Funny, allegorical, and profound stories.
Characters burdened by guilt, regret, and ostensible madness populate White’s collection of provocative tales.
Amy Sullivan is excited to be on her own attending the University of Minnesota in “The Enigma Man.” She’s ready to explore the wonders far away from her Iowa hometown, like the mysterious titular figure who frequents the library where she works. But learning about this man may not bring her the answers she wants. It’s a dispassion that characters experience throughout White’s book. Joseph Singer of “Winter Journeys,” for example, is a man who’s never accepted his biological father as a dad and considers himself an unwanted child. The author typically fills his stories with metaphors. In the case of “The Antijew,” a legendary creature’s most recent incarnation is Sol Pinsky, who, despite little recognition, inexplicably earns 93% of the popular vote in the U.S. presidential election. The stories are multilayered, including those with overt religious themes. “A Brief History of Madness,” for one, follows Joseph Christman, an orphan who ultimately becomes an apprentice carpenter. But it’s also about a boy at a Catholic college whose professor deems him insolent merely for questioning biblical stories. White’s prose is simple yet elegant: A rabbi describes a reputedly invisible wagon as, “A magic wagon to be sure, but magic or no, it makes a lot of noise if you drive it too fast. I am afraid that there is no magic for that.” There are instances of wry humor as well. In the title story, a werewolf in the town of Polnoye is primarily a nuisance, disrupting men’s prayers and making “shambles” of bar mitzvahs. How the townsfolk handle said wolf is pleasantly surprising. The book features Chicago-based artist Segedin’s work in various media (acrylic, watercolor, etc.), showcasing a consistent style spanning decades.
Funny, allegorical, and profound stories. (author bio, artist’s bio)Pub Date: March 9, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-09-830349-5
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Book Baby
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Though uneven, this is still a pleasurable, comforting read.
Infertility, family secrets, and alpacas all figure in Quindlen’s latest meditation on mothering and domesticity.
Polly’s life looks enviable. Happily married to the adoring Mark—a vet at the Bronx Zoo—she teaches English at a private Manhattan girls’ school and loves her work. She has a protective older brother and close girlfriends, who’ve formed a book club where no one is expected to read the book. But Polly desperately wants a child and, at 42, knows time is running out. She and Mark have gone through endless fertility treatments, to no avail. Meantime, Polly’s friends have given her a DNA kit as a jokey birthday gift, and something mysterious shows up in the test results. Then, out of nowhere, a young woman contacts her, suggesting they may be related. That’s not all: Polly feels estranged from her mother, a revered judge who’s insufficiently maternal in her daughter’s view. Her father has always cherished her, but he’s in a nursing home now with a rapidly failing mind. And something is amiss with her best pal, Sarah. Quindlen’s trademark empathy is evident throughout, and her wry humor leavens some of the serious goings-on. Early on, Mark and Polly visit a fertility clinic with photos of babies in the waiting room; for Polly, “it felt…like a Weight Watchers facility with hot fudge sundae pictures on the wall.” Then we meet these charming alpacas, humming and pronking, on a farm run by an earth mother, whose wisdom will help Polly get on with her life. The plot swerves around a bit, there may be one surplus narrative thread (e.g., Polly’s star student Josephine running aground after graduation), and at the end, the author ties things up too neatly, pushing the “circle of life” theme too hard.
Though uneven, this is still a pleasurable, comforting read.Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2026
ISBN: 9780593734605
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
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