A debut novel of change, community, and cephalopods.
An unambitious young woman struggles to cope with the impending loss of the giant, mutated Pacific octopus she cares for.
Ro is going through a brutal, albeit unique, breakup: Her longtime boyfriend, Tae, has left her to join a crew that will colonize Mars. Her only solace is taking care of Dolores, an octopus warped to giant size and given extended life by the “Bering Vortex,” an agglomeration of chemicals that have turned the Bering Strait into a sort of toxic laboratory filled with “six-finned salmon [and] winged cod.” Ro is stuck in the past; she works at the same mall aquarium her father did before he disappeared on a research trip into the Bering Vortex when Ro was a teenager. He brought the octopus back from a previous expedition, and Ro is devastated to learn that Dolores will soon be sold to a wealthy collector, the cousin of the Mars mission’s benefactor. All this has the makings of a science fiction mystery or a climate novel, but Chung has instead opted to write an adult bildungsroman, a grappling with childhood’s traumas and the tricky process of maturation in the 21st century. Much of the novel is told in flashback. Ro’s parents are Korean immigrants, and there was serious tension between her aloof scientist father and her uptight mother, who longed for the country she was raised in. In the present, Ro binge-drinks and blows off texts from her mom and her best friend. In fact, Ro has a drunken driving habit, one that endangers her life and the lives of others, but this is just presented as a symptom of her immaturity. The real problem is that she’s lonely, Chung suggests. At a disastrous dinner with her mother, Ro is offered this advice from her mother’s new boyfriend: “It’s not good to be alone for too long, you know.”
A debut novel of change, community, and cephalopods.Pub Date: March 28, 2023
ISBN: 9780593469347
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Vintage
Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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