The reliable pleasures of McInerney’s writing make even this darkest chapter a fun read.
The fourth and final installment in the saga of a well-heeled Manhattan family.
Russell and Corrine Calloway face a sobering finale in McInerney’s conclusion to his tetralogy, written over the course of 34 years. It opens in the early spring of 2020, just as the first effects of the Covid-19 pandemic are being felt; it’s just what you’d expect of this prominent pair that they attend glitzy back-to-back social gatherings despite the growing sense of alarm that will soon put a stop to such things. The first is an anniversary celebration for their best friends, Washington and Veronica Lee; like the Calloways, this couple has weathered major infidelities and come out the other side, and their respective children, Storey and Mingus, have evolved from childhood friends to romantic partners. The second is the opening of chef daughter Storey’s new restaurant; the reader is painfully aware how inopportune this timing will be. Finally, Russell will attend his monthly wine dinner, a somewhat appalling event where eight extremely rich men (as a publishing guy rather than a finance guy, he is the plebe of the group) gather in a private room at Per Se to open bottles valued in the four and five figures, paired with endless courses of gourmet concoctions; as always, McInerney’s food and wine writing glows. Wife Corrine is much less sanguine about all this than her husband, and indeed the body count eventually racked up in this episode of the saga is high; the coronavirus is not the only villain. As a writer whose early work famously celebrated the joys of “Bolivian marching powder,” it is fitting that McInerney includes fentanyl among the evils of that annus horribilis; police brutality, racial unrest, and cancer appear as well. As the curtain closes on the Calloways’ fraught love story, faithful readers will feel sad but satisfied.
The reliable pleasures of McInerney’s writing make even this darkest chapter a fun read.Pub Date: April 14, 2026
ISBN: 9780593804797
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Dec. 24, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
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
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
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