It’s not always clear where this novel is going, but readers will enjoy getting there.
O’Banion’s debut novel follows the adventures of a curmudgeon on a quest to recover his cat.
Life has taken a wrong turn for Alton Tapscott, a retired literature professor in Baton Rouge, Louisiana: his son, Archie, tricked him into moving to St. Ignatius Condo Community; his high-tech hearing implant, LIZA, is malfunctioning again; and now his only trusted friend, a cat named Mack, has gone missing, evicted from the premises by the cunning resident council president, Cooper Murray. This humorous, lightly plotted novel introduces readers to the world of semi-independent living, complete with robotic canine companions, soup nights, and mandatory bingo sessions. In his Kafkaesque struggle against increasingly despotic disciplinary hearings, Tapscott forms alliances with the quirky cast of St. Ignatius residents, including eccentric liberal Camille Renatta, fellow widower Noel Cone, and sinister nun Mary Clotilde, as obsessed with her rose bushes as she is with giving Alton impromptu therapy sessions. Much like Alton, who ends up in a wheelchair he can hardly navigate, the novel struggles to follow any chain of events to a logical conclusion. It is also, for no apparent reason, set in the distant future—a fact that the author never uses to its full potential except to crack an occasional joke: “Residents awoke to the whirring of delivery drones and the slap of competing local newspapers.” St. Ignatius is meant to represent the extreme political opposites of American society (introducing Tapscott to fellow resident Poppy Burt, Murray remarks, “She’s…a terrible racist…but she’ll be dead before the next election”), but the idea gets lost among Tapscott’s lengthy soliloquies on everything from the indignity of growing old to the misfortune of his name. These, fortunately, are often hilarious: “My name is registered with the State of Louisiana as Alton B. Tapscott, but the IRS knows me by Alton Tapscott, Alton Tap Scott, and the always charming, Scott Tap.”
It’s not always clear where this novel is going, but readers will enjoy getting there.Pub Date: March 23, 2023
ISBN: 978-1946182296
Page Count: 202
Publisher: Texas Book Publishers Association
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2023
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
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
© Copyright 2026 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.
