A coming-of-age tale that beautifully evokes the contrasting environments of Puerto Rico and Massachusetts.
Caught between two worlds, a girl born in Puerto Rico struggles to find her place in 1950s and ’60s America.
Though Andrea Rodríguez and her little brother, Pablo, were born in Puerto Rico, all they know is the company town of Woronoco, Massachusetts, their home since they were babies. In 1954, their father, Luis José, sent for the family after finding work at a paper mill. Over the years, their mother, Raquel, comes to regret the move, resenting Woronoco’s remoteness and mourning her alienation from her sisters, cultural traditions, and mother tongue. On the first day of summer vacation after Andrea finishes third grade, Raquel flees to Puerto Rico with the children, her second escape attempt. (The first was foiled by her inability to drive.) Andrea and Pablo are forced to adapt to a new climate, new status quo, and new prejudices. Once again, they’re considered strangers in a strange land. Meanwhile, their mother seems to lose interest in them, failing to enroll them in school and ditching them with their aunts to pal around with an old flame. Whiplash results when their father shows up out of the blue and whisks them back to Massachusetts. Upon returning to Woronoco, Andrea and Pablo must simultaneously readjust to American culture and the English language and navigate the standard growing pains of tween- and teendom. Their father’s casual racism and conservative opinions cause increasing friction, culminating in a moment that overshadows Andrea’s life for eight years. Author Pérez does an exceptional job of telling a story from a child’s perspective, especially in the first half of the book; Andrea’s gradual loss of trust in her mother strikes a particularly poignant note. As the siblings’ time in Puerto Rico recedes and they hurtle toward adolescence and then adulthood, the narrative falters somewhat, feeling more rushed and containing less of the rich background that made the initial chapters so compelling.
A coming-of-age tale that beautifully evokes the contrasting environments of Puerto Rico and Massachusetts.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781668012062
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
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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