A worthy contribution to its genre, tailor-made for armchair Indiana Joneses.
In Burdick’s historical novel, the 1848California Gold Rush is the jumping-off point for many more death-defying adventures for young Bostonian Joshua Cabot.
Before the news of a gold strike gets out, a powerful Boston entrepreneur recruits 24-year-old Joshua to open an assay office in California, which he does. He also marries and has a child, but after a tragedy, he spirals downward, takes to drink, kills his boss (in self-defense), and wakes up an abductee aboard a merchant ship—the Pacifica, captained by a man named Mathius Stark. It heads north to Alaska, where mutineers have taken over the Russian outpost in Archangel (today’s Sitka), but Joshua and others turn the tables and make off with weapons and a fortune in tusk ivory. They sail to the South Sea, but not before foiling a mutinous plot and keelhauling the instigator. Then comes Lahaina in the Sandwich Islands, where he meets a desperate, sexually abused 16-year-oldgirl, Maka, who finds a way to join the Pacifica crew. At succeeding ports, they confront a wide range of villains; through it all, Joshua forms bonds with his crewmates, and by using his intelligence and skills—he knows medicine and metallurgy—he earns their respect. In the final scene, crewmembers head out to the dangerous hinterlands of China, and readers may want to remain onboard for a potential sequel. Some of the exploits in Burdick’s novel are so improbable that one may need to take them with a grain of salt or two, but the swashbuckling-adventure tropes in play effectively give the author a lot of leeway to pursue a tale of wilder circumstances. Overall, though, this isn’t a book to analyze, but rather one in which to lose oneself, as the prose is dense in detail and steeped in atmosphere (“Gradually, they felt the fury of the storm begin to lessen, and the sky went from an ominous night-like darkness, to light gray”). Indeed, readers will come away with the impression that this is a book by a writer who is clearly having fun.
A worthy contribution to its genre, tailor-made for armchair Indiana Joneses.Pub Date: Nov. 14, 2024
ISBN: 9798873860265
Page Count: 374
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Dec. 4, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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