An insightful (if sometimes meandering) look at how the ripples of the past can unwittingly shape our future.
A struggling high school track coach is forced to confront his past when an old friend and rival reappears in his life in Penswick’s novel.
When readers first meet Turner, he’s living with his longtime girlfriend, Kim, and sleepwalking through his job as a teacher and track coach at Galt Tech High School outside Toronto. Originally hired to teach math, he’s now been “sentenced to English” by his vindictive principal and is focused on helping a talented track star, Donovan, break the record (set by a young Turner himself) at the upcoming Vintage Mile race. Turner’s past catches up to him when his former high school best friend, Lance, returns to Galt. Now a successful investment banker (in between jobs in the midst of the financial crisis), Lance dangles an “investment opportunity” in front of Kim, a real estate agent—an opportunity that may prove riskier than it first seems. Turner still resents Lance for winning the track scholarship that Turner had so desperately wanted back in high school before he blew out his knee during a race. As Lance begins joining Turner at track practice, the old rivalry instincts kick in as the two men compete for something more personal. But a tragic accident forces Turner to finally reconcile his past regrets, even as his relationship with Kim begins breaking down amidst their inability to conceive and he learns that Donovan has been silently struggling with an increasingly volatile home life. Turner decides that the only way for him to truly let go of his past demons is to compete one more time in the Vintage Mile.
Penswick excels at conveying Turner’s inner monologues and musings (of which there are many) with an endearing warmth that readers will likely sympathize with, even as they disagree with some of his choices. Turner’s long held grudge—believing that Lance “stole” his scholarship from him (although Turner’s injury cost him the prize)—can prove particularly frustrating, but it accurately represents a common failing of many former athletes (and people in general) who blame others for their own lost opportunities. The novel’s long and winding sentences demand readers’ utmost attention, but just when the thread of “he said,” “she said” extends until it’s difficult to remember who’s speaking in the first place, the author hits readers with startlingly astute observations of human nature: “All that time I’d been in Manhattan because it’s the centre of everything. But lately I’ve started thinking it might be like the eye of the storm, where nothing happens. Nothing real. Maybe real life happens out on the periphery, where there’s all the wind and mess.” Penswick explores not only the competitive world of high school sports, but also larger themes of physical abuse, infertility, infidelity, and trauma. While the love triangle aspect of the plot leaves something to be desired (mainly due to a conclusion that is likely to strike readers as a bit too tidy), it’s Turner’s struggle to move on from his past—and the insidious hold it still has on his present—that ultimately makes this such an engaging read. Fans of both deep character studies and sports fiction will find much to enjoy.
An insightful (if sometimes meandering) look at how the ripples of the past can unwittingly shape our future.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 979-8887938455
Page Count: 220
Publisher: Page Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 14, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.
An artwork’s value grows if you understand the stories of the people who inspired it.
Never in her wildest dreams would foster kid Louisa dream of meeting C. Jat, the famous painter of The One of the Sea, which depicts a group of young teens on a pier on a hot summer’s day. But in Backman’s latest, that’s just what happens—an unexpected (but not unbelievable) set of circumstances causes their paths to collide right before the dying 39-year-old artist’s departure from the world. One of his final acts is to bequeath that painting to Louisa, who has endured a string of violent foster homes since her mother abandoned her as a child. Selling the painting will change her life—but can she do it? Before deciding, she accompanies Ted, one of the artist’s close friends and one of the young teens captured in that celebrated painting, on a train journey to take the artist’s ashes to his hometown. She wants to know all about the painting, which launched Jat’s career at age 14, and the circle of beloved friends who inspired it. The bestselling author of A Man Called Ove (2014) and other novels, Backman gives us a heartwarming story about how these friends, set adrift by the violence and unhappiness of their homes, found each other and created a new definition of family. “You think you’re alone,” one character explains, “but there are others like you, people who stand in front of white walls and blank paper and only see magical things. One day one of them will recognize you and call out: ‘You’re one of us!’” As Ted tells stories about his friends—how Jat doubted his talents but found a champion in fiery Joar, who took on every bully to defend him; how Ali brought an excitement to their circle that was “like a blinding light, like a heart attack”—Louisa recognizes herself as a kindred soul and feels a calling to realize her own artistic gifts. What she decides to do with the painting is part of a caper worthy of the stories that Ted tells her. The novel is humorous, poignant, and always life-affirming, even when describing the bleakness of the teens’ early lives. “Art is a fragile magic, just like love,” as someone tells Louisa, “and that’s humanity’s only defense against death.”
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781982112820
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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