Gapinski’s gift is in treating strange situations matter-of-factly, testing characters with temptation.
Miracles big and small (though always unexplainable) animate the satirical, whimsical tales in this collection.
Beginning with the title story, Gapinski delights in puzzling phenomena that alter the lives of their characters in ways both monumental and mundane. The narrator in that story has “a gold membership for the Museum of Future Mistakes,” which offers insight into any wrong decisions he’ll make, allowing him to live his life in a frictionless manner. When he spots a statue of his girlfriend, Devin, he begins to panic. The foreboding monument leaves him doubting the validity of both his relationship and the museum itself, creating a chicken-egg paradox in which he’s left to decipher whether the mistake is the relationship itself or what will happen when it ends. “Saw Act” features a magician, Magesto, and their assistant, Malvina, who perform a trick with a saw so unbelievable it launches them to great levels of fame. When Magesto—who receives almost all the credit for the trick despite it being Malvina’s routine—attempts to learn how it’s done, their career begins to fall apart. Greed leads many of these characters down impossible-to-navigate paths, like the couple in “Fruit Rot.” An unnamed narrator and their partner, Lacey, discover that a tree in their house cures all diseases. They exploit the inexplicable phenomenon and receive great wealth as a result, moving from near-poverty to building an entire compound in their neighborhood. Unexpected side effects of the cure are utilized for nefarious purposes, leaving Lacey and the narrator to reckon with the weapon they’ve unleashed. Each of these stories begins with an entirely outside-the-box premise. The characters are faced with moral quandaries meant to prod their ethics. More often than not, they fail to live up to the moment.
Gapinski’s gift is in treating strange situations matter-of-factly, testing characters with temptation.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781960145864
Page Count: 162
Publisher: BOA Editions
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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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