Flawed but relatable characters and off-the-charts emotional intensity with a sharply evoked Israeli cultural perspective.
The dark experiences of an Israeli immigrant family in “one of the greenest, quietest, safest cities in America.”
Israeli-born Lilach and Mikhael Shuster “raised an American child who went to high school with American children, and now they say he killed another American child,” we learn in the first pages of Gundar-Goshen’s third novel. Like many of the husbands in their neighborhood, Mikhael works in tech, but “while other companies in Silicon Valley developed apps for internet shopping, the company Mikhael worked for developed security products, which was a nice way of saying ‘weapons.’ ” As for the women, Lilach wryly notes, “there were sleep consultants and breastfeeding consultants and toilet-training consultants. There were also couples therapists and art therapists. But the people who provided real care were the Hispanic women who came to our houses every day by public transportation. They took care of the art therapists’ children while the art therapists were taking care of the couples therapists’ children.” Lilach’s alienation and anxiety escalate when there is a violent attack on a local synagogue, then skyrocket when a Black teenager dies at a party and her son, Adam, becomes the prime suspect. Like the other Jewish mothers in the community, she has signed Adam up to take self-defense classes with an Israeli named Uri Ziv, rumored to be ex-Mossad. Adam worships Uri, who also becomes very close with Mikhael and gets a job at his company; as the family is targeted, Uri becomes their protector. But should they trust him? Gundar-Goshen navigates the landscape of racial prejudice, particularly the tension between Jews and the Nation of Islam, through the eyes of an Israeli immigrant who is already scarred by experiences of terrorism in Israel. Sexual identity and bullying also play roles in the plot, which moves uneasily to a conclusion that leaves some questions unanswered. Gundar-Goshen solidifies her brand with this ambitious novel, her first set in the United States.
Flawed but relatable characters and off-the-charts emotional intensity with a sharply evoked Israeli cultural perspective.Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2023
ISBN: 9780316423472
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2023
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
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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