An overly chatty but memorable and nuanced tale of transcendentalism.
In Berns’ debut novel, a married couple charts an uncertain and surprising course.
Paul and Susan Winslow are a couple in their 30s. They adore old movies and old movie soundtracks. When they’re together, they really get a kick out of quoting lines from films like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? At the beginning of the story, Paul has just returned home from Massachusetts where he gave an address as a visiting Emerson scholar. Paul is a Ralph Waldo Emerson academic expert with designs on tenure. He and Susan dream of financial security so they can finally commit to having a baby. But Paul has come back from his trip “hungry for something deeper” in life after speaking with an “illuminating” woman in her 80s. He is not quite himself, and he wonders if he needs to take a break from teaching, perhaps even take a sabbatical and travel to Oregon. Susan will have none of it. She thinks maybe it’s time to end their marriage. The two go their separate ways to fume. Paul has a significant encounter with some coyotes after he takes a walk into the desert. Susan has a supernatural visit from Mr. Emerson himself while she’s passed out drunk and concussed in the driveway. Will they stay together when the dust settles? They share quirky interests, but their personalities are very different. Paul has New Age leanings (he brings home a dowsing rod from his trip), while Susan is thoroughly practical. Yet while Paul’s engaging standoff with the coyotes is tense and teaches him about life’s fragility, Susan’s time learning with Emerson is long-winded. Emerson tells Susan things like she possesses “a sharp mind to meet all and every challenge” that feel more saccharine than insightful. The frequent dialogue includes unnecessary proclamations like “Alright, I’ve said everything I can.” Nevertheless, the reader is left to wonder how things will conclude and if the rift will really be the end of this curious match.
An overly chatty but memorable and nuanced tale of transcendentalism.Pub Date: March 30, 2022
ISBN: 9798420501719
Page Count: 276
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: July 14, 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
Light on plot and heavy on bolstering traditional gender norms as the ultimate goal for both men and women.
A Seattle woman meets a Chicago businessman as she flies home from a visit to a friend, and her small act of kindness blossoms into more.
Maisy Gallagher is barely making ends meet. With her father’s unexpected death a few years earlier, she dropped out of nursing school to help out in the family’s jewelry store, working with her uncle. Her older brother, Sean, also moved back home so he and Maisy could help their mother and their 10-year-old brother, Patrick. When Maisy offers a ride to a rude businessman who sat next to her on the plane, she’s just operating on the kindness her grandmother instilled in her. That businessman, Chase Furst, turns out to be an incredibly wealthy banker; he’s flown into Seattle to make funeral arrangements for his mother, to whom he hasn’t spoken in years. Sparks fly in this gentle and predictable romance that leans heavily on long-distance and class-divide tropes. As with many of the author’s books, Christianity and the characters’ reliance on God’s will—as they wait and see what happens next—play a large part, as do traditional gender roles where women cook, clean, and only work in paying jobs until they have children at home to take care of. The author does offer a lighter touch when it comes to the painful ways alcoholism can destroy family relationships, with an understanding of the regret that can weigh on every family member.
Light on plot and heavy on bolstering traditional gender norms as the ultimate goal for both men and women.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9798217091676
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
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