A suite of innovative and emotional dramas depicting an embattled family.
Epstein examines the effect of mental illness on the family unit in this trio of dramatic plays.
The plays follow middle-aged parents Micah and Tess and their adult children: the oldest, exasperated Ava; the middle one, comedian Beezie; and the youngest, the difficult Arky; Arky is a former golden child who has transformed into a combative drinker and drug-user in his 20s. The first play, Mahalo, follows the family’s attempts to deal with Arky after he’s diagnosed with schizo-affective disorder. In Desperados, Tess pressures Micah to put the battered family home on the market, which unleashes a flood of memories of their many years there. In the first scene of the concluding Arky, the family deals with the fallout of Arky leaping out of a moving car on the highway for no apparent reason, leading his parents to wonder if they wouldn’t all be better off if Arky were dead. But Arky doesn’t die: the play leaps forward in time 10 years, and then another 10, sketching out the peculiar life of this troubled man to see where he finally ends up. The plays have postmodern flourishes, with stark staging involving ramps and platforms and precise lighting directions. Characters frequently break the fourth wall, launching into songs or stand-up routines to comment on the action. The format helps to capture the absurdity of mental illness, both for the sufferer and those around him. When Micah tells Tess, nonjudgmentally, that he’d bet she was an alcoholic, Tess responds, “You would? Who cares? We left the planet years ago. We’re out there—just out there in orbit, visiting our boy in Crazyland.” According to the author’s preface, these pieces have never been produced—the reader will be anxious to one day see one or all of these plays staged in a theater. Until then, these pages provide a suitable window into Arky’s Crazyland.
A suite of innovative and emotional dramas depicting an embattled family.Pub Date: July 31, 2023
ISBN: 9781953943354
Page Count: 358
Publisher: Retriever Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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