Droll buffoonery built atop antiquated stereotypes, repudiated gender roles, and threadbare “wit.”
If stealing a 12-week-old baby four days before Christmas sounds potentially amusing, this might be the novel for you.
Seventy-something Dutchman Evert Duiker, “loudmouth, bullshit artist, heart of gold,” is on his way to his weekly chess game with fellow septuagenarian Hendrik Groen when he has to pee. He stops at the Princess Margriet School and, on his way out of the bathroom, sees Sabine Verbeek—baby Jesus in the evening’s Christmas pageant—waiting unattended in her pram. Evert decides to take her, not out of malice, but simply because he “[thinks] it would be fun.” He and Hendrik immediately acknowledge that “the parents must be out of their minds with worry” but ultimately worry more about being punished for kidnapping. To assuage their guilt as they bumble through feedings, diaper changes, and abandoned attempts to leave Sabine to be recovered in an underpass, they call the school custodian to say “it’s all been a misunderstanding.” The custodian’s opportunistic brother has other ideas and phones the parents demanding a 100,000 euro ransom. If this plot doesn’t entice you, perhaps the tiresome characters will. The women, with one late exception, are particularly reductive, depicted as either scheming (the mayor), shrinking (Sabine’s mother), or annoying (assorted wives, neighbors, and passersby). Men disparage their appearances by calling them “lard-ass” and “fat”; yearn for one’s “lovely ass” and another’s “big tits”; and belittle them as “that broad,” “old witch,” “nosy bitch,” “nagging old lady,” and more. In the end, the wunderkind chief prosecutor, seemingly motivated solely by his desire to show up the mayor, who “looks like she’s spent an hour at the beauty parlor,” comes to the rescue.
Droll buffoonery built atop antiquated stereotypes, repudiated gender roles, and threadbare “wit.”Pub Date: June 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5387-5352-1
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2021
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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