An engaging addition to the coming-of-age genre with slow pacing.
In this novel, a young girl copes with an unstable home life and the raucous rodeo world.
Annie Butler lives in Emerald City, Oregon, in the 1940s and ’50s, and she tries her best to thrive in the tumultuous rodeo world. Annie feels like the black sheep of the family. Her mother, Linda, is a rodeo star—sexy and skillful and caring more about her career than her daughter. Annie’s grandmother Mam casually abuses her most of the time. Her Uncle Jack is an angry, violent man who is hellbent on Annie’s bearing the brunt of his bitterness. No one seems to care much when Annie is sexually assaulted by an older girl. Despite her turbulent situation, Annie embraces rodeo life, particularly after traveling with her mother to shows. After getting her first horse, Genie, Annie even wins an event at a show. Later, when her mother gives up riding and Annie hears that her first crush was gored by a bull, the rodeo’s fast-paced culture starts troubling her. Annie is growing up, and, at only 13 years old, she tries to figure out her blossoming romantic feelings for some of the men around her. Interspersed with scenes from 1999, when Annie is at her family’s ranch looking back on her adolescence, Clayton Van’s novel, the first in a series, is strongest when it leans into the coming-of-age aspects of Annie’s life, particularly as she navigates the new, intense feelings she has as a teenager. One scene, when Annie and her friend Margie Delaunay practice kissing, is especially well crafted, highlighting the childlike curiosity of Annie alongside her desire to explore and her resulting confusion. But the tale feels almost exhaustive—nearly every moment of Annie’s childhood is unnecessarily dissected. This often causes the prose to be somewhat repetitive and throws the pacing off, with Annie only 10 halfway through the tale. Still, Annie is a resilient protagonist, which is admirable, though it can be tough to read about a child experiencing some of the trials she endures. The rodeo setting provides a fresh take on the bildungsroman.
An engaging addition to the coming-of-age genre with slow pacing.Pub Date: June 21, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-63988-335-6
Page Count: 404
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2022
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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