A big-hearted and relatable read, especially if you’re old enough to remember the 1990s.
An older gay writer in New York City finds a way forward, despite many losses.
Finger’s sophomore effort tracks Artie Anderson on two interwoven timelines. One begins in the 1990s, when he’s about to quit his soul-sucking job as an advertising copywriter to pen a novel based on his beloved friend group, two other gay men and a lesbian, the four of whom are joined at the hip and hang out religiously at Julius’, a gay bar in Greenwich Village. The other thread begins on Artie’s 60th birthday in 2022, and we can’t help but notice that the guest list includes none of the same people. At 60, Artie has become a successful ghostwriter but has yet to produce a follow-up to his fiction debut, which was not a financial success, though all 34 people who read it seem to have liked it quite a lot. Finger’s own well-received debut, The Old Place (2022), revolved around a church picnic in small-town Texas, and his sophomore effort continues to explore the theme of appreciation for the social networks and institutions that hold people together. In this case it’s GALS, a center for Gay and Lesbian Seniors, where the decimated cohort who survived AIDS can gather for movie nights, Thanksgiving dinners, and the like. After all, as this book shows us, gay Manhattan is actually just another kind of small town. Finger’s depictions of the changes in the West Village, the depredations of aging, and the possibilities of romantic connection between older single people are acute, yet infused with a sweet shrug of resignation. For example, he points out that the high-end cooking utensil store that has replaced an infamous gay club known as the Rod is at least still staffed by good-looking young men. The plot relies on a couple of big reveals toward the end, one of which is very powerful and the other less so, but it’s the warmth and astute observation that are the main draw anyway.
A big-hearted and relatable read, especially if you’re old enough to remember the 1990s.Pub Date: June 18, 2024
ISBN: 9780593713556
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
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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