A wonderfully imaginative but undercooked set of tales that falls short of its potential.
Braum’s third collection of short stories offers tales of magical realism.
The characters in these stories have relatable desires, but they have supernatural forces working against them, often in the periphery. In “The Monkey Coat,” June has had bad luck since David, the father of their daughter, Ivy, left unexpectedly. Her fortunes get worse when she finds a family heirloom in a storage shed: a coat made of monkey’s fur. After she starts wearing it, her relationships with others take a bad turn and she eventually goes missing—leaving the coat, and perhaps a curse, for Ivy. In “Rebbe Yetse’s Shadow,” a young man trying to straighten out his life faces a choice offered by two ghosts. In “Cloudland Earthbound,” a man battles the government and other mysterious powers as he tries to preserve a nightclub in Brisbane, Australia. In the opener, “How To Stay Afloat When Drowning,” a man looking for direction becomes intrigued by a woman who may actually be a sea creature. The premises are creative, with the characters usually facing strange choices in unusual circumstances. However, they often feel as if there’s something missing. In “Between Our Earth and Their Moon,” for instance, a big source of tension is a man named Grant Donovan, who’s supposed to be the heavy of the piece, but readers never get a clear sense of what’s motivating his actions. Similarly, Nate, the narrator of the story, is driven by a previous relationship with someone named Alexandra, but the story never reveals enough about her to make that relationship important to the readers. There are also frequent scenes in which the setting isn’t firmly established before the action starts, as in “Tommy’s Shadow,” when Marco and his friend Richie talk about taking a fateful trip to an asylum. The conversation prods Marco to get into his car, but it makes for an awkward scene because readers don’t know where the characters were when they started.
A wonderfully imaginative but undercooked set of tales that falls short of its potential.Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-59021-583-8
Page Count: 276
Publisher: Lethe Press
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2020
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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