A heady, thoughtful novel about two heady, thoughtful friends.
In 1980s Texas, two young men bond over their love of literature.
To grow up in Texas with the name Jon Wain likely makes being nicknamed “Duke” inevitable. So it is with the narrator of Biespiel’s novel, who ponders desire, literature, and his best friend, Manolo Salazar, as he looks back on their youth. Much of the novel follows the two friends over a handful of days in 1981, when they're 18, as they travel to the beach. Duke is well aware of their differing backgrounds: “Him, the oldest son of a broadcast evangelist. Me, the only son of the Grand Rabbi of Houston.” There’s also the matter of Salazar being gay, which Duke addresses about a quarter of the way through the book as it prompts him to rethink the ways he might have been unwittingly cruel to his friend. “It was like I had taken a strange drug and needed to arrange my mind and balance my feet,” he thinks after learning of his friend’s sexuality. But ultimately, the bond between the two endures. As Duke tells another character late in the novel, “We were born seven days apart, in February, 1964….We got made under the same sky.” Salazar will soon head to boot camp, which his father isn’t happy about. Both men have a lot on their minds, including whether or not they will take up their fathers’ respective religious positions. They’re also fond of discussing literature and following the exploits of Nolan Ryan. The novel’s second half introduces more characters, including a reactionary Vietnam veteran and a young woman to whom Duke is drawn—and who may have a secret connection to Salazar. It’s a largely satisfying novel, even if Salazar sometimes comes off as the more compelling of the two lead characters.
A heady, thoughtful novel about two heady, thoughtful friends.Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9781622882441
Page Count: 250
Publisher: Stephen F. Austin State University Press
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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
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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