reminder of her impoverished small-town origins. But she’s trying to climb up in Oxford society by volunteering at the Orphan, the asylum’s books need to be done before the state inspector shows up in a few weeks, and Birdie is a bookkeeper. Having neatly arranged to keep Birdie in town and draw these two storylines together, Stockett goes on to spin a compulsively readable yarn with enough plot for a half-dozen novels. Birdie and Meg become friends, Meg is adopted despite Garnett’s best efforts, Meg’s mother turns up at the Orphan demanding to know where her child is—and that’s less than a quarter of the way through a long, winding narrative that keeps piling on more dramatic developments until all loose ends are neatly, if hastily, wrapped up in the final pages. Stockett might be making a point about Southern women facing facts and standing up for themselves, but mostly this is just a satisfyingly twisty tale that should make a great miniseries.
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9781954118812
Page Count: 656
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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