A novel that may make you think again about what lies beneath the surface of your own community.
A compulsively readable book about how easily tightknit communities can unravel.
Thornton’s debut novel opens with the death of 20-something Gentry from a heroin overdose and traces the reverberations of that event through the small North Carolina town of Bethany. Nettie, Gentry’s mother, watches her marriage fail and the town abandon her as though she’s to blame for her son’s drug addiction. Ethan, who discovered his brother’s lifeless body, descends into the basement and doesn’t come out. Dale, who distanced himself from Gentry when he entered the police academy, is haunted by his former best friend’s voice as mental illness takes over his life. At the same time, the town elders continue their tradition of gathering every morning at the ironically named Table of Knowledge at Austin’s Grill, unwilling to face what’s happening under their noses. Thornton takes an unflinching look at mental illness, sexual abuse, domestic violence, small-town conservatism, and the empty promises of community. The novel’s alternating points of view allow her to effectively inhabit different characters. The chapter detailing Dale’s psychotic breakdown is masterful: Dale distracts himself from his pain by scribbling down facts about executions: “black mask protected dignity of victim—also to keep eyeballs from falling out.” Another standout is the chapter from 8-year-old Emma Hatcher’s perspective, which captures in heartbreaking detail how easily children internalize abuse. Just a third grader, Emma watches her father brutalize her mother and then tries to protect herself by pretending she’s not affected: “My body can get scared of a thing even when my brain isn’t scared of it at all and that is what I hate most about myself.” The novel’s only flaw is that some of the characters’ happy endings do a disservice to the depths of their suffering.
A novel that may make you think again about what lies beneath the surface of your own community.Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-63246-117-9
Page Count: 232
Publisher: Ig Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2020
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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