An engrossing, quietly eloquent, and heartbreaking loss-of-innocence novel.
An evocative historical novel involving the haunting letters and diaries of a World War II flyboy stationed in the South Pacific.
It’s the final August weekend of 1940, and 20-year-old Philip Zumwalt, recently graduated from college, has two goals. He wants to be a famous musician/songwriter, and he dreams of becoming a pilot. For now, he will be moving from his hometown of Nebo, Illinois, to the neighboring town of Payson, where he will be the new high school music teacher. But first there’s a dance to attend at the casino in Quincy’s Highland Park, featuring Tommy Dorsey and Frank Sinatra. He meets the mesmerizing Elinor “El” Robinson, and they dance the night away together. Several days later, Philip begins his teaching assignment. Much to his dismay, he discovers that the woman who so dazzled him at the casino is a senior at Payson-Seymour High School. Worse, she is his student in band and in his class on world problems. The magnetism between them continues, but romance is forbidden until El’s graduation. Swanson uses the world problems class discussions to gently introduce readers to the diverging views roiling the country about whether the United States should or will become involved in the war raging in Europe. After the school year, Philip resigns, and he and El are free to fall in love. Philip enlists in the U.S. Army Air Force, where he hopes to become a pilot. During basic training in Illinois, he acquires the first of his three Army-issued diaries, which are liberally quoted through Part 2 of the novel. This is not an action-driven narrative, although it contains descriptions of several bombing missions that highlight feats of bravery and determination. But these are sandwiched between the long hours Philip spends reading modern classics, drinking to dull his psychological turmoil, struggling to come to terms with the brutality and moral conflicts of war, and writing. Making ample use of cultural and linguistic references of the period—especially through the lyrics and rhythms of popular music—Swanson takes readers inside a painful time capsule.
An engrossing, quietly eloquent, and heartbreaking loss-of-innocence novel.Pub Date: Oct. 26, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73728-550-2
Page Count: 404
Publisher: Boathouse Productions
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2021
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
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