An amusing, discursive, gleefully crude tale that skewers celebrity culture.
A sequel continues the fictional, comic adventures of Hollywood’s most salacious star.
Things had been going so well for Aida Libido. The former teenage circus performer-turned- award-winning Hollywood actor and musician had finally found the perfect husband, Count Jose Delgado. But her dashing South American count turned out to be a thief and killer, and swindled poor Aida out of her fortune. To make matters worse, when Jose was found dead in a motel room with alarming objects inserted in his orifices, Aida was arrested for his murder. Now she’s in prison, guarding herself against unwanted attention with a shiv made from a melted toothbrush. Luckily, real-life attorney Gloria Allred shows up to help Aida beat the charge. Out on bail, her husband buried, and her defense formulated, Aida starts scheduling meetings and planning her big comeback. But the murder accusation proves harder to shake than she thought, and there’s still the matter of making sure she wins her trial. Still, if anyone can claw her way back from ignominy—as well as navigate adventures with jihadist militants, the Nobel Prize Committee, and a very gay fourth husband—it’s Aida. In this novel, Easton’s prose, as narrated by Aida, is theatrical and wry. The episodic plot mostly serves as a vehicle for Aida to discuss her many over-the-top encounters with real-life celebrities. Here, she recalls a conversation from a memorable outing with actor Aziz Ansari: “Oh, Aziz! You thought this was a date!...(could you get your hand out from under my skirt, please?)...Thank you, dear….No, I just agreed to come…(Please, dear, it’s hard to concentrate with your tongue in my ear)…I’m just here because I lost a bet with Amy Poehler.” The humor tends toward the shocking and transgressive—unlikely sex acts, racial stereotypes, scatological everything—though it’s not often laugh-out-loud funny. Over time, the constant joking actually becomes somewhat abrasive, particularly given the low stakes of the plot.
An amusing, discursive, gleefully crude tale that skewers celebrity culture.Pub Date: May 27, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-73779-390-8
Page Count: 198
Publisher: Demimonde
Review Posted Online: Aug. 24, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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