Subtle, difficult, lovely, and gorgeously written.
A story of teenage pregnancy, immigrant experience, and the mother-daughter relationship by Australian author Pung.
Karuna Kelly is the child of an unhappy marriage. Her father, a white, working-class Australian, dotes on her but has little regard for her mother, his mail-order bride from the Philippines. When they divorce, Karuna must live in a subsidized flat with her mother, whose narrow idea of health and success leads her to be critical and harsh. At 16, Karuna exercises her limited independence by having a fling with a local 19-year-old, becoming pregnant. The novel is written in Karuna's first-person voice as addressed to her baby, and the tone is raw and lyrical, hopeless and hopeful at the same time. Her mother controls her to an abusive extent, limiting her access to the outside world and rejecting medical advice in favor of old-time traditions. Karuna increasingly chafes against this treatment, aching for help but stymied in her attempts to get it. For such a slim book, the story is deeply complex. Pung shows people of different heritages mixing in this poor community, the insular quality of diaspora, and the different expectations placed on Karuna for being biracial. She also shows—and Karuna is aware of this to varying degrees—that Karuna's mother’s actions are driven by trauma and love, not maliciousness, and that this both excuses them and doesn’t. Karuna’s experience of pregnancy is intimately, vividly detailed. As it progresses, she becomes resigned and depressed, but when the baby is born, there is the possibility of change.
Subtle, difficult, lovely, and gorgeously written.Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2023
ISBN: 9780063313002
Page Count: 256
Publisher: HarperVia
Review Posted Online: Aug. 10, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.
With only a month left until the world ends due to a swiftly approaching black hole, Don and Rodney, a retired gay couple, road-trip from Maine to Washington to spend their final days with their son.
After reports that a planet-swallowing black hole is making its way toward Earth, Rodney and Don—who have been together for 40 years and survived everything from homophobia to the HIV crisis—decide to pack their belongings into an RV, say goodbye to their neighbors, and travel from Camden, Maine, to Washington to uphold a promise to spend their final days with their son. They can’t wait any longer, since there’s already chaos around the country: “Military vehicles in the streets of most cities and towns. Looting, rioting, the burning of cars and buildings and people, all of it had already happened.” As they make their way west across the country, they encounter fellow travelers ranging from close-knit families to free-spirited hippies, some of whom have come to terms with the impending end of the world and others who haven’t. While the story seems to be asking readers what they would do if they had 30 days left to live, and reflects on what different kinds of acceptance might look like in the face of unavoidable tragedy, it loses some of its poignancy in a series of thinly padded monologues about the meaning of life. Clearly intended to pack an emotional punch, it’s failed by an abrupt ending, and the way the journey’s mystery—which will be obvious to many readers—is revealed by an info dump in the last chapter.
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781250881236
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
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