An absorbing, French-accented story of a complex father-son bond.
A father and son strive to heal their relationship in a novel set in France and the United States.
Business is very good for Victor Marchand and his son, JP. Victor, who lives in France, is a “picker,” a buyer of traditional and authentic dismantled goods, while JP runs their import establishment, Les Beaux Châteaux, in Manhattan. Money means nothing to their rich clientele, which benefits both of them. But the death of Victor’s wife and JP’s mother, Frida, was a crushing blow. Never close, the father and son are drifting even further apart. JP feels a hollowness in his life. He takes a leave from the store and pours his energies into remodeling his mansion in the Hamptons. Then he flies to France to help his grieving father. On returning to New York, he finds that the office manager he trusted has absconded, emptied the safe, and wiped the computers clean. JP has to fight to start over, and father and son bond through the calamity. As they do, each get a shot at an enduring love: Victor with Caterina, a Russian expat, and JP with Veronique, a Frenchwoman, or Sharon Tracker, a brilliant Native American attorney. Along with their romantic entanglements, another story plays out as JP and Victor realize how much they need each other and enjoy spending time together. Will their new respect last, or will the men grow apart again? Screenwriter Marks creates truly rounded characters as she paints a memorable picture of the import business and the decline of small French towns, as when she writes: “French boulangeries used to be iconic and indubitable on the main street of every village in France. The buildings that housed them were often crafted to suit the needs of several generations, not only in the fortitude of the materials used—marble and mahogany, granite and walnut—but also in their classic, elegant proportion and simplicity….Today’s bakers either can’t make a living selling bread, or they won’t.” As readers root for JP and Victor to thrive, they’ll get a delicious taste of France.
An absorbing, French-accented story of a complex father-son bond.Pub Date: March 15, 2022
ISBN: 979-8985456608
Page Count: 250
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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
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