An often compelling historical overview but an uneven drama.
Reynolds offers a novel set during the final decade of the battle for women’s suffrage in the United States.
One morning in May 1912, in the small town of Sycamore Falls, Kansas, Kathryn Wolfe is opening the Main Street Bookshop, which she co-owns with her friend Mary Dodd. Their book-display table features a new arrival: Women’s Suffrage: A Short History of a Great Movement. Kathryn and Mary are both dedicated suffragists, and they’re working with other women in town to organize an event in support of the Equal Suffrage Amendment to the state constitution, scheduled for a November vote. They meet under the guise of a women’s club dedicated to discussion of more “appropriate” subjects, such as “education, child labor, and library creation.” However, men in town form their own club to fight the amendment, and the community atmosphere becomes confrontational, especially during a July parade in which suffragists are met by hecklers. After Kansas voters approve the amendment, Kathryn, Mary, and her growing group of suffragists turn their attention to Washington, D.C., joining the March 1913 walk for voting rights during Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration. Reynolds parallels his primary narrative with Kathryn’s personal struggle: She was injured in a fall several years ago, which left her with a limp, and she’s determined to one day reach the summit of Sugar Loaf Hill. The author also effectively provides additional drama in a disturbing side plot about the marriage of one of Kathryn’s friends, which is scarred by infidelity and domestic violence. The overall character development is minimal, however, and the pace ambles a bit too casually. The most engaging section covers Kathryn’s yearlong participation in the picket line outside the White House fence, beginning in February 1917. Here, Reynolds’ prose becomes more impassioned as he describes the increasing violence the women faced; in November 1917, for instance, Kathryn is sentenced to two months in the Occoquan Workhouse, a hellhole where she is dragged, beaten, and handcuffed to a bar above her head: “Cries and moans echoed through the corridors into the night.”
An often compelling historical overview but an uneven drama.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73-509383-3
Page Count: 268
Publisher: Hadley Rille Books
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
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
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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