A beautiful reminder that the world is full of tragedy, but life-changing joy and connection might be just around the corner.
A man makes his way across the country to find his high school crush—accompanied by his adult daughter, two orphans, and a cat with the power to predict death.
PJ Halliday may have won $1.5 million from the scratch-off lottery ticket he drunkenly bought at a gas station 10 years ago, but his life has been far from lucky. At 63, he’s an alcoholic hoarder who’s had three heart attacks and been fired from his job as a postal worker in Pondville, Massachusetts (they didn’t like it when he drove the mail truck into a pond). But the two tragedies in PJ’s life happened when his teenage daughter died and his wife, Ivy, left him. PJ, ever the charmer, now has breakfast every day at Ivy’s house with her and her new partner, Fred, which is where he sees the obituary that lets him know his high school sweetheart is now single. She’s all the way in Arizona and PJ can’t technically drive (again, the DUIs), but he begins hatching a plan to go confess his love to her as soon as Ivy and Fred leave for an Alaskan vacation. PJ isn’t looking forward to being left alone in Pondville, since he has a complicated relationship with his other daughter, Sophie. But what PJ doesn’t expect is to suddenly become the guardian of two orphans, his estranged brother’s grandchildren. Luna and Ollie are dealing with the violent deaths of both their parents, although Luna is convinced that her real father is a soap opera star and that she needs to go find him. PJ figures they can combine their trips and decides to take the children with him on a road trip to find his true love and Luna’s father. Sophie, who’s struggling herself and a little concerned about the kids’ safety, decides to come along. They also bring Pancakes, a cat who wandered out of a nursing home and into PJ’s life. Pancakes has the ability to predict death, which comes into play surprisingly often over the course of the road trip. Hartnett is a master at balancing quirky elements and some truly dark subject matter, like PJ’s grief and the kids’ parents’ deaths. PJ is a remarkable character who remains fascinating and often charming even when he’s frustrating, but every character—even the people PJ briefly encounters on the road trip—feels fully realized.
A beautiful reminder that the world is full of tragedy, but life-changing joy and connection might be just around the corner.Pub Date: April 29, 2025
ISBN: 9780593873441
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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
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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