An impressive step forward for an increasingly serious entertainer.
Polly Solo-Miller Demarest has all that she always expected to have: "a husband, two children, a strong family, and a month's summer holiday in Maine. Once she was married, her life had been so accomplished that all she had to do was live it. But it turned out that life was not a straight path. You woke up on the wrong side of the law with the right set of feelings."
That wrong side of the law is represented here by Lincoln Bennett, a painter with whom Polly has been having an inextricable affair—one that goes against the grain of her upbringing (among the rich, Jewish, very correct, and close Solo-Millers), of her love for lawyer-husband Henry. And, though the family is a haven and fidelity is a spine in a life that's otherwise treacherously jellied: "What did a smoothly run house, good meals, sweet children, and an admirable husband matter if you felt your heart being torn to pieces?" Such is Polly's quandary—and it's fleshed out with some of Colwin's most heartfelt prose: the mix of pain with authorial breeze and social-antenna perceptiveness is occasionally quite spectacular in terms of tone; there are fewer jokes than in Happy All the Time, though some of the comic description is inspired (an after-dinner pianist "played exclusively as background, but the expression on his face was that of an ingenious veterinarian who had quelled a room of anxious schnauzers"); and Colwin's drumming insistence on the conflict between (and complexity within) personal and family happiness gives this novel more than a little Russian flavor—Chekhovian intimacy, Tolstoyan responsibility, longueurs and passions. So, though the ruminant theme announced in the title flattens some of the feeling here (Polly's agony comes across only fitfully, the hurt and confusion muted by the author's nervously churning reflections), Colwin is to be credited for having gone beyond the mere charm of her previous work. And if the ingredients for emotional combustion never quite explode in this richly ambitious novel, they are graceful, unsimplified, very often strikingly—and fully—stated.
An impressive step forward for an increasingly serious entertainer.Pub Date: Sept. 13, 1982
ISBN: 0-06-095897-9
Page Count: -
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: April 30, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.
With only a month left until the world ends due to a swiftly approaching black hole, Don and Rodney, a retired gay couple, road-trip from Maine to Washington to spend their final days with their son.
After reports that a planet-swallowing black hole is making its way toward Earth, Rodney and Don—who have been together for 40 years and survived everything from homophobia to the HIV crisis—decide to pack their belongings into an RV, say goodbye to their neighbors, and travel from Camden, Maine, to Washington to uphold a promise to spend their final days with their son. They can’t wait any longer, since there’s already chaos around the country: “Military vehicles in the streets of most cities and towns. Looting, rioting, the burning of cars and buildings and people, all of it had already happened.” As they make their way west across the country, they encounter fellow travelers ranging from close-knit families to free-spirited hippies, some of whom have come to terms with the impending end of the world and others who haven’t. While the story seems to be asking readers what they would do if they had 30 days left to live, and reflects on what different kinds of acceptance might look like in the face of unavoidable tragedy, it loses some of its poignancy in a series of thinly padded monologues about the meaning of life. Clearly intended to pack an emotional punch, it’s failed by an abrupt ending, and the way the journey’s mystery—which will be obvious to many readers—is revealed by an info dump in the last chapter.
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781250881236
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
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