A funny, dark, and deeply human novel about what shapes us as human beings.
A poet attempts to make sense of his dysfunctional history in Hunt’s comic novel.
Cary Scott never stood a chance. He stumbled upon his beloved grandfather’s dead body on his first day of kindergarten. His merciless mother dressed him up as a woman to humiliate him in front of his Cub Scout troop. His closeted father ran off with his closeted uncle. His grandmother forced enemas on him when she decided he was constipated. In high school, he was so terrified of gym class—where he was caught with an erection in the boys’ shower—that he faked stigmata to be excused. Cary’s one moment in the sun came when he wrote a poem about a streaker that got published in the local paper, then adapted into a top-10 hit by country artist Kitty Belle Crawford. He has never followed up on that success, however, and 10 years later he is an obese, single, self-loathing poet with no other published work and a severe eating disorder. Leaping back and forth between childhood traumas and the yo-yo dieting and personal humiliations of his adulthood, Hunt’s novel follows Cary’s unlikely journey toward self-understanding via recovered memory therapy—though whether the memories he ends up recovering are true (and what they might mean for his sense of himself) is not so cut and dried. The writing is as psychologically acute as it is funny, as here when Cary attends an eating disorder conference: “If I were a food, I’d be devil’s food cake,” he explains during an exercise. “I’m sweet and people should like me, but liking me is forbidden. I’m dark and black inside and am quite bad for you if you take me in anything other than small doses. That’s because I’m loaded with fat. Fat and sin.” Hunt is a masterful storyteller, escalating his protagonist’s misadventures to the point of farcical truth. Cary feels just responsible enough for his predicaments to make him a compellingly tragic figure, someone whose larger-than-life problems feel both real and searingly relevant to the reader.
A funny, dark, and deeply human novel about what shapes us as human beings.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781915785435
Page Count: 218
Publisher: Clink Street Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 14, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
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
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
