A clever ride that will be exhilarating for some but exasperating for others.
Robinson’s multilayered metanarrative follows professors who revive a Russian classic and pursue it to unbelievable conclusions.
A formal editorial foreword from the fictional Liberal State University Press puts the exact authorship of this novel, and the stage version of Alexander Pushkin’s classic 19th-century novel-in-verse Eugene Onegin within it, in doubt—although the work remains attributed to a Douglas Robinson. Readers then dive directly into the play, which updates the Russian masterpiece with contemporary language and a cheeky twist that leaves its characters in search of their own narrator: Pushkin himself. The layers of authorship and identity get thornier as readers meet Professor Kip Knurl, who, in order to properly direct and star in the production, has started living his everyday life as Pushkin: “I don’t ask people to call me Pushkin as a favor,” Kip thinks to himself after an awkward conversation with a charming waitress at the local cafe. “I am Pushkin.” Kip’s dedication to the role goes to such extremes that it jeopardizes his marriage, provokes bizarre, violent reactions from his student castmates, and may have altered reality itself. After a mysterious assassin shoots Kip, the specter of Pushkin himself visits the play’s author, Douglas Robinson—or is it some ghostly version of Kip playing Pushkin—or something extraterrestrial? Real-life author Robinson is clearly having a ball as he gleefully constructs a postmodern roller coaster. He loops between deep comparative-literature questions and slapstick absurdities, such as medically impossible wounds and a violent football game between competitors dressed in lingerie. The story’s many layers can be off-putting at times, however. Readers who are less familiar with Pushkin may feel just as adrift as the book’s ghostly narrators—especially in the lengthy, challenging opening, which demands some knowledge of the original. Literature majors, or fans of self-aware fiction by the likes of David Foster Wallace, will be more likely to gladly untangle the strange knots that Robinson ties.
A clever ride that will be exhilarating for some but exasperating for others.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9798901740477
Page Count: 382
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
Great crime fiction.
An apparent suicide threatens to destroy an Irish farm town in the final volume of French’s Cal Hooper trilogy.
In the fictional western Ireland townland of Ardnakelty, “there’s a girl going after missing.” Soon young Rachel Holohan is found dead in the river. Shortly before, she had stopped at Lena Dunne’s home, and nothing had seemed amiss. The medical examiner determines she’d swallowed antifreeze, and he presumes she then fell from a bridge into the water. The medical examiner and the town agree she’d died by suicide. But there is far more to the plot: 16-year-old Trey Reddy thinks Tommy Moynihan murdered Rachel. Moynihan doles out favors and punishments to the local townsfolk, who know it’s best not to cross him. Now rumors spread that Moynihan wants land and has a secret plan to forcibly buy up parcels from the locals. A factory will be built, or a great big data center, or who knows what. If Tommy’s son, Eugene, can get elected to the local council, then compulsory purchase orders for land will follow, and the farms will disappear. Eugene, who’d been romantically involved with Rachel, is wonderfully described as “on the weedy edge of good-looking” and just fine as long as you “don’t have high expectations in the way of chins.” Lena is engaged to the American Cal Hooper, an ex-cop turned woodworker. They are “more or less raising” Trey, and these three core characters are drawn into the mystery of Rachel’s death and may have to face the looming clouds of civilizational change for Ardnakelty. Lena is chastised for “asking your wee questions all round the townland,” and Trey wants to quit school, against Cal’s advice. Finally, the story’s best line: “You can’t go killing people just because they deserve it.”
Great crime fiction.Pub Date: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 9780593493465
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
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