A funny and subtly subversive historical novel about naïfs in the 19th century.
A satirical historical novel about wayfarers caught up in an American religious revival.
The main action of Hill’s tale opens with the hanging of a man in the French village of Sanvisa in 1885. Arthur Lestables is sentenced to death for “the drowning murder of Henri Deplouc Senior, and, furthermore, for being a troublesome pain in the groin at this very moment,” as a magistrate puts it. Arthur, a seemingly inoffensive writer who’d been hard at work on his magnum opus, The Theory of Human Development, is buried by his 11-year-old son, Auguste, and soon after, the boy and his mother, Annie, flee France for the United States. In Indiana, they take refuge with members of a religious group who call themselves the Solemnites; as their name suggests, they take a dim view of all forms of pleasure (“As long as my performance is unmusical,” one of them confesses, “I still get to go to heaven”). When the Solemnites become involved in a religious revival, Auguste and his fellow fugitives get caught up in it, as well. Hill’s story is convoluted and rhetorically intricate in ways that seem decidedly out of fashion in the modern literary moment but fit well in the era in which it is set. The author frequently presents elegant phrasings, usually to striking effect: “In the woods that bordered the path, finches skipped and diddled, spiders reknitted rain-ripped webs, and snails sapped water that dripped from the leaves of saturated trees.” The tale is also replete with tossed-off humor that often lands; when Arthur is allowed some final words before his execution, for instance, he asks, “Do any of you understand human goodness?” and the magistrate snaps, “I’ll have no rhetorical questions out of you, Lestables”; Deplouc, Lestables’ alleged victim, is described as “a stain upon the very concept of table manners.” Overall, the work will have readers both pondering and chuckling.
A funny and subtly subversive historical novel about naïfs in the 19th century.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2022
ISBN: 9798218081690
Page Count: 418
Publisher: Daisy Dog Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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