A satisfying, feel-good novel about human shortcomings, perseverance and serendipity.
Big changes befall the sleepy town of Timber Lake, Mich., in a novel about ordinary people who try to achieve extraordinary goals after a local man finds God during a night of heavy drinking.
After an inebriated revelation, Cooper Moon sets out to build a church in the woods behind his trailer, with no money or education to ease his way. But what he lacks in biblical literacy and financial resources, he makes up for in charisma and blind faith. With the help of the young neighborhood troublemaker, TJ, who has set his sights on winning a network television competition, World Wide Warrior, Cooper navigates new religious and spiritual territory and makes key changes in his own life. He quits drinking, swearing and cheating on his ever-patient wife, Sally. Amid a memorable cast of characters—including cunning lovers, resentful husbands and a skeptical pastor—determined to throw him off his righteous track, Cooper traverses the precarious path to fulfilling his newfound vision. The plot crescendos when TJ goes off to compete in World Wide Warrior, the pastor unexpectedly revives his own faith, and spiteful supporting characters find creative ways to meddle in Cooper’s life even as he delivers a unforgettable, climactic sermon. At its core, this is a story about class, karma and ordinary people trying to accomplish difficult goals that require extraordinary strength of body, mind and spirit. Cooper contemplates his calling to build a church: “I’m broke. I’ve never even read the Bible….Why wouldn’t God just give this same idea to a rich guy who knows the Bible?” In an attempt to answer his own question, Cooper considers Moses: “God could have parted the sea before they ever got there and made a clear path for them. But he didn’t. He didn’t part the sea until they stepped into it.” And indeed, this novel suggests that hope, good humor and moral fortitude are keys to realizing one’s dreams. Packed with biblical analysis and pop-philosophy, this book has a strong, engaging voice that encourages readers to reflect on their own calling.
A satisfying, feel-good novel about human shortcomings, perseverance and serendipity.Pub Date: July 18, 2012
ISBN: 978-1478153658
Page Count: 360
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2012
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
A debut novel with bright spots, but unbalanced and lacking in finesse.
A high school senior pursues an affair with her teacher.
Seventeen-year-old Waldo, the narrator of McCurdy’s fiction debut, lives in Anchorage, Alaska, with her mother, though she’s long been the parent in their relationship. She heats her own frozen meals and pays the bills on time while her mom chases man after man and makes well-meaning promises she never keeps. Waldo blows her Victoria’s Secret wages on online shopping sprees and binges on junk food, inevitably crashing after the fleeting highs of her indulgences. Mr. Korgy, her creative writing teacher, has “thinning hair and nose pores”; he’s 40 years old and married with a child. Nevertheless—or possibly as a result?—Waldo’s attraction to him is “instant. So sudden it’s alarming. So palpable it’s confusing.” Mr. Korgy professes to want to keep their friendship aboveboard, but after a sexual encounter at the school’s winter formal that she initiates, an affair begins. Will this reckless pursuit be the one that actually satisfies Waldo, and is she as mature as she thinks she is? Waldo is a keen observer of people and provides sharp commentary on the punishing work of female beauty. Readers of McCurdy’s bestselling memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died (2022), will surely be curious about the tumultuous mother-daughter relationship, and it is one of the novel’s highlights, full of realistic pity and anger and need. (“I want to scream at her. I want her to hug me.”) Unfortunately, the prose is often unwieldy and sometimes downright cringeworthy: When Waldo tells Mr. Korgy she loves him, “The words hang in the air in that constipated way they do when you know that you shouldn’t have said them.” Waldo frequently lists emotions and adjectives in triplicate, and events that could be significant aren’t sufficiently explored or given enough space to breathe before the novel races on to the next thing.
A debut novel with bright spots, but unbalanced and lacking in finesse.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2026
ISBN: 9780593723739
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
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