An uneven collection whose best stories are ultimately satisfying.
Burke offers a compilation of short fiction, poetry, and flash fiction that she calls “my latest exploration of jazz, poker, falling in love, sunsets, and life’s amazing adventures.”
The author presents a collection of her work in three sections—stories, poems, and “microfiction”—that finish with the title story. The 10 initial tales range in length from three to 15 pages and often center on love and music. In “Middle School Love,” for instance, the narrator reflects, years after the fact, on working out the second movement of George Frideric Handel’s “Water Music” right before going on a first date: “When I was not sixteen anymore, the heartbreak served up a valuable lesson,” she recalls. “There’s a moment when you know whether you can trust another person with your love.” Likewise in “Second-Hand Squeeze Box,” a woman accompanies her friend to buy a clarinet in a 1980s pawn shop and is unexpectedly “ambushed” by a heavy, old squeeze-box accordion: “I couldn’t resist,” she remembers. “The mother-of-pearl buttons and deeply folded bellows called out to me from behind glass”; she ends up meeting—and being charmed by—the instrument’s original owner. The volume’s poems are less narratively straightforward, with items such as “The Mirror” being typical: “How have I aged? / With aggravation and adaptation / An eye on my career and professional veneer / With stumbles and fumbles and all kind of errors.”
As with most mixed-form collections, the results are uneven. The poetry, for example, is largely unremarkable, and the untitled flash-fiction samples often feel unformed and unfulfilling. “The neighbors behind me pulled into their driveway, headlights blindingly announcing themselves through my bedroom window,” begins one of the latter, finishing up with, “Must I be awakened?” The collection’s longer stories, by contrast, are full of compelling imagery and narrative interest. All are quite strong, and some are excellent. The book’s title piece is a standout, in which a cellist from a small Alabama symphony orchestra travels back to her native New York City in pursuit of a seemingly impossible dream. A disreputable online seller has convinced her that he possesses and is willing to part with the manuscript of the first movement of an unknown symphony by her musical hero, Gustav Holst. When she meets with him, he pulls a gun on her, and she’s only narrowly rescued by police, who—in the story’s only unconvincing detail—cursorily send her on her way, manuscript in hand. She soon consults a series of well-drawn specialists who offer their opinions regarding authenticity of the Meteor Symphony. In this and other tales, Burke strikes a wonderfully convincing note of world-weariness, with narrators who’ve been scarred by love but somehow still maintain a capacity for wonder. Many of the works then convincingly supply elements that are worthy of that wonder. Overall, the set would have been stronger if the poetry and flash-fiction had been dropped, but even so, the longer stories carry the day.
An uneven collection whose best stories are ultimately satisfying.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9798992351903
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Queen Esther Publishing LLC
Review Posted Online: yesterday
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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