How is it that Victorian novels never get old? A lovely addition to the canon.
In late 19th-century London, four orphaned sisters go into business.
British author Levy (1861-1889) is a fascinating figure of her time: Jewish and bisexual, she died by suicide at age 27 having already written three novels, three poetry collections, and more. It is haunting that this sweet and lively novel, sparkling with popular culture references that convey the spirit of its time and place, was published just a year before her death. The four sisters and their trials and triumphs cannot help but echo the paradigmatic Marches: Little Women had been a bestseller for decades at the time the Lorimers were invented. The “Jo” character, Gertrude, is also a writer, but when their father dies, leaving the girls in financial distress, she puts her literary efforts aside to open a photography studio with Lucy (Meg), Phyllis (part Amy, part Beth), and their rather untalented older half sister, Fanny (honestly, a case all her own). Along with their mostly successful attempt to achieve financial independence via commercial endeavor and other striking feminist elements—at one point, Gertrude remarks of a certain gentleman that if a woman were discussing “the motions of the heavenly bodies, he would be thinking all the time of the shape of her ankles”—the novel includes several marriage plots and a very Victorian death by consumption. It’s also a vivid look at the cultural life and mores of the urban middle class of the period. The publishers append an interesting postscript, an informal conversation between contemporary writers Ruth Madievsky and Rachel León in which they raise issues such as the identity of the never-named narrator, hints of queer and anti-colonial subtext, and the insight that the four Lorimers opening a photography business is the Victorian equivalent of a “Girls Gone Wild” video.
How is it that Victorian novels never get old? A lovely addition to the canon.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781961884649
Page Count: 150
Publisher: Smith & Taylor Classics
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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
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