A wild romp of a novel that might have been more successful if the writer weren’t still out for revenge.
An autofiction about a writer in the throes of a crisis.
Hana P., the narrator of Hannah Pittard’s new novel, begins to unravel after learning that her ex-husband is about to publish a novel about their failed marriage and his affair with her best friend. Unable to resist the urge to Google him, Hana also discovers that he published a story several years earlier in which a character based on her is stabbed to death by a homeless man. Though a note at the beginning of the book insists that “what follows is pure fantasy,” a reader would be forgiven for doubting this since Pittard’s divorce and her ex-husband’s affair were also the subject of her previous book, subtitled “A Memoir [Kind of],” and in fact, her ex-husband, the writer Andrew Ewell, published both a novel and a short story that very much resemble the works described in Pittard’s novel. Hana’s best friend tells her that her ex’s portrayal of her is “smug” and “insecure.” “If I were an angry and unsatisfied man,” Hana replies, “that’s exactly how I’d describe a woman with ambition, too.” The narrator’s ensuing crisis involves playing a game with her boyfriend where she pretends to be dead, not returning a lost cat to its owner, drinking a lot with different members of her family who have all recently moved to Kentucky, exchanging slightly flirty texts with a man with whom she might have had a one-night stand before she knew about her ex-husband’s affair, and going to a writers’ residency. Pittard’s prose hums with wit and verve, paragraphs and pages ricocheting from one sharp or devastating or shocking observation to the next. Ultimately, though, the novel never quite transcends its backstory or makes meaning of its protagonist’s ennui, though Hana’s relationship with her depressed father is poignant.
A wild romp of a novel that might have been more successful if the writer weren’t still out for revenge.Pub Date: July 15, 2025
ISBN: 9781250910271
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
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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