A quirky fairy tale with a vibrantly realized setting and a wonderfully outrageous twist.
A woman comes of age in Fifth-Floor Dresses at San Francisco’s upscale I. Magnin department store in the 1980s.
There are a lot of things 19-year-old Zippy has never done: She’s never been to a school dance or on a date, never been told she’s pretty, had a real boyfriend, or had sex; and, until she met her current roommate, Raquel, never had a best friend, tried alcohol, or taken a cab. She’s never eaten an artichoke or been to Seattle or Sonoma; she’s never met her father or even known his name—she’s the product of a one-night stand and grew up in a tiny apartment over a liquor store, sleeping in the hallway after her mom married a man named Howard. Though no one has ever noticed Zippy’s obvious intelligence or suggested she apply to college, there is one area where this naïve people-pleaser shines, and that is selling clothes. The highlight of Blau’s latest is the vivid department store setting, from the Adrienne Vittadini and Bill Blass dresses to the individual saleswomen, the hold tags, the complaint cards. Those pesky complaint cards! Despite Zippy’s tireless work and top-selling status, there have been a flood of cards claiming she’s pushy and bossy, that she forces bras and shoes on customers, that people are afraid to return clothes while she’s there. How can such a smart girl not immediately realize these must have been fabricated by a jealous colleague? Well, the other thing is that Zippy is profoundly insecure. Her low self-esteem is focused in particular on her appearance and her body, and this drives a subplot about dieting and weight loss. Though this coming-of-age story is not as edgy as some of the author’s earlier work, it still has plenty of unusual sex talk—a penis “so lumpy” it looks like “a miniature sack of kittens”; much discussion of holes, smells, and fluids; a venereal disease rumored to cause “fuzzy buttons” on a man’s testicles. AIDS, too, plays a role, though not an unduly serious one, in Zippy’s journey toward filling some of the gaps in her life.
A quirky fairy tale with a vibrantly realized setting and a wonderfully outrageous twist.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780063052352
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Mariner Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
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
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
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