An engrossing story about a young woman taking chances to find her way after college.
A young woman follows her dreams against the backdrops of Sicily and San Francisco in Constantino’s novel.
Mariella Russo has just finished her undergraduate degree at the University of Catania in 2000. She’s lived her whole life in the Sicilian town, feeling trapped by tradition and expectations. Her volatile mother expects Mariella to marry her boyfriend Matteo, the scion of the wealthy Gamberini family, coveting the elevated social standing the match will bestow upon the Russos. Although she loves Matteo, Mariella does not want to get married, feeling that they are both “caught in the same snare of family and tradition.” Her beloved grandmother, Nonna Giuseppina, understands her restlessness, saying, “If you remain here, they’ll never leave you alone.” After a disastrous graduation party (during which she publicly defies everyone’s plans for her), Mariella secretly escapes to America. Helped by Nonna and Luisa, the owner of the travel agency where Mariella works, she is admitted to graduate school at San Francisco State University. She arrives in San Francisco to find that her roommate, Leslie, is a gay man; he becomes a good friend. Through his connections, she lands a job as a part-time hostess at a high-end Italian restaurant in North Beach. The restaurant staff provides companionship and a romantic relationship with Giovanni, the restaurant owner, who is substantially older than her. A dramatic appearance by Mamma in a bid to bring her home causes Mariella to re-examine her actions and relationships. In her debut novel, Constantino has created a forthright and bold character who owns up to her faults and grows as she matures. Mariella’s choices are skillfully put in perspective in the contexts of the Sicilian and San Francisco communities she lives in and in the backstories of Nonna, who defied tradition in the 1940s by following her heart, and Giovanni, whose unhappy marriage shows that following expectations does not always result in happiness. Readers will easily relate to this enjoyable and honest depiction of the conflicting desires and expectations faced by many people in their 20s.
An engrossing story about a young woman taking chances to find her way after college.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781647427689
Page Count: 256
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2024
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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