A big-hearted consideration of gentrification and the erosion of time.
In Green’s satirical novel, a colorful Atlanta journalist covers a chaotic summer in his embattled neighborhood.
Archie Johnson is not God, though people call him that. The nickname has to do with his flowing silvery mane, long white beard, unplaceable ethnicity, and big personality. The freelance journalist writes primarily for the Atlanta Beacon, but he’s obliged to take any work he can find to keep his ancient home from falling apart. God inherited the Queen Anne–style house from his racist white grandfather, who allowed the property to fall into ruin after fleeing for the suburbs decades ago. That the house sits in the heart of the now predominantly Black neighborhood of Sweetberry Park is just a happy irony. God—a light-skinned man with one-quarter Nigerian ancestry—sees himself as both scribe and protector of Sweetberry Park, a role that has renewed his life’s purpose following the long-ago tragic death of his wife and young son. God has his work cut out for him in the summer of 2018 as the neighborhood is beset not only by a new project from millionaire developer Lawrence “Lotto” Livingston, but also by a literal plague of snakes—the 17 deadliest species available at the nearby zoo, released into the neighborhood by a deranged zookeeper. With the help of a former blues singer with deep roots in the neighborhood, can God save some of Atlanta’s history—and his own—from getting erased? Green’s voice-forward prose, as narrated by God, is inflected with enthusiasm and regret for what Atlanta was, is, and will become. He bemoans sitting in traffic on the “fifty-lane freeway monster of perpetual immobility, our city’s source of constant constipation,” remembering when he was a boy, when they “laughed at its unbridled fattening and the notion that people from exotic places like Jersey City, Portland, and Topeka would ever consider migrating to our baby metropolis.” Atlanta residents will get the most out of this hyperlocalized story, but the issues Green’s tale touches upon—housing, race, migration, grief, and the changing face of cities—are familiar all over.
A big-hearted consideration of gentrification and the erosion of time.Pub Date: March 21, 2025
ISBN: 9781958861523
Page Count: 364
Publisher: The Sager Group LLC
Review Posted Online: May 21, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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