A poignant and insightful story of life, death, and memory.
A British family reflects on their memorable lives, including their tragic losses, in this debut novel.
Lois works as a nurse in Birmingham, treating victims of the Covid-19 pandemic. Her mother, Cas, spends much of her time alone in Devon, staring at the sea. Both women think about William—Lois’ father and Cas’ husband—who recently died. The nonlinear narrative, however, shines the brightest spotlight on William in the final days before his demise, as he recalls the ups and downs of his family life and career. He and Cas were virtual opposites; he saw the goodness in people, whereas she “hated just about everyone.” They loved each other and married despite their differences, or perhaps because of them. But as William sifts through his recollections, it soon becomes apparent that they may be rooted in delusions. He remembers his years as the pope, for instance, and equates the Vatican with a steel factory where he was once employed. He was also friendly with famous American athletes and actors; helped combat AIDS at the World Health Organization; and soared through the skies as a chief test pilot. His memories are fascinating and preposterous, by turns, and it’s not always clear what’s reality and what may be fantasy. Likewise, his Sunday mornings are with a woman claiming to be his daughter, although he doesn’t seem to remember her. As the story continues, the family suffers another loss, and William, before reaching his end, comes to terms with the life he’s led.
Budden’s generally somber tale can sometimes be hard to follow, although William’s narrative transitions smoothly to various points in his life, from its “last stage” to when Lois and her brother, James, were kids. However, there are many nods to real-world events that have the effect of giving readers a clearer sense of the time periods at hand, as when Lois and her friends imitate Michael Jackson’s moonwalk and William gets himself up to date on new technology, such as DVD players and LCD screens. William refers to metaphorical escalators throughout the novel, including one that effectively offers a gloss on the novel’s entire narrative structure: He remembers stepping onto and off an escalator’s stairs, but he doesn’t recall traveling the moving steps in between. Throughout, Budden offers vivid prose that sparkles: “Above the sea, volcanic cloud formations appeared, edged in red, as if her short breaths took visual form.” Cas’ story as well as Lois’ feel like mere snippets compared to William’s lengthy tale; however, they each aptly reveal different ways of coping: Lois focuses on and immerses herself in family issues, while Cas lives in isolation, and not only because of the ongoing pandemic. Despite its melancholic tone, the story and its characters prove to be endearing. William, for example, is characterized as someone who nurtures a deep desire to help others, and even to save the world, and his wife and daughter are shown to indisputably and unconditionally love their family members.
A poignant and insightful story of life, death, and memory.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-73973-910-2
Page Count: 260
Publisher: Editstream Press
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.
Stockett heads to Mississippi for another historical novel about feisty women.
This time, perhaps recalling criticisms of cultural appropriation in The Help (2009), she sticks to feisty white women, with one exception. The setting is Oxford in 1933. For two miserable years, 11-year-old Meg has lived in “the Orphan,” a county asylum for parentless girls. Chairlady Garnett—a villain so one-note she’d twirl a mustache if she had one—makes it her mission to ostracize the older girls she deems unadoptable, stigmatizing them as offspring of the “feebleminded” mothers who abandoned them. She particularly has it in for smart, sassy Meg, who refuses to believe her mother’s mysterious disappearance was deliberate. Elsewhere in Oxford, Birdie Calhoun comes to visit her sister Frances, who married a wealthy banker, to ask for money on behalf of their mother and grandmother back in Footely. Frances isn’t thrilled by this reminder of her impoverished small-town origins. But she’s trying to climb up in Oxford society by volunteering at the Orphan, the asylum’s books need to be done before the state inspector shows up in a few weeks, and Birdie is a bookkeeper. Having neatly arranged to keep Birdie in town and draw these two storylines together, Stockett goes on to spin a compulsively readable yarn with enough plot for a half-dozen novels. Birdie and Meg become friends, Meg is adopted despite Garnett’s best efforts, Meg’s mother turns up at the Orphan demanding to know where her child is—and that’s less than a quarter of the way through a long, winding narrative that keeps piling on more dramatic developments until all loose ends are neatly, if hastily, wrapped up in the final pages. Stockett might be making a point about Southern women facing facts and standing up for themselves, but mostly this is just a satisfyingly twisty tale that should make a great miniseries.
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9781954118812
Page Count: 656
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
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
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