Crime catches up with a well-meaning former lawbreaker in this engaging, transformative tale.
A businessman who can’t escape his crooked past eventually finds salvation in this novel.
Antonucci aptly captures the book’s theme in his subtitle. But the thing is that Sonny Rocco doesn’t actually exist. Sonny is the creation of the criminally precocious Rocky Geordono, the eldest son of a sketchy father and a religious mother. From a young age, Rocky ponders how Carmen, the father he idolizes, could maintain such a high standard of living in Detroit on a beer deliveryman’s salary. Rocky becomes even more curious when he discovers money and drugs in Carmen’s shiny black Cadillac. Determined to outdo his father, Rocky sets up a chop shop inside his high school auto classroom. But two tragic events accelerate Rocky’s entrance into and departure from a life of crime. After Carmen is mowed down and killed by a garbage truck, Rocky moves his business into a warehouse and expands. But when his younger brother, Tulio, a Marine, is listed as MIA in Vietnam, Rocky grows bored with his enterprise and starts trading stocks. Figuring a change of scenery will help his depressed mother, Rocky cuts all of his ties with his illegal business and they move to Miami, where he gets married and starts a family. But Rocky’s normal life goes awry when he does one last obligatory favor for his criminal pals. In this intriguing hybrid, Antonucci blends his experience in auto repairs and education with his relationship with Jesus. His proselytizing does get heavy-handed at times, as Rocky is peppered with requests to accept God by his family and friends. Since the benefits of a Christian life are one of the pillars of this volume, that’s to be expected. The preaching doesn’t detract much from this nuanced portrait of American cities, first Detroit, then Miami, ranging from the 1960s to the ’90s. The author’s strengths are his detailed descriptions of Italian family life and criminal organizations’ dealings, both early in the work. But his characters are too often one-note, either holy or immoral, which lessens their complexity. Still, readers will enjoy the protagonist’s colorful and tragic life.
Crime catches up with a well-meaning former lawbreaker in this engaging, transformative tale.Pub Date: April 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-937720-57-5
Page Count: 369
Publisher: Sea Hill Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 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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