A stirring, if sometimes-hagiographic, dramatization of a storied career.
The legendary football coach wins NFL titles, promotes racial justice, and weathers a troubled marriage in this fictionalized portrait.
Brown’s narrative depicts Vince Lombardi as a strict disciplinarian while he was still in high school in New York City—“Shut up, you morons!” he bellows when left in charge of his classmates—and a larger-than-life presence. He’s an avid student of football during assistant-coaching gigs at West Point and with the New York Giants, but despairs of getting a head- coaching position because of anti-Italian bias. Finally, in 1959, he lands the top spot with perennial losers, the Green Bay Packers, and comes into his own as a football strategist and orator: “I say we roll up our sleeves, get down in the dirt, and revive this team,” he declaims to his new secretaries. He drives players with merciless drills and hectoring until they collapse or rebel: “Now this is the attitude I want to see!” he exults when an enraged offensive lineman attacks him. Lombardi also mentors Black recruits, prohibits displays of bigotry from his players, and bans them from patronizing segregated businesses. Brilliant results follow as the Packers win three conference championships and two Super Bowls over nine seasons. However, at home, he constantly bickers with his neglected, alcoholic wife, Marie. Brown’s rendition of Lombardi’s life stays close to the facts and the coach’s popular image as a prophet of competitiveness, teamwork, and character-building. The depiction of his marriage gives the work additional complexity; Lombardi’s a flawed husband and Marie’s an unsettled person who still lends her spouse vital support. Brown’s workmanlike prose occasionally strays into corniness, but he also delivers evocative game scenes—frigid players “moved like bison on frozen tundra with clouds of white escaping their nostrils”—and engrossing passages of Lombardian analysis: “There, see? The receiver blocks the cornerback and boom—the lead running back takes on the safety and the ball carrier runs to daylight.” Fans of football heroism and Lombardi’s strict ethos will be hooked.
A stirring, if sometimes-hagiographic, dramatization of a storied career.Pub Date: Aug. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-947431-40-9
Page Count: 314
Publisher: Barbera Foundation
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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