A sequel for committed Irving fans only.
After 40 years, Irving returns to the setting of The Cider House Rules (1985) with another sprawling epic, this one keyed to the adoption of a 4-year Jewish girl amid rampant antisemitism.
Born in Vienna in 1905, Esther Nacht became parentless after her father died from pneumonia during their trans-Atlantic voyage to Portland, Maine, and her mother was mysteriously bludgeoned to death after their arrival. Smart and strong-willed but painfully naive, Esther lives at the orphanage in St. Cloud’s, Maine, before she’s taken in by the Winslows, a philanthropic, non-Jewish, eccentrically nonbelieving New Hampshire couple—the only people open to adopting a Jewish child. They do their best to help her learn “how to be a Jew.” In return, she will do anything for them, including having a baby for their childbirth-fearing youngest daughter, Honor, after becoming her nanny. Obsessed with Jewish history, Esther moves back to Europe and eventually to Israel. The eras-spanning novel becomes mostly about her birth child, Jimmy Winslow, a film buff and future novelist who goes to Germany, where he falls in with a female tutor who conducts sessions in his bedroom; a lesbian who “wants to try it with a guy”; and various candidates Honor urges him to “knock up” to avoid the Vietnam draft. But Esther continues influencing family matters from afar through various world conflicts. This long churn of a novel is stuffed with the usual cutesy Irvingisms, including digressions about penises and circumcision and an uncomfortable consideration of young Esther’s bare chest, on which she wants to tattoo a long quote from Jane Eyre. The book can be amusing and its underlying themes of identity and belonging, survival and personal freedom sometimes resonate. But Irving’s treatment of antisemitism comes awfully close to being another stunt.
A sequel for committed Irving fans only.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781501189449
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
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
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
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