An offbeat exploration of how life-changing events can turn strangers into unlikely friends.
Wierman’s novel chronicles a fateful night when two women meet under duress at a rural Texas convenience store.
Lianna Matthews, a workaholic New Yorker, finds herself driving through Texas to work out a business acquisition. On the way to her hotel, she stops at Buck’s Pantry to use the bathroom. Soon, she’s joined by Gillian Wilkins, a harassed mother of three who married into a rich but controlling family. She was ushered into the bathroom by mysterious convenience store employee Drew, who says that a dangerous biker gang is approaching the store. She and Lianna are stuck with each other for the moment and find that they’re similar as chalk and cheese. Soon, Aimee, a hardworking employee of the bank with whom Lianna is working, is set on the trail of helping the two women, but she has worries of her own involving her beloved mentally ill cousin and her difficult mother. Wierman weaves together an engaging storyline that twists and turns in ways that readers aren’t likely to see coming, with a significant portion of the novel happening over the course of one night. The aftermath of the climax is particularly intriguing, with Wierman using her three main characters to explore family dynamics and the cost of proper care for mental illness. Starting with Gillian and Lianna’s first conversation in the gas station bathroom, the book tackles political tensions and, perhaps more importantly, how deeply held beliefs can be changed. The three main characters are different in many ways, but the author never leans into stock types, instead presenting a nuanced examination of upbringings, value systems, and lifestyles while subtly calling for understanding. For all the seriousness of the subject matter, Wierman also knows when to include moments of humor, resulting in a witty and uplifting novel.
An offbeat exploration of how life-changing events can turn strangers into unlikely friends.Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-68463-165-0
Page Count: 280
Publisher: SparkPress
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2022
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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