Stories that explore what it means to buck the status quo amid suspicion of—or hostility toward—anything different.
Queer and mixed-race people challenge boundaries and defy expectations by virtue of their very existence in a story collection infused with the sticky, swampy heat of Florida.
In many ways, this debut collection functions as an exploration of radical subversiveness—of race and ethnicity, of gender and sexuality, of models of family and community, even of species. Lines blur, categories coalesce, and hybridity reigns supreme. A member of the West Philly punk scene begins to develop reptilian physical features. Queer Jacksonville residents form a close-knit social circle that endures through incestuous romantic entanglements. Besides the recurring appearance of the Jacksonville friends, the most prominent commonality among the stories is the fact that multiple protagonists share a background as the children of Chinese mothers and white fathers. In practice, this means they are constantly on the receiving end of attempts to dissect their racial identity, familiar with the alienating experience of being constantly othered. A bookish teenager vacationing at a Polynesian-themed resort is repeatedly asked if she is a “native” by other tourists before a tragedy befalls her family. A university employee living in an Orwellian society navigates a state-run dating site that exclusively pairs people of color with white people. A young woman taught how to pickle memories disposes of “the white woman at the grocery store who told me I was prettier because I wasn’t ‘full Chinese’” in this manner. Haunting in its treatment of family legacy and cultural inheritance, that story, “One-Thousand-Year-Old Ghosts,” is one of the strongest here. Not all the stories measure up to the standard it sets, with some being much thinner and less polished. Nevertheless, the collection highlights the everyday burden of shouldering bias and misconception, but never at the expense of the individuality and humanity of its characters.
Stories that explore what it means to buck the status quo amid suspicion of—or hostility toward—anything different.Pub Date: March 15, 2024
ISBN: 9780810146945
Page Count: 184
Publisher: TriQuarterly/Northwestern Univ.
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
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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