A charming novel about how family can be destiny.
In Lloyd’s latest novel, a single woman’s life is upended by her unstable brother.
Yes, Mona Lisa Buttaro was named after the famous Leonardo da Vinci painting, and yes, she hates her name. After a lifetime of jokes, she’s more or less the last Buttaro standing: Her father has been dead for over 10 years, her mother lives in a retirement community, and her brother, the clinically paranoid and germophobic Joey, resides in a group home. Three months ago, Mona, 37, moved into the old family house in Seattle to clean it out and sell it. She’s also taken over operation of the family restaurant, Booty’s Cafe. She’s barely keeping it together—the long hours, the house, her mother’s Doberman, Figaro—when two intrusions make her life even more complicated. The first is Joey, who (along with the voice in his head named Saint Signore) leaves the group home and moves himself back into the house unannounced. The second is Cliff, the most popular guy from her high school class, who’s now a hot single-dad contractor. Cliff, who runs into Mona at Booty’s, volunteers his services as she prepares the house for sale. Mona has been unlucky in love for so long that she can’t help but wonder if Cliff might be the answer to her prayers. That is, if Joey and his voices (and her mother’s unexpected second marriage…and a secret half sibling reappearing out of nowhere) don’t screw it up. Mona narrates most of the novel, though some chapters follow Cliff and Joey as well. Lloyd’s prose is buoyant and engaging throughout: “Since Joey started working at Booty’s, his life had been warped out of shape, stretched and twisted to conform to Moni’s daily routine. He’d been determined to find a way to squirm out of going to the restaurant ever again—until last night, when his world went topsy-turvy.” Less a romantic comedy than a partly heightened story of a slightly dysfunctional Italian American family, the novel will win readers over with its deftly drawn characters and spirited scenes.
A charming novel about how family can be destiny.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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