A layered and compelling peek into the darkest consequences of privilege.
A rape accusation and its aftermath threaten to tear apart a superrich New York family.
The Quinn family is among the one percent. Lawrence, the patriarch, runs a charitable nonprofit; his wife, Eleanor, is an old-money socialite. Together, they have two sons—Nate, the eldest, and Billy, a Princeton athlete and pre-med student. They also have a daughter, Cassie, whom Lawrence and Eleanor unofficially adopted when her own parents, close friends of the Quinns’, died a short time apart. Cassie narrates the novel, part courtroom drama, part domestic thriller, beginning with a phone call from Nate informing her that their brother has been accused of rape. The circumstances of the assault (borrowed closely from the 2016 Brock Turner case) can’t shake the Quinns’ faith in Billy and in each other, and their only focus becomes Billy’s acquittal and revealing the truth to the world: The girl accusing Billy is vindictive and ruthless. There are men in the age of #MeToo, they insist, who are falsely accused and run the risk of ruined lives. But as Cassie unspools the story of the investigation, the preparations for trial, and then, finally, the courtroom theatrics, her narration pulls back layer after layer of secrets and manipulations like a magician pulling scarves from a sleeve. Medoff’s greatest feat in this novel is not the twisty plotting but rather Cassie’s evolving relationship with the reader, with storytelling itself, as she moves from suspiciously naïve to clearly unreliable, and always with a questionable moral compass. Readers who can orient themselves to Cassie’s “double vision” (“one world layered on top of the other, neither of them reality”) will be rewarded with a thoughtful, if salacious, thriller about the nature of wealth, loyalty, and the ripple effects of trauma.
A layered and compelling peek into the darkest consequences of privilege.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-314-202-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022
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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