A collection of short, slightly repetitive comic stories.
Wolf’s humorous story collection pokes fun at the foibles of Jewish life.
Actor Jeff Goldblum has his legs surgically shortened to portray a famous little person who helped others escape from Auschwitz. A man suspects that a mohel about to perform a bris is actually a famous Nazi in hiding. Brothers raised in Conservative Judaism drift in separate directions in adulthood—one becomes more religious, one less—which leads to unforeseen consequences for one of their daughters. In these 60 stories, many only a few paragraphs long, the author explores the ironies and absurdities of Jewish American life, from questions about religious law to minor social transgressions. The title story contains an extended conversation in which the narrator’s Jewish mother attempts to determine whether the plumber he’s just hired is also Jewish (“What am I asking? I’d just like to know if he’s Jewish. That’s all. What’s so bad?”). The author’s prose exhibits the practiced economy of a standup comedian: “L’Affaire A-hole”begins, “Sy Blyweiss was pickpocketed at a nudist colony and immediately reported the theft to the police. Through a combination of state-of-the-art proctology and forensic science, investigators gathered and identified the culprit’s fingerprints.” Many of the stories are essentially long-form jokes that build to punchlines, which can be rather groan-inducing (several of these involve puns). The better stories end in less jokey places, either in moments of sincerity, as in “Changes,” a story of a hard-to-please father, or in moments of irony that do not rely on wordplay. Some pieces (collected in the “MISHEGAS” section) abandon narrative for lists and questions; the final section is made up of imagined dialogues between anthropomorphized animals. The text is accompanied by Weidner’s full-color, hand-drawn illustrations. Wolf’s humor is of a certain vintage and will likely appeal most to readers of his same generation, especially if they too are from a Jewish background.
A collection of short, slightly repetitive comic stories.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-1647496951
Page Count: 226
Publisher: Go to Publish
Review Posted Online: July 7, 2023
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
Vivid characters are set adrift in a “ripped from the headlines” tableau that complicates the story, and the storytelling.
A diverting midlife story plucks at the secrets good people carry to the grave.
As a reader, Artie Dam—the protagonist of Strout’s 11th book—encounters Olive Kitteridge, “a crotchety old woman from Maine” and Strout’s most celebrated fictional character. Artie picked up the Pulitzer-anointed book centered on Olive after his wife, Evie, loved it, “oh, years ago now.” Strout is having a bit of fun—that “oh” is a trademark—even though she marbles her latest novel with marital infidelity, political anxiety, and suicide. Indeed, it is the fact that Olive’s father died by suicide that Artie, 57 and gaining a paunch, recalls now in his own dismalness. As the story begins, he is pondering the most discreet way to die, despite having been Massachusetts’ Teacher of the Year five years earlier. Artie seems the inverse of irascible Olive: beloved by his students; by his grown son, Rob; and by the English teacher, Anne, who quietly pines for him. But like Olive, Artie has distressing impulses—he steals a comb, then some expensive shirts. Much of the text bobs along on Artie’s stocktaking memories, chunked out in short, occasionally abrupt paragraphs. Strout’s storytelling is thinning a bit, like middle-aged hair. Then, midbook, she clobbers Artie with a brutal existential shock. In its wake, Strout surfs the nature of loneliness, corrosive secrets, and the convulsions of the 2024 presidential election. Hers is an unremittingly Blue State book, although Artie has one friend who, unbeknownst to him, supported Donald Trump. On the day after the election, Artie somberly concludes that his “country was committing suicide.” This is the first novel in which Strout entirely vacates Maine for another setting. But she sticks with Artie and, on the final pages, delivers him a satisfying finale.
Vivid characters are set adrift in a “ripped from the headlines” tableau that complicates the story, and the storytelling.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9798217154746
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
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