A passionate novel hampered by tonal inconsistencies.
A woman struggles to balance her family, her medical career, and a reckless affair in Bici’s novel.
Dr. Opal Collins is hanging by a thread. She is a disorganized but compassionate physician who deeply bonds with her patients at Ocean Hospital. Her husband, Fox, a radiologist at a different hospital, wants her to move into a management position so she’ll have more time to spend with their family. Fox wants another child, but Opal secretly stays on birth control. When the president of Doctors Inc., Ronald Aberdeen, announces that their two hospitals are merging, Opal is presented with an opportunity: Aberdeen promises her a promotion, and the two begin an affair (“we both need to want this. There’s so much at stake.”) Unbeknownst to Opal, Aberdeen wants an in with her politician brother-in-law to leverage his return to conducting medical research in New York. As rumors swirl about the allegations in Aberdeen’s past that forced him to leave New York in the first place, and Opal’s personal life becomes increasingly untenable, Opal struggles to find a way to save her marriage and obtain a less compromised work situation. To do so, she needs to confront a dark secret from her own past. This is the compelling story of a messy, complicated woman who is portrayed very empathetically despite her reckless, self-destructive behavior. Threaded through the plot is a sharp critique of the ongoing corporatization of medical care; it’s the most tonally consistent aspect of a story that struggles to weave together dark comedy and more serious subject matter. Opal’s friendship with a motivational speaker who moonlights as a stripper feels tangential, and the narrative’s attempt to redeem Aberdeen at the end rings false after everything he’s done. It’s hard to discern what’s pulling him and Opal together aside from mutual self-interest—they don’t seem to have much of an emotional connection. The inclusion of sexual abuse in Opal’s past and the Covid-19 pandemic bring a lot of weight to a story that seems to strive for a lighter touch.
A passionate novel hampered by tonal inconsistencies.Pub Date: today
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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