A sometimes-affecting but unfocused family drama.
Family secrets emerge from packets of old letters and current crises open old wounds in Riese’s latest novel.
Mark and Leslie’s elderly parents have lapsed in their struggle with alcoholism, which prompts Mark to take a leave of absence from his job to care for them. Riese, the author of Blue Dress (2016), efficiently establishes the family dynamic: Leslie, the “organized” yet “overbearing” daughter; Mark, the doting son; Kat, the kindhearted mother who laughs at her husband’s crude humor; and her spouse, Charles, the curmudgeon. The novel repeatedly reinforces their dysfunction via present-day events that mirror Mark’s childhood memories. When he fails to land a promotion at his job, for instance, he remembers his father’s previous experience at an engineering firm where he professionally languished while his colleagues “became senior managers, one even becoming president of the company.” The story has moments that are touching. However, with so many memories crowding the present, readers may have difficulty locating what the novel is actually trying to say. The importance of reconciliation comes to mind, though, when Mark confronts his father about the night he told Mark he’d become “too old to kiss you before going to bed”—a rebuke that gave the child nightmares and even made him wet the bed. Mark’s father admits to a fear that Mark would “become” gay, which leads readers to an unexpected revelation. For Mark, the conversation “explains many moments in the past” and brings the two of them closer. However, too many dramatic events—including a major character’s death and another’s health scare—happen between the first hints of the dad’s secret and the final, frank conversation between father and son to keep readers engaged.
A sometimes-affecting but unfocused family drama.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 379
Publisher: Flying Heron Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 30, 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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