An engaging Homeric tale of a man’s island-hopping quest to find his mother.
A historical novel offers an episode in the life of a Micronesian mariner.
Ever since he was a small boy, Ḷainjin heard tales about his long-absent mother. The story goes that Tarmālu led her fleet of valuable proa boats away from the island of Rālik to keep them from being destroyed in a storm, and neither she nor her proas were ever seen again. Since he’s been old enough to search for her, Ḷainjin has done just that, sailing his canoe from island to island, looking for news of any survivors from her fleet. Now he’s attempting his most ambitious mission yet: a multiday voyage to the far island of Pohnpei, accompanied by no one except his pet bird, the Chief. There, a new friend, Ewalt, takes him to the magnificent stone village rising from a reef just off the coast. “To view these massive, angular shafts emerging from the water was to worship them in awe at their grandeur,” thinks Ḷainjin. “Surely, this was the center of the ocean. Surely, this was the apex of his water world.” In the village, Ḷainjin hears of the Seekers, four survivors from Rālik who work for the lord of Pohnpei, scavenging large logs from the sea. He also hears of his mother’s capture by cannibals on the distant island of Papua. Can Ḷainjin convince the Seekers to help him discover his mother’s fate? In this prequel to Man Shark(2019), Knight’s prose displays a detailed knowledge of Micronesian culture, architecture, and seafaring techniques: “They glided swiftly across the reef toward the landing, sinking through the shallow troughs and rising on the whitecapped swells that rolled past them and crashed ahead into the entangled mangrove swamp on their right and the rocky shore to the fire-flicked village on the left.” The book takes its time getting started, and the author does not always provide the full context for everything (though he does offer footnotes explaining the frequent Micronesian words). But the novel’s mindset is so thoroughly pre-modern that readers can’t help but be swept up in Ḷainjin’s journey, learning to appreciate the poetry of the atolls, reefs, woods, stones, boats, and even the myriad types of waves.
An engaging Homeric tale of a man’s island-hopping quest to find his mother.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-77180-508-7
Page Count: 360
Publisher: Iguana Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 21, 2022
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
A debut novel with bright spots, but unbalanced and lacking in finesse.
A high school senior pursues an affair with her teacher.
Seventeen-year-old Waldo, the narrator of McCurdy’s fiction debut, lives in Anchorage, Alaska, with her mother, though she’s long been the parent in their relationship. She heats her own frozen meals and pays the bills on time while her mom chases man after man and makes well-meaning promises she never keeps. Waldo blows her Victoria’s Secret wages on online shopping sprees and binges on junk food, inevitably crashing after the fleeting highs of her indulgences. Mr. Korgy, her creative writing teacher, has “thinning hair and nose pores”; he’s 40 years old and married with a child. Nevertheless—or possibly as a result?—Waldo’s attraction to him is “instant. So sudden it’s alarming. So palpable it’s confusing.” Mr. Korgy professes to want to keep their friendship aboveboard, but after a sexual encounter at the school’s winter formal that she initiates, an affair begins. Will this reckless pursuit be the one that actually satisfies Waldo, and is she as mature as she thinks she is? Waldo is a keen observer of people and provides sharp commentary on the punishing work of female beauty. Readers of McCurdy’s bestselling memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died (2022), will surely be curious about the tumultuous mother-daughter relationship, and it is one of the novel’s highlights, full of realistic pity and anger and need. (“I want to scream at her. I want her to hug me.”) Unfortunately, the prose is often unwieldy and sometimes downright cringeworthy: When Waldo tells Mr. Korgy she loves him, “The words hang in the air in that constipated way they do when you know that you shouldn’t have said them.” Waldo frequently lists emotions and adjectives in triplicate, and events that could be significant aren’t sufficiently explored or given enough space to breathe before the novel races on to the next thing.
A debut novel with bright spots, but unbalanced and lacking in finesse.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2026
ISBN: 9780593723739
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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