A Southern original adds to his gallery of Southern originals.
Legendary South Carolina absurdist Singleton weighs in with another rollicking collection—17 quick-paced, chatty, funny stories.
Singleton’s protagonists—often overeducated, tempest-tossed white guys working bizarre jobs that are “nonprofit” in one way or several—have often been called “eccentrics,” but one joy of inhabiting his satiric vision is the constantly reoccurring thought that despite their flaws (impulsiveness, a predilection for drink, a little larceny in the heart, a sense of justice that can get out of hand), the South might be better off if these guys were nearer the middle of it. In “Dispensers,” a man who collects and saws down and sells graffitied old wooden desktops stops off with his wife at a Georgia diner, where they meet and have their faith restored a little by the grizzled old men of VAGINA: Veterans Against Guns in North America. “Echoes” features doting but hapless grandfather Big Les Tolbert, who takes his way-too-worldly, cyber-dependent grandson on a quixotic, impromptu, and doomed expedition to see the ocean at Myrtle Beach. In “Protecting Witnesses and Witnessing Protection,” a husband—detoxing in spouse-forced exile in the boondocks—wakes to find a vintage tractor in his driveway...which turns out to provide a surprising path to a community of fellow sufferers. Again and again, Singleton focuses on the accidental burdens conferred on us by names—whether of people, businesses, do-gooding organizations, professions—and shows us characters doing a frantic dance around their sense that there’s a destiny in what you’re called. This turns out to be a great way of dramatizing, as Singleton wants to here, the effort well-meaning people expend to make peace with who and what and where they are. The stories don’t always have destinations, but one of the fundamental laws of Singleton’s invented world is that destinations are way overrated. Nobody complains that a carnival isn’t tautly plotted; you just plunk down your dime and wait for wonders.
A Southern original adds to his gallery of Southern originals.Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2023
ISBN: 9781950539864
Page Count: 247
Publisher: Dzanc
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2023
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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