A somewhat brash volume of uncomfortable stories that show intermittent hints of promise.
Recklessness and depraved scenarios underpin Dillian’s short stories.
In “Glowing,” the collection’s best story, Logan, a university student spending the summer in her childhood home “with the awful TV and the shag carpets” shakes up the doldrums by peeking in the windows of neighbors at night. Logan’s voyeurism isn’t sexually motivated; her thrills come from the risk of being caught. Becoming more brazen, she skinny-dips in someone’s pool and then, still naked, disturbingly watches a young girl playing with Barbie dolls. The author’s writing is at its strongest when he situates readers in settings or delivers moments of absurdity. “Creep” tells the tale of a meteorologist who agrees to a date with a fan. After noticing her fan’s wristwatch has a poop emoji on it, she learns he’s a gastroenterologist and that he owns many scatologically-themed objects, including a pool floatie, throw pillows, and business cards. “Most of the time it isn’t too bad,” he tells her. “It’s when they’ve eaten a—hrm—porterhouse the night before that things get ugly.” With few exceptions, the characters feel familiar from story to story. The men—among them aging rockstars, a pimp, a dentist, and financial workers—are largely libidinous and careless, and they exhibit derogatory views of women. The women tend to be analogous, with descriptors boiled down to their appearances and ages (usually they are much younger than the men they encounter); they include betrayed wives, sex workers, and a pseudo-Instagram model. The collection explores tough subjects such as mental illness, addiction, adultery, and death. Among the handful of tales that break the mold is “Left Out,” about an overbearing dad whose son is robbed of a spot on the Little League All-Star team. The stories are plot-heavy and fall a bit short on emotion and tension as they move toward ambiguous endings. Unsavory portrayals of females aside, these key missing ingredients may be the biggest flaw here.
A somewhat brash volume of uncomfortable stories that show intermittent hints of promise.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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