Thirteen uneven—but often compelling—tales of death and sharp, pointy teeth.
In Herkert’s speculative short stories, everyday people confront mysterious and absurd circumstances.
The collection opens strongly with “Strange Frequencies,” which follows married couple Ella and Levi Jacobson, who’ve been struggling through Ella’s cancer diagnosis. While listening to a radio station that plays all of Ella’s favorite songs, they hear an advertisement for the services of a Dr. Ernest Willingham, who promises to solve all their problems. They make an appointment immediately, but the doctor’s strange methods have bizarre and unexpected results. This somber yet fantastical story primes the reader for what’s to come. In the second tale, “I Absolutely Hate Cats,” Pat strives for a promotion at Johnson Financial, but four stray cats have loudly taken up residence in his yard, leaving him sleep-deprived. A coworker offers him a dangerous solution, but it’s one he can’t resist. It’s one of multiple stories featuring cats and a general loss of humanity. “Mr Forward & the Misbelievers” follows the Rochefort family’s panic after receiving threatening letters. In them, a mysterious Mr Forward informs them that “all the misbelievers will die,” but the family struggles to solve the mystery. The haggardly title character is seen again in “Mr Forward & The Misintervention,” in which a deadbeat father is forced to confront his adult son; the conclusion is cleverly intertwined with the Rocheforts’ tale, effectively feeding into the underlying plot of the entire collection. Some of the stories end in an overly abrupt manner and suffer from repetitive prose that unnecessarily states what characters are thinking while also showing it through action. However, each character has a voice that’s distinctive, and each story has a specific mood and tone. Herkert also ably transports readers into the puzzle of who Mr Forward really is and what he wants from humankind.
Thirteen uneven—but often compelling—tales of death and sharp, pointy teeth.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2024
ISBN: 9798987827420
Page Count: 271
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.
A falsely accused Black man goes into hiding in this masterful novella by Wright (1908-1960), finally published in full.
Written in 1941 and '42, between Wright’s classics Native Son and Black Boy, this short novel concerns Fred Daniels, a modest laborer who’s arrested by police officers and bullied into signing a false confession that he killed the residents of a house near where he was working. In a brief unsupervised moment, he escapes through a manhole and goes into hiding in a sewer. A series of allegorical, surrealistic set pieces ensues as Fred explores the nether reaches of a church, a real estate firm, and a jewelry store. Each stop is an opportunity for Wright to explore themes of hope, greed, and exploitation; the real estate firm, Wright notes, “collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent from poor colored folks.” But Fred’s deepening existential crisis and growing distance from society keep the scenes from feeling like potted commentaries. As he wallpapers his underground warren with cash, mocking and invalidating the currency, he registers a surrealistic but engrossing protest against divisive social norms. The novel, rejected by Wright’s publisher, has only appeared as a substantially truncated short story until now, without the opening setup and with a different ending. Wright's take on racial injustice seems to have unsettled his publisher: A note reveals that an editor found reading about Fred’s treatment by the police “unbearable.” That may explain why Wright, in an essay included here, says its focus on race is “rather muted,” emphasizing broader existential themes. Regardless, as an afterword by Wright’s grandson Malcolm attests, the story now serves as an allegory both of Wright (he moved to France, an “exile beyond the reach of Jim Crow and American bigotry”) and American life. Today, it resonates deeply as a story about race and the struggle to envision a different, better world.
A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-59853-676-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Library of America
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
BOOK TO SCREEN
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