A deeply affecting novel that blends sharp humor with aching vulnerability.
Stephenson offers a tale of self-discovery about an adrift 22-year-old Californian who finds purpose in a new job as a live-in biographer.
It’s 2011, and Franny Chase feels caught between the grind of low-wage, part-time work at a “la-di-da Westwood Village bed/bath boutique” and her dream of becoming a professional writer. However, when she accepts a position as live-in assistant to Dorothy Gaines, an overbearing and eccentric older woman who wants Franny to write her memoir, her employment becomes more than an ordinary job. What begins as a way for Franny to make ends meet soon leads her to a web of expectations, secrets, and fragile alliances inside the grand house she now lives in. Stephenson’s novel flows easily between past and present, explores the young narrator’s uneasy friendship with wealthy divorcée Vicky Shirley, as she deals with her own recent divorce; her ill-fated flirtation with Dorothy’s charming but dangerous grandson Bobby, a lawyer; and Franny's desire to find a family after the early deaths of her parents. The characters she encounters don’t serve as obstacles, simply there to make Franny’s life harder; instead, they function more like mirrors, showing her all the fears, flaws, and strengths that others see in her. The novel’s use of dialogue and atmosphere is excellent, revealing drawing rooms glowing with color and texture (“All accommodating the pleasing accumulated clutter of a life. All glowing with beeswax rubbed to a shine”), and parties limned with tension and possibility. Its willingness to dwell on themes of self-doubt and longing will resonate with readers who appreciate narrative introspection; others, though, may find the repetitiveness of the narrator’s insecurity slows the pace. Still, there’s a lively push and pull between biting humor and bruised sincerity that elevates the work. It’s not inaccurate to call it a coming-of-age story, but it situates itself less in youthful romance than in the messy, enduring work of survival, reinvention, and belonging.
A deeply affecting novel that blends sharp humor with aching vulnerability.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2026
ISBN: 9798900710358
Page Count: 295
Publisher: Luminare Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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