This offbeat take on time-hopping stories begins slowly but finds momentum in memorable characterization.
Davis follows up Little by Little (2019) with the final installment in her Tower Room series, featuring two industrious tweens determined to complete a mission.
The Tower Room is a magical space in a house in Toronto that allows certain people to be transported back in time under the guidance of a man named Leo. In the previous book, an 11-year-old named Charlotte Lisa Hansen, Leo’s granddaughter, was one of those people. She and her pal, Henry Jacobs, journeyed back to 1939 to the childhood of a woman named Gwendolyn MacFarlane, and made sure that she didn’t come into possession of a brooch called the Tree of Life. In this work, the year is 1999 and although Charlotte and Henry are still young, Gwendolyn is a rather well-to-do, snobbish 71-year-old who’s led an unhappy, self-involved life. Gwendolyn accompanies Charlotte and Henry on a trip to London, although the elder woman doesn’t particularly like minding children (especially Charlotte) and isn’t fond of most people in general (although she has a fondness for Henry). As an example of her haughty ways, she purchases two first-class tickets for herself for the trip “thereby eliminating the possibility” of talking to a stranger. The trio are set to meet a woman named Sarah Nyman, who now runs a theater school for kids and who played a key role in Gwendolyn’s childhood; Sarah was also in a relationship with Gwendolyn’s brother, Charlie, a Royal Air Force pilot who died in World War II. The trip will be an opportunity for Gwendolyn to confront aspects of her past that she may not even realize are still bothering her. And, naturally, there will be plenty to keep Charlotte and Henry busy.
This combination of knowledgeable children and a snooty curmudgeon makes for some humorous interactions. As strange and serious as the set-up may be, the story features plenty of humor, as when Henry points out that his parents seem to “like the idea of having a child in the abstract,” or when Gwendolyn’s stuck-up nature is illustrated by details such as her holding her teacup “at a precarious angle while she viewed the birds, chipmunks, and late blooming dahlias with a sense of superiority.” The main plot, however, takes some time to develop; early pages are spent with Henry’s parents discussing with Gwendolyn and others whether Henry should make the trip to England at all; this doesn’t do much to ignite an interest in the journey to come, despite the lively banter. Nevertheless, the characters are distinct and likable, with turns of phrase that quickly gives readers a sense of each individual, as when young Charlotte explains how she doesn’t require much sleep, which “makes things difficult for the people around me, but they simply must learn how to cope.” Much of the book’s appeal lies in following Gwendolyn’s emotional journey and finding out what, if anything, she will learn about herself in the end.
This offbeat take on time-hopping stories begins slowly but finds momentum in memorable characterization.Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9781039192133
Page Count: 372
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2024
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
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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