Moody, memorable tales powered by human struggle, tenacity, and an unshakeable sense of survival.
A collection offers short stories that are liberally seasoned with grit and humanity.
Most of the 14 tales in Archuleta’s anthology are grounded in the beauty and intricate complexities of the human condition. Set in the mid-20th-century American West, they feature central characters who exemplify the meaning of struggle but also drive home the sanctity of pure hearts and the goodness of selfless intentions. The most heartfelt stories appear early in the collection. “A Prayer to Saint Michael” stars a kindhearted man who travels to his recently deceased brother’s Texas ranch to shore up his estate. But past and present issues cloud the protagonist’s path, including memories of his involvement in a covert operation. The entries vary wildly in length, which is a testament to Archuleta’s talent to seize readers through an economy of pages or in a more fully realized yarn. At just three pages, one of the shorter tales is a true heartbreaker. “A Very Good Question” involves the closeness of two brothers. One of the siblings, a delusional former sergeant with PTSD, believes he sees “visitations.” Elsewhere, trouble seems to find the author’s characters. The day laborer in “Following the Harvest” keeps a low profile about the crops he tends until police interrupt his trek homeward with trumped-up vagrancy charges. In the atmospheric “Last Game at Kezar,” two former Mafia hit men reunite in San Francisco. The abused yet resilient nightclub dancer in “Imperfections” fights to find a way back to Ciudad Juarez in her Mexican homeland. Several stories are drawn with such engrossing precision that readers will be left wanting more, as in the title tale focusing on John Westley Thornhill, a magnetic, seasoned ranch hand. He decides to quit his job, as his patience with a cowboy’s life has slowly been coming to a bittersweet end. Archuleta avoids easy platitudes and saccharine conclusions and instead allows readers to interpret the embedded meanings in his tales and glean the inherent economic issues and cultural difficulties of the period he sets them in. Without being overly expository or thematically simplistic, the stories present a cast of compelling characters. While the players may not always land on solid ground, they are impeccably drawn, believably passionate, and alive with emotion.
Moody, memorable tales powered by human struggle, tenacity, and an unshakeable sense of survival.Pub Date: July 26, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-64228-077-7
Page Count: 194
Publisher: Izzard Ink
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A touching portrait of courage and friendship.
A lifetime of friendship endures many upheavals.
Ellie and Homa, two young girls growing up in Tehran, meet at school in the early 1950s. Though their families are very different, they become close friends. After the death of Ellie’s father, she and her difficult mother must adapt to their reduced circumstances. Homa’s more warm and loving family lives a more financially constrained life, and her father, a communist, is politically active—to his own detriment and that of his family’s welfare. When Ellie’s mother remarries and she and Ellie relocate to a more exclusive part of the city, the girls become separated. They reunite years later when Homa is admitted to Ellie’s elite high school. Now a political firebrand with aspirations to become a judge and improve the rights of women in her factionalized homeland, Homa works toward scholastic success and begins practicing political activism. Ellie follows a course, plotted originally by her mother, toward marriage. The tortuous path of the girls’ adult friendship over the following decades is played out against regime change, political persecution, and devastating loss. Ellie’s well-intentioned but naïve approach stands in stark contrast to Homa’s commitment to human rights, particularly for women, and her willingness to risk personal safety to secure those rights. As narrated by Ellie, the girls’ story incorporates frequent references to Iranian food, customs, and beliefs common in the years of tumult and reforms accompanying the Iranian Revolution. Themes of jealousy—even in close friendships—and the role of the shir zan, the courageous “lion women” of Iran who effect change, recur through the narrative. The heartaches associated with emigration are explored along with issues of personal sacrifice for the sake of the greater good (no matter how remote it may seem).
A touching portrait of courage and friendship.Pub Date: July 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781668036587
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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