A touching ode to the people who make life worth living.
A sinking man relies on unexpected friends to stay afloat.
Professional obituary writer Bud Stanley is a divorcé coasting through life in Brooklyn. He discovered his wife was cheating on him when she accidentally sent him a text message meant for her lover. At work, he’s uninspired, unable to muster the interest in writing about the recently deceased. After a particularly bad blind date, he drinks to excess and comes up with a bold, ill-advised idea. He writes and semi-accidentally publishes his own obituary and is summarily suspended from work, but not before his mentor suggests that he’s unfit for his career: “‘You are an obituary writer who does not understand the first thing about life. Wake up,’” his boss pleads. It’s from here that Kenney’s touching, provocative novel takes off. During this time of suspension-induced depression and malaise, Bud relies heavily on his landlord, downstairs neighbor, and best friend, Tim Warren, who is paraplegic. While at a funeral for Bud’s former mother-in-law, the duo meets Clara, a free spirit who quit her high-paying corporate job after missing her own father’s death because of a meeting. Together, the three start going to funerals for people they don’t know and have late-night discussions about life and death over wine. As Bud and Tim spend more time with Clara, each member of this unexpected triangle illuminates for the others the things that make life so rich. Bud comes to terms with his mother’s death in a way he repressed for many, many years, while Tim begins to reveal how heavy of a toll his near-fatal accident and subsequent disability took on him. Through these death-related accoutrements—funerals, wakes, and obituaries—Bud begins to reckon with his purpose on this planet. Kenney doesn’t propose any sort of clean answer, but alludes to the idea that life’s richness comes from spending time with people you love, and that those relationships are built on mutual respect, truth, and love.
A touching ode to the people who make life worth living.Pub Date: April 1, 2025
ISBN: 9798989923014
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Zibby Books
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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