A nuanced look at one woman’s conflicted desire to break free from a regimented life.
Adjmi presents a novel about a Syrian American woman’s coming-of-age.
Casey Cohen spent most of her 1970s childhood in New Orleans. Although her mother attempted some Syrian dishes and the family celebrated Jewish holidays, they were not particularly observant or overly concerned with adhering to tradition. This changes for Casey during her junior year of high school. After she gets in with a new crowd and makes some questionable decisions, her parents decide it’s time for a change. In 1980, they move to Brooklyn, where they will live among a tightknit Syrian Orthodox Jewish community. Casey’s days of being a cheerleader at one of the best schools in New Orleans are over. She will now attend a yeshivah where it’s not uncommon for girls to drop out and get married. Casey may be a rebel at heart, but she’s soon wed to a man named Michael, nonetheless. She once dreamed of going to college, but now she spends her time cubing potatoes and anticipating invites for bar mitzvahs. The story adroitly introduces the devout Syrian community that Casey finds herself in; there are details of parve food (dairy- and meat-free) and the Omer period after Passover that help to show the support and restrictions of living among people guided by strict religious rules. However, as Casey effectively points out, “once you are in, you’ll never really be out. No matter what—scandals, lies, addictions, jail sentences, infidelities—you belong.” Of course, it’s clear from the beginning that the protagonist is never going to love being in or decide that her worldly dreams are a waste of time. Although this setup makes the story somewhat predictable, there remains the intriguing question of what shape her rebellion will take and how, in her own way, she will get out.
A nuanced look at one woman’s conflicted desire to break free from a regimented life.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-64742-079-6
Page Count: 288
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: May 9, 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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