The nightmarish aspects of this novel’s setting sneak up on you and linger.
Austin’s debut novel follows an aging academic through a surreal future.
To read this novel is to be immersed in both its retro-futuristic setting and the obsessions of its haunted protagonist. Narrator Wiggins has retired from his job at a museum, and he spends his time musing on the way the world in which he lives—characterized by an abundance of dioramas large and small—came about. This is not a novel that abounds in exposition; it’s not until a third of the way through that we get a sense of when in the future we might be. Specifically, it's at least 300 years after an apocalyptic event; since then, efforts have been underway to restore the world. But there’s an underlying sadness to Wiggins’ musings, which abound with comments like, “Curation too is an act of despair.” And the inner workings of the society in which Wiggins lives include some queasy details: mosquitoes used in surgery, tumors produced to use in dioramas, and a disquieting line about “the birds made up of other birds” among them. Wiggins contrasts two historical (for him) figures: Michaux, “the great dioramist,” whom he admires and who was once more widely known and who can now be found “appearing by consent in a diorama”; and the unsettling Minister Goll, who had a penchant for dioramas and murder—and cannibalism. The end result is visceral and heady: a book that finds the overlap of Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast, Lidia Yuknavitch’s The Book of Joan, and the writings of Steven Millhauser. It’s a haunting piece of speculative fiction, a dystopian society mapped from within.
The nightmarish aspects of this novel’s setting sneak up on you and linger.Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 9781950539758
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Dzanc
Review Posted Online: Feb. 23, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
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
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
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