Thoughtful, measured storytelling with moments of tremendous heart.
An aimless Wisconsin handyman comes to terms with his troubled past through new love.
At 29, Cash hasn’t lived a glamorous life: He’s a cigarette-smoking sometimes-painter who works odd jobs to make ends meet; an occasional writer who never followed the passion; and a burgeoning alcoholic who spends most of his free time at Jimmy’s Place, a local bar tended to by Saul, the son of his father’s best friend. He still lives in his childhood home, left to him after his mother died in a car accident and his father, broken by the loss, fled town without warning. There, Cash (whose surname we never learn) and his two best friends, Leon and Prince, spend countless hours reminiscing about the past and dreaming up schemes for the future, fantasizing about all the ways they might leave the small town of Johnston but never quite following through on any of them. It’s a town full of hardworking people, but Cash longs for more, “to have one beautiful moment of purpose.” The moment arrives when Rose, a young woman Cash doesn’t recognize (rare in Johnston), walks into Jimmy’s Place one evening and he’s instantly smitten. Cash learns that Rose is Saul’s sister, and the family connection feels fated. As Cash is pulled deeper into a relationship with Rose, he’s simultaneously pulled deeper into the history and legacy of Johnston, reflecting anew on the nature of the town and the people who inhabit it. Rose may represent a bright new chapter in Cash’s story, but to begin it Cash must first confront his own past, starting with the father who left Cash adrift in the same dead-end life he’d abandoned. Skogman’s debut is a love letter to bar-stool philosophizing and a tender portrait of small-town life with a simple but powerful message: There’s always something special about home.
Thoughtful, measured storytelling with moments of tremendous heart.Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9781951213954
Page Count: 301
Publisher: Unnamed Press
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
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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