A tart, questioning exploration of how deep racism runs.
A teenager conducts a yearslong effort to shake off his White privilege in Africa, suburbia, and New York.
We meet the title character of Okparanta’s second novel, after Under the Udala Trees (2015), in 2016 in Tanzania, on a safari with his parents, who exemplify ugly (White) Americanism. If Wayne and Chevy aren’t bickering with each other, they’re making casually racist comments and treating the Black tour guides contemptuously. Harry’s embarrassment at their behavior, combined with a connection with one guide, moves the 14-year-old to resent “the prominent paleness of my skin.” Back home in the Pennsylvania suburbs, the rift widens as Wayne, a mediocre teacher, loses his job and pursues ill-advised schemes like attempting to sell 3-D printed guns, while Harry plans his escape. Though Harry detests his parents and makes various anti-racist gestures, he decides to take a scholarship from a group of God-and-flag Whites called Purists (read: Trumpists) to escape his parents and go to college in Manhattan. Okparanta’s satire of White racism and hypocrisy is sometimes cartoonish, especially when it comes to Wayne, but it’s sharp in the latter sections, as when Harry attends meetings of “Transracial-Anon,” a 12-step group that’s less anti-racist and more pro–self-pity, or uses an app called Dignity that effectively removes the burden of how to treat people or when a public act of goodwill by Harry’s Black girlfriend becomes warped by bigots. Harry’s dream of “racial reassignment” is a fool’s errand, of course, but Okparanta suggests that even more modest gestures of allyship don’t meaningfully address racist instincts. The novel comes full circle with a trip to Ghana’s Gold Coast, the one-time center for the slave trade, suggesting that while Harry isn’t exactly his father’s son, he’s inherited a cultural affliction that he can’t shake off.
A tart, questioning exploration of how deep racism runs.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-358-61727-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Mariner Books
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
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
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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