A deeply felt, unconventionally told family story.
A debut novel chronicles the lives of a father and daughter in Montana.
Early on in Byl’s novel, artisan Josiah Kinzler explains the dangers of playing with matches to his daughter Cody, then 9. “Cody. Every fire starts small,” he says, in a phrase that reads like a statement of purpose for the rest of the book. The novel begins in 1985 and follows the Kinzler family—primarily Josiah and Cody but also Cody’s sister, Louisa, and their mother, Margaret—over the decades that follow. While the bulk of the book is told from an omniscient point of view, some chapters offer first-person accounts from different members of the cast, major and minor characters alike. This can be revealing—there’s a contrast between Cody as seen from a distance and the more informal, irreverent tone of her narration, for instance. Josiah remains an intriguing and enigmatic figure, haunted by his mother’s suicide and his own feelings of depression. Late in the book, when characters read a letter from him, his reference to “what’s broken in me” puts some of his previous actions in another context. But he also has moments of bliss throughout—as when he takes on as an apprentice a man named Freddy, who soon becomes something more. It’s here that the first-person sections truly click. “Many times I’ve stayed with my back to him longer than needed, to savor his footsteps closing the distance between us,” Freddy thinks—an elegant image that gives a sense of the intimacy they share. At times, though, the novel’s pacing doesn’t entirely click—but the sense of community, family, and buried secrets at its heart is almost tactile in its presence.
A deeply felt, unconventionally told family story.Pub Date: March 14, 2023
ISBN: 9781646052295
Page Count: 300
Publisher: A Strange Object
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
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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