A thoughtful look at those just getting by from a writer who deserves to be known.
An Ohio town’s economic decline highlights the woes and ties among families.
Kiefer opens his fourth novel with a crisp clause: “Death brought casseroles.” Friends and co-workers hope food will ease the pain of Tom and Sarah Bailey, a white couple who have just buried their 6-month-old son. The cause, and a piercing image: a hole in the heart. Tom’s Pakistani immigrant boss, Khalid Marwat, whose small electronics plant is the town’s chief employer, privately gives him $500. As the novel moves from autumn to spring in the time of Trump’s MAGA promises, Kiefer reveals the strains of a town barely afloat, its people living from paycheck to paycheck, piling up debt, fighting shame, seeking relief in small pleasures while hope frays. The problems aren’t original—the book recalls Richard Russo’s Nobody’s Fool, among other blue-collar elegies—but Kiefer has a sympathetic and probing eye that gives his characters solidity, kindling empathy and anxiety. Some sort of crisis seems to loom at every turn. Paula Chapman, “the only Black woman in town,” takes in her 19-year-old nephew, Anthony Shaw, so he can escape Cleveland’s street violence. The police later mistake him as a threat to Tom Bailey’s 17-year-old daughter, Janey, who is walking nearby; the young people soon start secretly dating. The shadow of racism returns when Tom rebukes a co-worker for referring to Khalid by the worst epithet. Janey’s brother, Charlie, is worried about a schoolmate whose brutish father seems capable of anything. The plant’s office manager copes with an abusive mother. There’s enough potential for disaster to keep a reader wondering when something will blow. No easy solutions seem likely. And yet, death brings casseroles. Kiefer knows kindness can help heal all sorts of wounds, maybe even a hole in the heart of a town. At least for a time.
A thoughtful look at those just getting by from a writer who deserves to be known.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781685890810
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Melville House
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.
A love story about a life of second chances.
In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, and presto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality.
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780062406682
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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