A philosophically stimulating novel crackling with emotional liveliness.
In Fletcher’s novel, a teenager learns he will die at the age of 27 and struggles to forge meaning in his brief life.
As soon as Daniel Brooker turns 18 years old, he heads to the Department of Designated Dates to find out when he will die of natural causes; in this peculiar alternate reality provocatively conjured by the author, anyone can procure this information (a technological instrument called a “gizmotron” makes this possible) if they so choose. To his astonishment and despair, Daniel finds out that he will die when he is only 27 years old and commences a life of endless dissipation—a “slow descent into fuckuppery.” Like most “shorters,” he forms friends with his own kind: Naomi is a hippie doomed to die at 25 and Brian is a drug dealer whose life will end at 34. Daniel becomes, in the opinion of his father, a “dumbass with no direction,” an addict lost in the haze of drug abuse, though still heroically clinging to some semblance of moral dignity. The author perspicaciously imagines the kind of world that would arise from this grim knowledge, one split between Gnostics—those who believe one should choose not to know, to avoid the terrible psychic cost of such information—and Watersons, religious zealots who believe an early death is a sure sign of moral turpitude and an expression of God’s disfavor. Daniel descends from a family of Gnostics but feels compelled to know his lifespan nevertheless, and that information proves crushing to him, an invitation to see his existence as essentially pointless (a moral predicament intelligently conveyed by Fletcher).
At the heart of this fascinating novel is the moral meaning of one’s mortality. Everyone in this strange world will perish, but those who expect long lives can postpone a wrenching reflection on their finitude. Shorters like Daniel are not afforded such luxury; unable to cope at so young an age with such weighty issues, he devotes himself to chasing oblivion. The allure of knowing, the author makes clear, is overwhelming, but the consequences can be existentially devastating. Fletcher poignantly captures Daniel’s unenviable plight; here, he succumbs to sadness when Naomi dies on schedule: “I felt so insignificant. I am so tired of being alive. The fucking rat race. We’re just a bunch of worthless fucks scraping for meaning in a cold remorseless world. Holding onto each other as we disparate. Searching for meaning where there is none.” This literarily plain, even cliched writing style is maintained throughout the entire novel—the absence of any poetic spark is the principal failing of this otherwise stirring work. The tale is told from Daniel’s perspective, in the first person, and so this ends up working—he sounds just like any wounded young man would, if more intelligent than most. In place of stylized prose, a verisimilitude is impressively achieved. A thoughtful rumination on human mortality is achieved as well, one that cannily investigates the wages of too much knowledge.
A philosophically stimulating novel crackling with emotional liveliness.Pub Date: April 19, 2025
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: March 26, 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
Vivid characters are set adrift in a “ripped from the headlines” tableau that complicates the story, and the storytelling.
A diverting midlife story plucks at the secrets good people carry to the grave.
As a reader, Artie Dam—the protagonist of Strout’s 11th book—encounters Olive Kitteridge, “a crotchety old woman from Maine” and Strout’s most celebrated fictional character. Artie picked up the Pulitzer-anointed book centered on Olive after his wife, Evie, loved it, “oh, years ago now.” Strout is having a bit of fun—that “oh” is a trademark—even though she marbles her latest novel with marital infidelity, political anxiety, and suicide. Indeed, it is the fact that Olive’s father died by suicide that Artie, 57 and gaining a paunch, recalls now in his own dismalness. As the story begins, he is pondering the most discreet way to die, despite having been Massachusetts’ Teacher of the Year five years earlier. Artie seems the inverse of irascible Olive: beloved by his students; by his grown son, Rob; and by the English teacher, Anne, who quietly pines for him. But like Olive, Artie has distressing impulses—he steals a comb, then some expensive shirts. Much of the text bobs along on Artie’s stocktaking memories, chunked out in short, occasionally abrupt paragraphs. Strout’s storytelling is thinning a bit, like middle-aged hair. Then, midbook, she clobbers Artie with a brutal existential shock. In its wake, Strout surfs the nature of loneliness, corrosive secrets, and the convulsions of the 2024 presidential election. Hers is an unremittingly Blue State book, although Artie has one friend who, unbeknownst to him, supported Donald Trump. On the day after the election, Artie somberly concludes that his “country was committing suicide.” This is the first novel in which Strout entirely vacates Maine for another setting. But she sticks with Artie and, on the final pages, delivers him a satisfying finale.
Vivid characters are set adrift in a “ripped from the headlines” tableau that complicates the story, and the storytelling.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9798217154746
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
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