A sometimes-vague but often engaging self-referential creative mashup.
Carmi presents a collection of poems inspired by, and about, his own paintings.
The poet explores transformation and transcendence in this hybrid book of poetry and art. He notes in an introduction that painting reminds him that everyone is interconnected and that the cardinal sign of art is that one feels awe when one sees it. Carmi’s paintings offer variations on themes, with brush strokes that evoke tree roots, aerial maps, or even a brain or lung scan laid atop splashes of watercolor. He discusses his creative process in his poems, vacillating between wanting to “give this thing / Some love” (“Time to give it love”) and feeling betrayed by his artwork: “The colors turned their backs / On me / They wouldn’t listen to / Sensible talk / They are running fast away” (“As you want them to be”). He delights in a sense of rebirth and explores the concept that when one is happy, the “big mind” of collective consciousness experiences that emotion, too. Indeed, he describes feeling one with the world, stating, “Look through me / And see yourself / Everywhere” (“Transparent”). However, the paintings are so abstract that their relationships to the poems are murky, and the subject matter is so ethereal that readers have little that’s tangible to hold on to. When Carmi does include concrete details, however, he does so beautifully: “The wind freezes the moments / And sends them to the meadows” (“A being of now”). He is also insightful and inspiring in statements such as “hope belongs / To the future” (“Smoke signal”). The psychology underlying the poems is often compelling, as well, as when Carmi discusses a healing technique in which one carries pain like a foreign object in your pocket, until “you get familiar with the feeling of it being there, and you go on with the business of life that now includes this uncomfortable feeling” (“The child has stopped crying”).
A sometimes-vague but often engaging self-referential creative mashup.Pub Date: March 18, 2023
ISBN: 9798375427737
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2023
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 dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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