An uneven but rich novel of a fisherman’s career.
A California fisherman evolves with the times in Koepf’s debut coming-of-age novel.
Alex Skarsen comes from a family of commercial fishermen in Half Moon Bay, California. His rite of passage comes in 1961, when the 11-year-old boy is allowed to skip school, put on his boots, and join his father and uncle for the opening day of crab season aboard their family boat, the Valkyrie.He’s not only initiated into the hard work of crab fishing but the business side, as well, in which union politics and crew rivalries can make for conflicts: “It’s a God danged free for all, is what it is,” complains Alex’s mother. “The whole season comes down to the first week and God forbid a breakdown. You work on the gear for a month, go fishin’ for cheap and hate your friends.” However, when a man on a rival boat falls overboard, Alex learns just what sort of stand-up guys his father and uncle are. As Alex matures into the fishing lifestyle, times get increasingly hard: The fishing industry is changing, the pickings are thinner, and crews must take increasing risks to make their pay. Along with his family’s crabbing work, Alex finds gigs diving for abalone, salvaging scrap, and fishing for salmon in the wild waters of Alaska. He encounters a wide range of characters who make their living on or near the sea, each with his or her own story—and not all stories are to be trusted.
The novel covers Alex’s three-decade career on the water and ends with some of his closest scrapes during his stretch in Harbor Patrol. Wherever he finds himself, though, the fish are never far from his mind; as he tells an old friend late in the novel, “Every time I dream, it’s a fishing dream.” Overall, Koepf’s prose reveals an eye for sharp detail, honed over his own decades on the waves: “The sky and clouds were displayed on the watery surface as blue and gray marbled mirror images. There was not a breath of wind all day, nor had there been for the two previous days.” The novel has a choppy, episodic structure for the most part, particularly in the second half, in which the coming-of-age story that revolves around Alex and his family’s boat is supplanted by odd jobs and solo adventures. Like a boat on the sea, though, Koepf doesn’t always have the wind at his back; some segments of the novel drift with little momentum, while others move along briskly and with purpose. Even so, the book is never tedious, due to its finely drawn characters, and readers will have the sense that they’re looking in on a way of life that’s mostly vanished over the last half century. In the tradition of exaggerated fishing stories, there are a few elements that strain believability to amp up the drama or humor. For the most part, though, the author provides a stirring, melancholic, and naturalistic portrait of a life on boats.
An uneven but rich novel of a fisherman’s career.Pub Date: Dec. 2, 2020
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 369
Publisher: BookBaby
Review Posted Online: Nov. 28, 2021
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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