A disjointed narrative but also arresting and memorable.
This second volume in a trilogy—following Awake (2021)—is a strange assortment of impressions touching on astronomer Tycho Brahe.
The son of a Danish nobleman, Brahe gained royal funding to build an observatory on an island then known as Hven, where he also pursued alchemical projects and had a dwarf jester named Jeppe. Danish author Voetmann alludes to biographical details, but as in Awake—which concerned Pliny the Elder—the ostensible subject is often secondary. The short chapters alternate among excerpts from an assistant’s almanac of astronomical, meteorological, and personal observations; vignettes about two associates of Brahe’s—Erik Lange and Falk Gøye; letters written by the astronomer to his dead brother; and other diversions. Voetmann is a thoughtful writer whose prose at times becomes lyrical, and it’s nicely rendered by the translator. While the trilogy so far focuses on historical figures (the third book is said to deal with an obscure 11th-century German mystic), Voetmann suggests that these distant lives are elusive in fact or fiction but may be illuminated by imagining what happens in the penumbra of their achievements. The narrative’s first words, “Dark and clear commixed,” establish a motif echoed when Brahe, renowned for the accuracy of his celestial measurements, writes of Hven that “no other place on Earth has such poor visibility.” Meanwhile, daily life persists with a clarity revealing much that is odd, trivial, or grotesque. A man frozen dead mid-defecation has “excrement only halfway expelled from his bowels.” The almanac’s narrator also mentions his affair with the man who shares his bed, including Jeppe’s urging them on. Children are beaten bloody on Good Friday to commemorate Christ’s suffering. And yet, Brahe “discerned the secrets of the universe from this soup tureen of a country during the brief and rare moments when the lid was raised and heaven could be espied.”
A disjointed narrative but also arresting and memorable.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2023
ISBN: 9780811229784
Page Count: 128
Publisher: New Directions
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
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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