A measured but underdeveloped historical novel of love and war.
In the first in a series of novels set during medieval times, a teenager bears witness to the life and death of Joan of Arc.
Echols tells a tale set in 1429 that both humanizes “Jeanne the Maid” and introduces Felise, a fictional 15-year-old girlin northern France whose life becomes caught up in the Hundred Years’ War. Felise is an apprentice scribe who runs away from home in 1429 when faced with the possibility of an unwanted arranged marriage and the threat of being sold into slavery, due to her absent merchant father’s debts. Inspired by stories she’s heard of Jeanne d’Arc, she dresses as a boy and sneaks out of the town of Troyes. She’s helped by Jeanne herself, who, after her victory at Orléans against the English is trying to get the Dauphin, Charles, crowned king of France. Felise hides from her pursuers, follows Jeanne and her army, and eventually takes a position helping the army’s doctors; she also learns something unexpected about her father. Along the way, Felise witnesses the coronation of Charles VII at Reims and even falls in love. In this series-starter that takes place over less than a year, Echols dramatically introduces the feisty and noble Felise. Along the way, she places her protagonist in positions to witness important events in a plausible manner and effectively demonstrates the dangers that women faced at the time. She presents the story, however, as a sort of chronicle from Felise’s perspective: “I had loved everything about being a scribe, from sharpening my quill to filling the inkhorns and above all copying books with my own hand.” This is consistent with her apprenticeship, to be sure, but it limits readers’ ability to get to know other characters, who are portrayed relatively flatly. Echols herself is far more concerned with recording what happened than she is in offering a more thorough exploration of the era, which might have made the work more engaging.
A measured but underdeveloped historical novel of love and war.Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023
ISBN: 978-1647425432
Page Count: 256
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: July 29, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.
A falsely accused Black man goes into hiding in this masterful novella by Wright (1908-1960), finally published in full.
Written in 1941 and '42, between Wright’s classics Native Son and Black Boy, this short novel concerns Fred Daniels, a modest laborer who’s arrested by police officers and bullied into signing a false confession that he killed the residents of a house near where he was working. In a brief unsupervised moment, he escapes through a manhole and goes into hiding in a sewer. A series of allegorical, surrealistic set pieces ensues as Fred explores the nether reaches of a church, a real estate firm, and a jewelry store. Each stop is an opportunity for Wright to explore themes of hope, greed, and exploitation; the real estate firm, Wright notes, “collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent from poor colored folks.” But Fred’s deepening existential crisis and growing distance from society keep the scenes from feeling like potted commentaries. As he wallpapers his underground warren with cash, mocking and invalidating the currency, he registers a surrealistic but engrossing protest against divisive social norms. The novel, rejected by Wright’s publisher, has only appeared as a substantially truncated short story until now, without the opening setup and with a different ending. Wright's take on racial injustice seems to have unsettled his publisher: A note reveals that an editor found reading about Fred’s treatment by the police “unbearable.” That may explain why Wright, in an essay included here, says its focus on race is “rather muted,” emphasizing broader existential themes. Regardless, as an afterword by Wright’s grandson Malcolm attests, the story now serves as an allegory both of Wright (he moved to France, an “exile beyond the reach of Jim Crow and American bigotry”) and American life. Today, it resonates deeply as a story about race and the struggle to envision a different, better world.
A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-59853-676-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Library of America
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
BOOK TO SCREEN
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