An often intriguing but somewhat directionless tale about aging and art.
Two art school lovers go their separate ways to lead divergent—and convergent—creative lives in this literary novel.
Sandy Shellborn and Jeff Sanders meet at an art school in Boston in 1980. Sandy is a punk woman who turns heads for her bold fashion choices, but she has her doubts as to whether or not she will ever be a real artist. Jeff is a visionary who doesn’t follow the rules, his confidence in his own abilities never wavering. After a final, dispiriting evaluation, Sandy decides to walk away from art and pursue a graduate degree in library sciences. Her relationship with Jeff doesn’t last long following this decision. As Sandy tolerates a sensible career with a more sensible man, Jeff dives into the art world—which turns out to not always be quite as romantic or dignified as he imagined. (One early experience involves playing roadie on his much older girlfriend’s artist tour selling “Yoni Chalices.”) Over the next quarter of a century, Sandy and Jeff lead parallel lives, skipping between jobs and relationships, always in the same places and often around the same people. As they drift perpetually toward and away from art in its many forms, their mirrored paths prove that life is long, strange, and completely impossible to predict. Polo’s prose is smooth and descriptive, keeping readers grounded despite the novel’s nomadic drift between geographic settings: “A salty Virgin Island breeze played over his face and ruffled his pony tail as Jeff leaned against the rail of the magnificent sailing ship Mandalay and looked back at the coast of Virgin Gorda. The luminescent Caribbean Sea, full moon, and tropic isle looked exactly like the ad for this Windjammer Singles Cruise.” The concept is a fun one, and it will be rewarding for readers to see how the two protagonists grow over the course of the ’80s, ’90s, and early 2000s. While the chapters are generally compelling on their own, the book lacks a central tension or conflict that will pull readers forward. It won’t be long before the audience will begin to wonder what exactly it’s all building toward, and the answer—when it finally comes—doesn’t quite justify the journey.
An often intriguing but somewhat directionless tale about aging and art.Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73466-225-2
Page Count: 321
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
SEEN & HEARD
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
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