A political farce that is both thoughtful and entertaining.
A Southern senator drives his state’s secession from the union and transformation into a sovereign Christian nation in Hooker’s satirical novel.
Pastor Gabriel Horne, head of the Jubilee Church of Revelation somewhere deep in the South, believes America is spiraling into decline, besotted by godlessness, communism, and the “slime and filth of disease, of Yankeedom.” He hears a voice assuring him that help is on the way—that help arrives in the form of Margaret Wurmser, a deep-pocketed real-estate mogul looking to develop beachfront property in his state. Blessed with her money, Horne pushes freshman Senator Loomis Gruber to secede from the union, declare his state an independent nation (“New Canaan”), and install himself as its first president. The new nation is a queasy mix of extremist, largely hateful principles, including Christian fundamentalism, antisemitism, and undisguised misogyny. (Altus Drech, New Canaan’s Minister of Homeland Security and Information, is an “unapologetic fascist” and admirer of Hitler.) At first, the new nation’s citizens receive their independence in a “rapturous mood,” but soon the populous begins to revolt, especially women angered by an edict issued by the Council of God affirming their inequality to men. In this farcically humorous tale, the creation of New Canaan quickly and predictably devolves into civil catastrophe, though that doesn’t stop it from inspiring other states to follow its dubious lead. While the narrative is ostentatiously ludicrous—the characters are all hilariously drawn comic stereotypes—the author achieves a menacing air of plausibility (secession and war have happened before, and states continue to threaten it, however disingenuously). The practical possibility of secession is beside the point, though—the novel vividly realizes a comic vision of the nation’s fragility as a result of its cultural fractures, divisions so deep a significant portion of the body politic holds another significant portion in implacable contempt. This is a genuinely funny book, filled with insightful commentary on America’s volatile present.
A political farce that is both thoughtful and entertaining.Pub Date: July 20, 2024
ISBN: 9781959620112
Page Count: 348
Publisher: Booklocker.com
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2024
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
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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