A well-plotted story likely to entrance all but the most cynical.
A saga by a former California newspaper editor spans more than 200 years and events ranging from horrific Civil War action to a romance in present-day San Francisco.
Conner, a sixth-generation Californian, weaves together several stories in an absorbing novel rooted in a deep knowledge of his native state. Elliott Madison, an editor who has retired from the San Francisco Chronicle, is writing an account of his great-grandparents William Henry Madison and Amelia Snyder Madison, who met and prospered in California after hard beginnings in Mendocino County: William had come west by sea, around Cape Horn, and Amelia made a cross-country wagon journey. In 2005 Madison gets a letter from a Phoebe Crighton in New York whose great-grandmother was the niece of Civil War veteran Benjamin Harrigan, who appears to have eventually gone west and worked on the Madisons’ ranch for the last 30 years of his life. Much of the book is taken up with those stories: the horrendous sea passage around the Horn and William’s failed gold mining attempts, Amelia’s arduous wagon journey and the loss of her father on the trail. But the story also sweeps in Benjamin’s terrifying engagements in the war and his worse time in a Confederate POW camp. Phoebe, a romantic, is convinced that Benjamin and Amelia were lovers (William died early on). Elliott agrees to travel with her to Mendocino County to investigate. Some readers may find the denouement a bit much, but Elliott’s characterizations are spot-on, especially the classic pairing of the quirky Phoebe and the reserved Elliott, who is quite ready to ease into a solitary old age until Phoebe arrives, and Elliott’s granddaughter Alissa, a resentful piece of work and a drummer in a grunge-rock trio. Near the end of the book comes, in effect, a wonderful scenic postcard celebrating San Francisco, a city Conner clearly loves.
A well-plotted story likely to entrance all but the most cynical.Pub Date: Dec. 22, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-9856312-2-2
Page Count: 318
Publisher: NaCl Press
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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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