A heartfelt and deeply human collective portrait set in a palace of consumerism.
Stanton’s novel tracks the intersecting lives of customers and employees of a 1980s mall.
It’s 1983, and a brand-new indoor shopping center has just opened up on the edge of a large Ohio city. Built on the former site of a meadow filled with wildflowers, Dandelion Crossing is all things to all people: an eyesore and traffic magnet to local homeowners; a place of employment for lonely do-gooders, bookish transplants, and ex-convicts; a mark of progress for an ambitious local politician; and a glass-ceiling-shattering zenith in the career of the mall’s female executive. It’s a place where an artist, recently relocated from New York City and suffering from heartbreak, finds his groove coaching a team of high schoolers in a breakdancing competition; where a closeted gay teen decides to risk being recognized while seeing a movie about a male stripper; and where a widow in need of a new hairdresser finds herself in the chair of a spiky-haired goth whose receptionist seems unfamiliar with the concept of a perm. The mall brings together locals from across the metropolitan area who might otherwise never meet, allowing storylines to converge unexpectedly and long-simmering emotions to burst forth like water from the mall’s fountain. Stanton revels in the ’80s setting, enhancing the stories with funny period references. A gang of rowdy teenage girls calls themselves The Benatars, for instance, and a hapless pet store employee evaluates her own sexual orientation based on the era’s detective shows: “Truth be told, Amy wasn’t sure where she fell. Except for her persistent crush on TV’s mustachioed Matt Houston, whose devil-may-care independence she greatly admired, it was rare for her to feel sexual attraction to anyone.” (There’s even a phone-call cameo by art icon Keith Haring.) In Stanton’s capable hands, the sterile mall quickly transforms into an unlikely town square: a place where people not only search for goods and services, but for connection in all its forms.
A heartfelt and deeply human collective portrait set in a palace of consumerism.Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2025
ISBN: 9798297577206
Page Count: 138
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 9, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
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
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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