An involving courtroom and family drama with strong connections to historical events.
In this 1970s-set novel, a criminal lawyer defends his father-in-law against charges of fraud and embezzlement.
It’s August 1969, and Michael Goldman, a Manhattan criminal defense attorney in his late 20s, goes to Woodstock, where he has a liaison with a stranger, a beautiful girl he’d discovered sobbing in the mud and talking nonsense. An invitation to dry off in his van leads to passionate sex, but the next morning, she’s anguished to have lost her virginity after being tricked into taking a hallucinogen. Not yet 18, Shira Lefkovitz is an Orthodox Jew who’d never even kissed. Michael is smitten and wants to date Shira, but when she discovers she’s pregnant, he isn’t quite sure he’s ready for the altar. Nevertheless, they decide to marry, and Michael wins over Shira’s family. Her father, Moshe, is a respected cabalistic rabbi who helps get visas to Jews denied permission to leave Russia. The marriage is happy, but disaster strikes in 1972 when Moshe becomes a pawn in political machinations and is indicted for money laundering, bribery, and embezzling donations. He’ll go to prison unless Michael can defend him. Goldsmith presents a narrator who at first seems callow, ignoring Shira’s obvious incapacity at Woodstock, but soon shows finer qualities. Michael ensures that Shira can practice her more observant Judaism, stay connected with family, and have a supportive community of friends. He throws himself into helping his bewildered in-laws, mounting a spirited, intelligent (and somewhat devious) defense for Moshe. The case necessarily involves tangled political and financial matters, which Goldsmith handily clarifies as Michael highlights essential facts that could have been obscured by the prosecution’s blizzard of evidence.
An involving courtroom and family drama with strong connections to historical events.Pub Date: July 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-80-016114-6
Page Count: 293
Publisher: Vanguard Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2021
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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