An often resonant narrative of adversity and friendship.
Bancroft’s novel follows a middle-aged woman as she receives a cancer diagnosis, grows close to members of a support group, and learns about herself.
In Oakland, California in 2008, after marketing executive Liz Millanova leaves her alcoholic husband, she’s free to pursue a new relationship with her married boyfriend, Lyle. However, her new world is soon shattered when she receives a stage 1 breast cancer diagnosis that requires immediate surgery and treatment. Later, Lyle breaks up with her, and before long, she receives a stage 4 diagnosis of cancer that has spread to her bones. She finds a way to tell the terrible news to her estranged daughter, Marisa, and in her cancer support group, she connects with two other survivors, Rhonda and Dave. The trio become their own personal support group, which they call “the Oakland Mets.” After attending a baseball game, where they begin to truly bond, the three explore various parks, Alcatraz Island, and local clubs. As her relationship with her new friends deepens, Liz reflects on her own life and learns to love in a way she has never has before. Over the course of this accomplished novel, Bancroft, a cancer survivor herself, presents a realistic picture of multiple patients’ physical and emotional experiences. The work is also a fine story of platonic love, which is a relatively rare subject in fiction; the unfolding friendships are realistic and emotionally honest throughout, even when their excursions occasionally become lengthy. The main story is told from Liz’s perspective, but Bancroft presents a heartbreaking but beautiful afterword in the third person. It’s a story that follows a remarkable trajectory from loneliness and heartbreak to lasting love.
An often resonant narrative of adversity and friendship.Pub Date: May 28, 2024
ISBN: 9781647426668
Page Count: 296
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
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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