A slightly uneven but often sweet coming-of-age tale.
A woman babysits her niece and learns some important lessons in Tirado-Ryen’s novel.
It’s 2005 in Little Rock, Arkansas, and 26-year-old Kim Kincaid has been tasked with babysitting her 6-year-old niece, Summer, while Kim’s older sister, Dena Nordstrom, is on vacation with her husband at a ski resort for two weeks. Kim is ill-equipped to take care of a child—pretty much the only sustenance in her house at the moment is leftover Chinese takeout and vodka—but she resents the fact that her sister thinks she’d be bad at it. The novel jumps around a bit, presenting flashbacks of Kim’s relationships with her family members, but most of the story follows Kim as she adjusts to taking care of a young child. She struggles at first, but she and Summer do eventually bond, and Kim learns that she can be a responsible adult when she tries. Readers also meet her best friend, Jillian Martin, who has a big personality; she’s having an affair with her married boss. Kim’s also starting to have doubts about Jared McKenzie, her boyfriend of two years, who comes off as a jerk; he’s so awful, in fact, that readers may find it hard to muster much sympathy as Kim decides whether to break up with him. This is a layered story, with complicated relationships between Kim and her late mother, between Kim and Dena, and between Kim and her friends and boyfriend; the siblings’ parents consider Dena to be the family’s golden child, and Kim struggles to get out of her shadow, which increases her insecurity in other areas of her life. Some flashbacks feel a bit unnecessary, revealing little that readers can’t gather from the main storyline; for example, in 2005, Kim has an encounter with a woman who bullied her in high school, and readers can easily infer how mean that woman is, but the author includes a flashback of her bullying Kim in the past, anyway. Overall, though, this is a pleasing story of a young woman deciding what she wants.
A slightly uneven but often sweet coming-of-age tale.Pub Date: July 10, 2023
ISBN: 9798218334741
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Nov. 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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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