A mesmerizing escape.
In 1955, postwar Britain’s socio-economic changes play out in the small Yorkshire village of Starome as local estate Richmond Hall swims against a tide of mounting taxes and death duties.
Then the drowned body of Danny Masters, a village local, is discovered at river’s edge by 17-year-old Lennie Fairweather, her older brother, Tom, and their friend Alexander Richmond. As Danny’s aunt says, “That river’s always been dangerous.” Never named, it winds dangerously enough through the lives of Powell’s four protagonists: quiet Lennie, whose father’s job as private secretary at Richmond Hall has left her in social limbo, fully accepted neither by the village nor the gentry; Cambridge student Alexander, heir to Richmond Hall, who has begun a romantic relationship with Lennie while in confused, angry mourning over his father Angus’ recent death; Alexander’s mother, Venetia, whose stately role as Lady Richmond belies her insecurities and passions as a wife and mother; Danny himself, a village boy in unrequited love with Lennie though his boyhood friendships with Tom and Alexander ended years before when the two of them left for boarding school. (Intellectually gifted but resentful Tom, whose schooling Angus paid for, represents the angry young men of 1950s British fiction and film.) While Danny remains relatively innocent—pining for Lennie, his only real secret is the volume of Tennyson he’s purchased and keeps meaning to give her—his death forces Alexander, Lennie, and Venetia to confront unspoken jealousies and guilts, some more deserved than others. Love triangles abound, as do deaths with unclear causes. But this is not a murder mystery. Despite an unfortunately dated representation of mental illness, Powell shows hard-nosed empathy in portraying individuals’ private demons in the context of social realities. Her novel about love, class, and secrecy in 1950s England reads as if it were written in the era the characters inhabit, her style and tone reminiscent of an earlier generation of reticent yet emotionally brutal writers like Shirley Hazzard and Graham Greene.
A mesmerizing escape.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-60945-615-3
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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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