A rich story of intrigue and deception with some engaging twists and turns.
Alexander’s historical novel tells a story of Capt. Francis Light, the founder of the British colony in Penang, in what is now Malaysia.
Jim Lloyd starts his career at Fort William in Calcutta, India, where he works under the authority of his father’s representatives in a dissatisfying job as a junior office worker. Jim’s frustration about his work conditions and his desire to have a more consequential job cause him to take notice when a colleague asks, “What fires up yer passion, then?” Later, a chance meeting with trader James Scott inspires Jim to write a letter to Capt. Light and secure a position in Penang’s capital of George Town as an assistant and a “suitable chronicler” of Light’s life, as the latter “desires his name to be in the history books.” Upon arrival in Penang, Jim finds that it’s not the glorious colony that he anticipated but a grim and dangerous place, particularly compared to his earlier living arrangements. Still, as Jim encounters the perils of trade in Penang, he naïvely believes Light’s lies about a colony that Alexander effectively reveals as full of malaria, treachery, thievery, murder, and deceit. The author also spotlights Light’s and other colonists’ racism; for instance, early on, Jim asks to live with the Malay people in hopes of learning more of their religion and culture: “Light looked startled. ‘Whyever would you wish to do that?...You do realize you are asking to reside among pirates, Jim,’ barked Light.” Key to the story is the friendship between Jim and an intriguing Dutchman named Pieter Reinaert, and Alexander adeptly weaves Jim’s relationships into the history of Penang and the British East India Company. Along the way, Alexander reveals Light’s troubling relationship with Sultan Abdullah, the Queda ruler who ceded Penang to the East India Company based on false promises, and the author shows how these lies create tension that has the potential to start a war.
A rich story of intrigue and deception with some engaging twists and turns.Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2021
ISBN: 978-9814954-42-6
Page Count: 276
Publisher: Penguin Random House SEA
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.
A falsely accused Black man goes into hiding in this masterful novella by Wright (1908-1960), finally published in full.
Written in 1941 and '42, between Wright’s classics Native Son and Black Boy, this short novel concerns Fred Daniels, a modest laborer who’s arrested by police officers and bullied into signing a false confession that he killed the residents of a house near where he was working. In a brief unsupervised moment, he escapes through a manhole and goes into hiding in a sewer. A series of allegorical, surrealistic set pieces ensues as Fred explores the nether reaches of a church, a real estate firm, and a jewelry store. Each stop is an opportunity for Wright to explore themes of hope, greed, and exploitation; the real estate firm, Wright notes, “collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent from poor colored folks.” But Fred’s deepening existential crisis and growing distance from society keep the scenes from feeling like potted commentaries. As he wallpapers his underground warren with cash, mocking and invalidating the currency, he registers a surrealistic but engrossing protest against divisive social norms. The novel, rejected by Wright’s publisher, has only appeared as a substantially truncated short story until now, without the opening setup and with a different ending. Wright's take on racial injustice seems to have unsettled his publisher: A note reveals that an editor found reading about Fred’s treatment by the police “unbearable.” That may explain why Wright, in an essay included here, says its focus on race is “rather muted,” emphasizing broader existential themes. Regardless, as an afterword by Wright’s grandson Malcolm attests, the story now serves as an allegory both of Wright (he moved to France, an “exile beyond the reach of Jim Crow and American bigotry”) and American life. Today, it resonates deeply as a story about race and the struggle to envision a different, better world.
A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-59853-676-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Library of America
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
BOOK TO SCREEN
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