Varied, engaging, and skillfully written tales.
A brief collection of five short stories explores universal themes from a variety of perspectives.
Williams’ debut book opens with the title tale, in which a man deals with life at home with his geriatric dog in the early days of the pandemic. In “Uncle Duck,” a fraught relationship between uncle and nephew becomes more complicated with a bathroom renovation. “Ludmilla This, Ludmilla That” tells of a New Yorker’s sequentially unsuccessful attempts at romance. “Bunny” jumps back to the early days of the Great Depression as a woman tries to ensure that her sister’s death is treated respectfully, at least by the local newspaper. The final work, “The Guru Had an Off Night,” returns to the present as a father and son suffer through a tedious sales pitch with appropriate skepticism. The five stories are varied in topic and style, and they demonstrate an appreciable versatility; for example, Williams experiments with a choppy, commandlike prose in the opening tale: “Stop & Shop. Short line out front. Social distance. Grim faces. Mask up, eyes down.” Other stories offer more traditional narratives and delve into familiar themes, such as masculinity, family, and connection, from different angles (“I was more comfortable as the father of a little boy than of a teenager, even less so now of a young man,” the narrator of “The Guru Had an Off Night” muses), offering thought-provoking and challenging interpretations of human beings’ responsibilities toward one another. Manhattanites and those from other parts of New York state will particularly appreciate the precision of most stories’ carefully developed settings, which are full of subtle, realistic details. Some characters are less engaging than others—in particular, the protagonist of “Ludmilla” grows tedious with his expectations of reciprocated affections—but most are compelling and multilayered, offering readers plenty to ponder.
Varied, engaging, and skillfully written tales.Pub Date: March 31, 2023
ISBN: 9781667880914
Page Count: 90
Publisher: BookBaby
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Though uneven, this is still a pleasurable, comforting read.
Infertility, family secrets, and alpacas all figure in Quindlen’s latest meditation on mothering and domesticity.
Polly’s life looks enviable. Happily married to the adoring Mark—a vet at the Bronx Zoo—she teaches English at a private Manhattan girls’ school and loves her work. She has a protective older brother and close girlfriends, who’ve formed a book club where no one is expected to read the book. But Polly desperately wants a child and, at 42, knows time is running out. She and Mark have gone through endless fertility treatments, to no avail. Meantime, Polly’s friends have given her a DNA kit as a jokey birthday gift, and something mysterious shows up in the test results. Then, out of nowhere, a young woman contacts her, suggesting they may be related. That’s not all: Polly feels estranged from her mother, a revered judge who’s insufficiently maternal in her daughter’s view. Her father has always cherished her, but he’s in a nursing home now with a rapidly failing mind. And something is amiss with her best pal, Sarah. Quindlen’s trademark empathy is evident throughout, and her wry humor leavens some of the serious goings-on. Early on, Mark and Polly visit a fertility clinic with photos of babies in the waiting room; for Polly, “it felt…like a Weight Watchers facility with hot fudge sundae pictures on the wall.” Then we meet these charming alpacas, humming and pronking, on a farm run by an earth mother, whose wisdom will help Polly get on with her life. The plot swerves around a bit, there may be one surplus narrative thread (e.g., Polly’s star student Josephine running aground after graduation), and at the end, the author ties things up too neatly, pushing the “circle of life” theme too hard.
Though uneven, this is still a pleasurable, comforting read.Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2026
ISBN: 9780593734605
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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