A candid tale that triumphantly understands the Midwestern psyche, delivering moments of beauty and tragedy.
A young Missouri man on a failing dairy farm contemplates what he feels will be the last day of his life in this novel.
At the age of 32, Calem Honeycutt is already a homeowner, but he didn’t move far from his parents. They are a mile away at their dairy farm in the Ozarks where Calem still works. He didn’t feel like going to college or getting what some call a real job, as he is too tied to the life and landscape of his upbringing. (“There are two cricks that run through our land, three ponds, and a waterfall that will leave a hell of an impression if you’re ever lucky enough to see it.”) His parents are reliable and supportive, if somewhat stoic, though his sister, Caitlyn, whom he genuinely likes, is now an urban progressive liberal who is outraged by her family’s conservative opinions. Calem hunts, fishes, and sees friends, but he is single and deals with despair. He has convinced himself this will be the last day he will ever live. He plows through the day, racked by memories of old times and fascinated by new views of familiar landscapes. Some fun is on the horizon, since he is going fishing with his friend Miles that evening. Even so, bad news comes in about the dairy farm, pushing Calem and his family toward new, possibly insurmountable anxieties. Senter’s impressive novel is a truthful, honestly told story that puts a human face on a region that’s steeped in tradition, brimming with the allure of nature, and grappling with the constant threat of being swallowed up by the latest corporate entity. Calem’s world is intricately described as a land of four-wheelers, black walnuts, hog suckers, and Holsteins, and it’s a place that offers seemingly endless freedom but brutal government and marketplace restrictions. The author’s careful plotting, over the course of one remarkably intense day, defies expectations as it moves toward its haunting conclusion.
A candid tale that triumphantly understands the Midwestern psyche, delivering moments of beauty and tragedy.Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-7375856-0-2
Page Count: 188
Publisher: Roubidoux Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 10, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
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
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
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