An accessible introduction to Thoreau, whose enthusiasts will find much to delight here.
In her affectionate meander through the life of Henry David Thoreau, Canadian writer Humphreys imagines moments revealing his inner thoughts and feelings.
The approach here is straightforward yet lyric. Using brief episodes, from a paragraph to a few pages, Humphreys carefully follows the timeline of events from Henry’s first sight of Walden Pond as a 5-year-old to his death at 44. While she covers what might be considered historically significant events—Henry’s two years on Walden Pond, the publications of his books, his interactions with other famous figures of the era such as Emerson, Darwin, and John Brown—the restrained tone matches the seemingly unremarkable simplicity of the life recorded in Henry’s journal. What matters to him are always the small moments: a bird singing, a buttercup blooming unexpectedly, a conversation. Henry’s family looms large, “a club who believed in the same tenets.” He and his three siblings are all close to each other and their parents. Progressive abolitionists, they share an indifference to convention and never fail to support each other. When Henry announces at 16 that he wants to build a boat, the rest of the family pitches in to help. And it’s with John, his brother, that Henry takes his trip down the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. The Thoreaus’ happiness would be too idyllic to believe except for the physical fragility, illnesses, and early deaths that dogged them. Friendship is a more complicated issue for Henry. He values his friends but finds their presence, even Emerson’s, annoying. Romance is more an idea than a reality to him. Thoreau’s real passions are “to remain in the moment” and his “experiences in everyday nature.” He notes the publication of Walden in his journal as if it’s of no more importance than the ripening of the elderberries.
An accessible introduction to Thoreau, whose enthusiasts will find much to delight here.Pub Date: Feb. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9780374611491
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
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
A debut novel with bright spots, but unbalanced and lacking in finesse.
A high school senior pursues an affair with her teacher.
Seventeen-year-old Waldo, the narrator of McCurdy’s fiction debut, lives in Anchorage, Alaska, with her mother, though she’s long been the parent in their relationship. She heats her own frozen meals and pays the bills on time while her mom chases man after man and makes well-meaning promises she never keeps. Waldo blows her Victoria’s Secret wages on online shopping sprees and binges on junk food, inevitably crashing after the fleeting highs of her indulgences. Mr. Korgy, her creative writing teacher, has “thinning hair and nose pores”; he’s 40 years old and married with a child. Nevertheless—or possibly as a result?—Waldo’s attraction to him is “instant. So sudden it’s alarming. So palpable it’s confusing.” Mr. Korgy professes to want to keep their friendship aboveboard, but after a sexual encounter at the school’s winter formal that she initiates, an affair begins. Will this reckless pursuit be the one that actually satisfies Waldo, and is she as mature as she thinks she is? Waldo is a keen observer of people and provides sharp commentary on the punishing work of female beauty. Readers of McCurdy’s bestselling memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died (2022), will surely be curious about the tumultuous mother-daughter relationship, and it is one of the novel’s highlights, full of realistic pity and anger and need. (“I want to scream at her. I want her to hug me.”) Unfortunately, the prose is often unwieldy and sometimes downright cringeworthy: When Waldo tells Mr. Korgy she loves him, “The words hang in the air in that constipated way they do when you know that you shouldn’t have said them.” Waldo frequently lists emotions and adjectives in triplicate, and events that could be significant aren’t sufficiently explored or given enough space to breathe before the novel races on to the next thing.
A debut novel with bright spots, but unbalanced and lacking in finesse.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2026
ISBN: 9780593723739
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
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