A scrappy, exciting, liquor-fueled journey through Austin, Texas.
A Vietnam War veteran dives into Austin’s burgeoning music scene while pursuing a law career in Keith’s novel.
After recovering from an injury sustained fighting in the Vietnam War, Sanders Eden attends Texas Tech on the GI Bill. He doesn’t quite fit with the crowd in Lubbock, so when it’s time to choose a law school, he heads to Austin. What really excites him is Austin’s music scene; it’s the ’70s, and the venues are scrappy, loud, and amazing. Sanders (Sandy to friends) lives it up at Antone’s, Liberty Lunch, Hole in the Wall, Armadillo World Headquarters, and other local spots. Bar fights, meeting girls, the amazing array of musicians—it’s a whirlwind of blurry, drunken, and memorable nights. Fatefully, Sandy eventually meets Bev, a young academic. She later recalls, “I got to Austin in 1986 and eventually found Sanders, another breed of southern man—one fiery, physical, intellectually alive, and with a modern social conscience.” They marry, and as Sandy’s law career takes off, a personal injury case keeps his name in the papers. But it’s a whistleblower that really puts Sandy in the middle of Austin’s combustible political scene as an explosive ethics case hits close to home and tests Sandy and Bev both personally and professionally. Keith’s boisterous, rollicking story starts with a bang and never really slows down. The protagonist is pursuing a legal career, but that doesn’t stop him from jumping into the middle of the whiskey-fueled action, whether at a honkytonk or in a courtroom. The descriptions of the Austin of yore, with its myriad musicians and nightspots, feel earthy and real, striking a strong note of authenticity. The novel is not perfect—the chapters are told from different perspectives, and they are not always labeled, causing confusion. The second half of the narrative is more about legal and political issues, and the plot can get lost as the writing bogs down in related details.
A scrappy, exciting, liquor-fueled journey through Austin, Texas.Pub Date: May 20, 2025
ISBN: 9798891326361
Page Count: 268
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Review Posted Online: June 8, 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
SEEN & HEARD
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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