The disparate elements of this ambitious mashup may make it difficult for it to find its ideal readers.
Heavily armed Jewish mystical cult meets weed-legalization conspiracy meets renewed college love affair meets ecstatic highs of various persuasions.
"Zeke turned onto Shabbetai Road, where he encountered all at once: an RV with an immense airbrushed painting of the face of Nathan Fritzman, Natan of Flatbush, Hebrew lettering atop the image; two trailer homes in the near distance; a single two-story colonial set back from the road; and in front of each of these buildings, men in traditional Hasidic garb carrying automatic rifles." Following his exploration of a splinter social movement in Boomer1 (2018), Torday dives deep into the beliefs, text, practices, and marijuana operation of an imaginary Jewish cult with ties to both the Satmar of New York and the Dönme, Turkish Jews who feigned conversion to Islam. His protagonist, Ezekiel “Zeke” Leger, is a New York–based journalist and magazine editor who travels back to Central Ohio for the funeral of a college friend. Shortly after he arrives, an Uber driver suggests he investigate the story of Nathan Fritzman, a Jewish cult leader currently jailed for the murder of his 16-year-old son. Turns out Zeke's college girlfriend, Johanna Franklin, was the lead prosecutor for the state. Those who are interested in the revival of the love affair between Zeke and Johanna, who met as undergrads at William James College, an Oberlin look-alike, may be less interested in the mystical and unconventionally punctuated writings of Natan of Flatbush concerning the tenets of Ein Sofism, which are included here at some length. Those who are following the investigation of the murder of Fritzman’s son and its connection to the various groups fighting tooth and nail for control of legalized weed in Ohio may find themselves floundering during extended descriptions of drug-induced experiences. But through it all, Torday’s redoubtable novelistic chops produce a steady stream of strong dialogue and sharply drawn scenes.
The disparate elements of this ambitious mashup may make it difficult for it to find its ideal readers.Pub Date: Jan. 17, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-2501-9181-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.
Stockett heads to Mississippi for another historical novel about feisty women.
This time, perhaps recalling criticisms of cultural appropriation in The Help (2009), she sticks to feisty white women, with one exception. The setting is Oxford in 1933. For two miserable years, 11-year-old Meg has lived in “the Orphan,” a county asylum for parentless girls. Chairlady Garnett—a villain so one-note she’d twirl a mustache if she had one—makes it her mission to ostracize the older girls she deems unadoptable, stigmatizing them as offspring of the “feebleminded” mothers who abandoned them. She particularly has it in for smart, sassy Meg, who refuses to believe her mother’s mysterious disappearance was deliberate. Elsewhere in Oxford, Birdie Calhoun comes to visit her sister Frances, who married a wealthy banker, to ask for money on behalf of their mother and grandmother back in Footely. Frances isn’t thrilled by this reminder of her impoverished small-town origins. But she’s trying to climb up in Oxford society by volunteering at the Orphan, the asylum’s books need to be done before the state inspector shows up in a few weeks, and Birdie is a bookkeeper. Having neatly arranged to keep Birdie in town and draw these two storylines together, Stockett goes on to spin a compulsively readable yarn with enough plot for a half-dozen novels. Birdie and Meg become friends, Meg is adopted despite Garnett’s best efforts, Meg’s mother turns up at the Orphan demanding to know where her child is—and that’s less than a quarter of the way through a long, winding narrative that keeps piling on more dramatic developments until all loose ends are neatly, if hastily, wrapped up in the final pages. Stockett might be making a point about Southern women facing facts and standing up for themselves, but mostly this is just a satisfyingly twisty tale that should make a great miniseries.
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9781954118812
Page Count: 656
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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