An enjoyable rumination on the line between artistry and occupation.
In this novel, a skilled woodcarver bites off more than he can chew with a piece of valuable hardwood.
Joe Carroll is a woodcarver. For him, it’s an art, but most of the jobs he takes are mundane kitchen renovations and the like. Even in these, he finds satisfaction, such as carving 15 kitchen cupboard doors with delicately painted herbs for a difficult customer. Life isn’t so bad. Joe and his wife, Maggie, own a small place on a beautiful stretch of the Connecticut River, where they are raising their son, Will. Joe’s wood supplier has been telling him for over a year about a big mahogany board he knows of—“1¼ x 6 feet x 14 feet”—for sale by two older brothers a couple of towns over. When Joe finally drives over to look at it, it’s a thing of beauty: “He guessed that it may have been months or years since a shaft of light had illumined it through the crooked doorway. ‘Will, look at this thing.’ Joe couldn’t pretend that it was not amazing….What was this monster piece of wood doing out in this shed?” The board has a history stretching back to the 1940s—a story tied to one brother’s deep regret—and Joe decides to buy it. He wants to make a table and even sells the piece preemptively to his wife’s wealthy boss. It may prove to be Joe’s masterpiece—that is, if he doesn’t screw the whole thing up. Martin’s prose is sunny and engaging even when he gets into the nitty-gritty of carpentry jargon: “He was just getting it down to round, down to where the four flat sides of the lumber all disappeared at about the same time. Joe feared that he’d gone a little too deep in one spot. He threw the on/off switch that years ago he had rigged to the lathe’s old washing machine motor.” It’s not at all a high-stakes read in the traditional sense: The book is really just about a man trying to make a wooden table. It’s the cozy, pleasant sort of novel readers might pick up if they don’t want something too strenuous but don’t mind a story that takes its time to unfold.
An enjoyable rumination on the line between artistry and occupation.Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-68513-015-2
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Black Rose Writing
Review Posted Online: June 14, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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