A heartwarming story told in an engaging way.
Martin’s debut novel offers an amusing portrait of a small town in Maine from the perspective of a local radio host.
The story begins with Vivien Kindler listening to a radio talk show hosted by Fred Boyland after her husband has left her. She now lives alone in Frost Pound, a town she barely knows: “None of the men knew that the guy with the silver German car was not coming back. None of the women envied her three-hundred dollar bathrobe. They had lives.” Before long, the radio station has a sudden opening for a talk show host, and Vivien jumps at the opportunity. Frost Pound Broadcasting owners Austin and Kathy Hudson quickly hire her as a replacement despite the fact that they know little about her. On air, Vivien receives a lot of push back from people who’ve been listening to Fred’s talk show, “Ripped From the Headlines,” for years as well as from Fred himself, who’s recovering from a stroke. Who is this Vivien that wants to know everyone’s name––who wants to discuss poetry and town folklore but not the news of the day? The story is creatively told through the restraints of the talk show hours—weekdays between nine and noon—and Vivien’s show attracts radio “regulars” George the Welder, Brownie (a poet), Catholic Lady, and Paul the Piano Tuner who contribute opinions, life stories, poems, and short stories. Martin’s debut explores the subject of loneliness and entertains the notion that other people can make a difference in one’s life if one just tunes in to the right frequency. The prose is concise and sharp-witted, and the dialogue is strong throughout. Between the poetry and friendly banter, there’s something here for everyone, and Vivien holds it all together as a likable protagonist who’s clever, funny, and genuine. At times, readers may wish that the story moved a little faster and made connections more quickly, but the text remains entertaining from beginning to end.
A heartwarming story told in an engaging way.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-68433-622-7
Page Count: 314
Publisher: Black Rose Writing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.
Stockett heads to Mississippi for another historical novel about feisty women.
This time, perhaps recalling criticisms of cultural appropriation in The Help (2009), she sticks to feisty white women, with one exception. The setting is Oxford in 1933. For two miserable years, 11-year-old Meg has lived in “the Orphan,” a county asylum for parentless girls. Chairlady Garnett—a villain so one-note she’d twirl a mustache if she had one—makes it her mission to ostracize the older girls she deems unadoptable, stigmatizing them as offspring of the “feebleminded” mothers who abandoned them. She particularly has it in for smart, sassy Meg, who refuses to believe her mother’s mysterious disappearance was deliberate. Elsewhere in Oxford, Birdie Calhoun comes to visit her sister Frances, who married a wealthy banker, to ask for money on behalf of their mother and grandmother back in Footely. Frances isn’t thrilled by this reminder of her impoverished small-town origins. But she’s trying to climb up in Oxford society by volunteering at the Orphan, the asylum’s books need to be done before the state inspector shows up in a few weeks, and Birdie is a bookkeeper. Having neatly arranged to keep Birdie in town and draw these two storylines together, Stockett goes on to spin a compulsively readable yarn with enough plot for a half-dozen novels. Birdie and Meg become friends, Meg is adopted despite Garnett’s best efforts, Meg’s mother turns up at the Orphan demanding to know where her child is—and that’s less than a quarter of the way through a long, winding narrative that keeps piling on more dramatic developments until all loose ends are neatly, if hastily, wrapped up in the final pages. Stockett might be making a point about Southern women facing facts and standing up for themselves, but mostly this is just a satisfyingly twisty tale that should make a great miniseries.
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9781954118812
Page Count: 656
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
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