A meditation on what it means to step into your authentic self—with all the subsequent confusion and pain laid bare.
New college student Natalie falls in love with Nora, a woman nearly twice her age, in Fischer’s debut novel.
With college looming, Natalie stews about moving to Toronto, and Fischer captures teenage uncertainty brilliantly: “I wondered if I should buy a more specific jacket. One that could quickly show the core elements of my character.” As well as a new city, Natalie is navigating her hitherto unexplored sexuality. When she meets Nora, a grant writer in her 30s who quickly captivates her, she’s prompted to reappraise her self-image: “Who was I, if she was curious about me? Not the person I’d expected myself to be.” Their physical relationship is revelatory for Natalie: “Didn’t I like being dipped into, the breaking surface of myself that still rippled from the afterthought of her touch?” Alongside Natalie’s romantic relationship run a platonic one she has with her dorm-mate Clara and one she witnesses unfold between her poetry professor and an obsessive classmate. She struggles to reconcile her seemingly disparate selves—embarrassed when she finds out that Nora has seen her playing a game of Assassin with her college friends, not knowing how to tell Clara she’s a lesbian, mortified by the dichotomy between her thoughts and the poetry she produces (“Such a slim margin between saying something meaningful and exposing the fallibility of your mind”)—Natalie becomes increasingly fraught with self-doubt. What runs consistently through the novel is the unease of the age and power disparities between Natalie and Nora. While the denouement is in no way shocking, it's satisfyingly dramatic, and Fischer encourages the reader to remember their own first heartbreak. As Natalie looks back on the relationship, she sees her own innocence clearly: “I had been much younger then, hadn’t I?” This insightful novel is alive with vibrant prose, emotional acuity, and complex female characters.
A meditation on what it means to step into your authentic self—with all the subsequent confusion and pain laid bare.Pub Date: May 23, 2023
ISBN: 9781643752723
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
