A powerful exploration of artistic ambition, deception, and redemption.
Aspiring journalist Violet Maris embarks on an audacious scheme that threatens to unravel her identity in Wald’s novel.
Violet Maris, a 26-year-old journalist, sees an opportunity for a groundbreaking exposé when she learns about The Home, a prestigious artists’ residency in Provincetown that may not be all that it seems. Since journalists aren’t admitted, she goes undercover and submits her mentor Spencer Bayrose’s unpublished stories as her own. With his approval, she secures a prestigious fellowship and enters the insular world of The Home. There, she encounters a diverse group of artists, forming tentative bonds with fellow “verbals” (writers) and “visuals” (painters and sculptors), including the sensitive poet Cordelia, the blunt fiction writer Phrank, and the captivating Jeanette. Despite her initial skepticism, she becomes immersed in the creative energy of The Home, a place where ambition clashes with creativity. But her deception weighs heavily on her, especially as she grows close to Gene Pelletier, a board member she lied to about her intentions to report on the retreat. Her secret is further complicated by Spencer’s declining health. After his death from AIDS, Violet is left to confront her grief while carrying the weight of her deception. The novel’s introspective first-person narration allows readers to fully immerse themselves in Violet’s perspective. Provincetown’s setting comes to life with its seaside, bohemian vibes and vibrant energy (“The weather, while not as frigid as it was on the mainland, had a soul-chilling quality that made you feel a bit bipolar—alternately anxious and elated. My own moods, in fact, did vacillate between the two”). Sharp dialogue, like Gene Pelletier’s guarded remark about The Home’s privacy, adds depth to the story (“Miss Maris…I doubt any of them would want to participate in anything like that. It’s kind of a private space for us, you know. Everybody’s there to work on their art”). As Violet balances her growing attachment to The Home with the guilt of her deceit, the novel builds toward an inevitable reckoning. The lies that once felt so clever now feel suffocating, and the price of her ambition may be more than she anticipated.
A powerful exploration of artistic ambition, deception, and redemption.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781646035953
Page Count: 116
Publisher: Regal House Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
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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