A beautifully thorough, well-balanced collection.
In Bilal’s debut, Black American Muslims explore the intricacies of their faith and community.
Taqwa is tasked with writing her father’s eulogy—never an easy assignment, but made more difficult in Taqwa’s case first by the fact that her father’s ghost keeps appearing; second, an alternative narrative to her father’s life has emerged; and finally, her father’s commitment to Islam—he was an imam—may have wavered at the end of his life. The night before the interment, Taqwa sits up late, but in the morning, the eulogy—alas—has not written itself. This story, “Due North,” is one of many meticulously probing stories in Bilal’s debut collection. Each story describes the experiences of Black Muslims with varying levels of commitment to their faith, including at least one nonbeliever. It’s a rare glimpse into a community that has received almost no literary attention, and Bilal is a skillful guide—sympathetic, nuanced, searching, but not uncritical. She describes one character as having “the look of someone who would always be limited by her own cunning, no hope of ever growing wise.” In “Candy for Hanif,” Sister Norah cares for her cognitively delayed son long after her husband has died. “In that moment,” Bilal writes, “the entire city looked to her like a cage, placing limits on what she could know of the world.” Bilal seems to particularly excel in the longer pieces, when she has room to explore. Still, despite the many, many attributes that make up this fine collection, there is a sameness to the structure and style of narration in many of the stories, especially those that are voiced in first person. The narrators tend to resemble each other. That’s something for Bilal to watch out for in later books—clearly, there will be many more.
A beautifully thorough, well-balanced collection.Pub Date: July 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781982191818
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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
SEEN & HEARD
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