A vivid, soulful meditation on food, family, and second chances, seasoned with literary flair.
Wall’s novel follows a chef on the verge of personal and professional reinvention in post-Katrina New Orleans.
Laurent Ladnier, once a culinary prodigy, is now approaching 40 and barely holding together a life filled with deferred dreams. Having given up his ambitions of opening a world-class restaurant to support his widowed mother, drug-addicted aunt, and aging grandmother, he toils under a tyrannical boss at Café Bonhomie. When the owner leaves town and Laurent sees an opening, he seizes the moment to debut his long-nurtured vision of “true world fusion”—a bold reimagining of classic New Orleans fare with East and South Asian influences. From here, Wall builds a layered and often moving narrative that charts Laurent’s efforts to stay true to his culinary vision while navigating the painful pull of family loyalty and the ache of stalled relationships. His dynamic with girlfriend Noelle, a rising jazz singer, underscores his internal conflict: “Noelle, I can’t take tomorrow off. We only close on Tuesdays. And Sunday afternoon.” Much of the novel’s emotional resonance stems from Laurent’s relationship with his grandmother, Mémère, and his Aunt LaFaye, whom he supports financially and emotionally. Their household becomes a microcosm of the book’s central tension between duty and aspiration. Visiting them after his culinary insubordination, Laurent is reminded of the long lineage that shaped him, and the sacrifices he’s made. Haunted by the mysterious death of his father, Claude—a failed chef who fell from a bridge in what may have been a suicide—Laurent finds himself increasingly driven to uncover the truth. Despite its introspective style, the novel maintains a strong narrative drive as Laurent begins to take covert steps toward independence by plotting a secret catering gig, reconnecting with a wealthy patron, and tracing the circumstances around his father’s fall. Each movement feels deliberate, part of a slow burn toward either liberation or collapse.
A vivid, soulful meditation on food, family, and second chances, seasoned with literary flair.Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9798891327719
Page Count: 310
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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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