Engaging tales show unassuming people facing unavoidable plights.
Characters struggle in their everyday lives in Bobb’s debut collection of eight short stories.
In the novella-length “Agnes and Tommy,” Agnes barely makes ends meet while working two jobs and caring for her sickly son. But it’s her country club waitressing gig that triggers the most stress thanks to ever hounding bartender Victor. One day she finally tells off Victor, with unforeseen consequences. One of those happens to be Tommy, the charismatic new bartender who may prod a reticent Agnes into bettering her life. Other tales showcase similar people, who are alone by choice or circumstance. Carrie, in “By the Rivers of Babylon, There She Wept,” is a writer in need of inspiration for her second novel. But as she wanders a village’s main street, locals practically ostracize the out-of-towner, as she’s “perhaps a bit bizarre.” Seemingly ordinary folk, up against familiar dilemmas or hardships, populate this collection. There’s a man who’s just lost his beloved mother, Martha, and an on-again, off-again couple who, despite endless bickering, show obvious affection and even talk of marriage. The tales in this book, even with their share of bullies and discontents, are typically buoyant. In “Deus ex Machina,” a library assigns “unofficial archivist” Henry the task of recording a theater company’s history. While there’s a wealth of “dirt,” from conspiracies to character assassinations and back-stabbings, Henry laments that his assignment demands he forgo all of that for standard promotional fare. Bobb writes in a sharp, lyrical prose style: “The ladies descended exuberantly down the slope while a balmy sea breeze caressed their wizened faces like a precious ointment, a briny myrrh.” The drawback is that the voice is so strong that it renders the cast’s assorted narrations and dialogue indistinguishable across the eight stories. The distinctions exist instead among the absorbing individual plots and their sometimes unexpected outcomes.
Engaging tales show unassuming people facing unavoidable plights.Pub Date: April 24, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-578-28545-0
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: July 9, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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