Despite the novel’s technical flaws, Guma has brought a troubled but touching slice of American history to life.
At the dawn of the 20th century, a white Kentuckian bequeaths the family farm to his Black housekeeper in this novel from Guma.
The principals in this drama, based on a true story, are Celia Mudd and Sam Lancaster. Celia is the Black housekeeper, and her people, enslaved but now free, have been entwined with the Lancasters going back at least to the 17th century. Although the Civil War is now 40 years in the past, the ghosts of that war still haunts this land. These are Kentuckians, and it is important to note that not only are the Lancasters relatively enlightened but that Kentucky, having declared itself neutral during the Civil War, laid itself open to depredations and bad blood from both sides. In his 1902 will, Sam Lancaster, after some small bequests, leaves his farm to Celia: This enrages Robert, his brother and only surviving family member, who of course contests the will. The legal battle over the farm is at the core of the book, enhanced with flashbacks. The plaintiffs’ strategy is to prove that Sam was of unsound mind when left the farm to a Black person. The chapters about the family’s past are particularly affecting, such as Sam and Robert’s mother’s regard for the family’s slaves (named Ann Lancaster, she teaches Celia to read, a heresy at the time) and the scene at the farm when emancipation is announced. The relationship between Celia and Sam is well handled in all its contradictions. There are two people bound by their time and place but tentatively reaching out to each other. Racism rules that society like a despotic god, but for once basic decency—and something very much like love—wins out. Unfortunately, as the book proceeds there are stretches of typos and the mixing up of characters’ names, which is distracting. An epilogue provides a satisfying denouement.
Despite the novel’s technical flaws, Guma has brought a troubled but touching slice of American history to life.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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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