Wonderful characters, Texas-sized helpings of wit and insight, and, believe it or not, a vision of post-partisan redemption.
An unknown West Texas cattle rancher is elected to the State House of Representatives and becomes a star.
The second novel from the Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist is totally different from his first, The End of October (2020), a thriller about bioterrorism that appeared right at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. It is also dramatically better. Tapping into his prodigious knowledge of and affection for the state of Texas, Wright gives us a novel about politics and people that at its best recalls classics like The Gay Place by Billy Lee Brammer and the work of Larry McMurtry. It begins when a powerful lobbyist named L.D. Sparks—“a silver-haired cynic in a gray western-cut suit and handmade boots”—shows up at the funeral of a longtime Democratic state rep, hoping to find a Republican who can take the seat. That turns out to be Sonny Lamb, who, with his wife, Lola, is barely keeping their herd going through the drought; they aren’t having much luck expanding their own family, either. An Iraq vet with a checkered past, a currently incarcerated father, and no college degree, Sonny nonetheless has the heart of a hero, as we learn when he rushes into a burning barn to save a little girl’s horse. The novel moves nimbly and amusingly through the campaign and Sonny’s early days in Austin, with highlights including a feral-hog hunt and a fertility clinic debacle. When the newly elected Rep. Lamb chooses to follow his own lights rather than “dance with the one who brung [him],” he incites the ire of L.D. and his cabal, who immediately kick off plans for his ruin. Wright’s prose is full of original and funny formulations—one character has “a smirk where his smile should be”; small towns between San Antonio and El Paso “[cling] to the interstate like ticks on a dog”; an obnoxious catfish farmer–turned-politico is “the brains behind the QAnon caucus,” which is so dry it crackles. Just a few complaints: The sections about Sonny’s plan to convert the wastewater produced by fracking into a solution for the drought sometimes seem to be turning into New Yorker articles, and the storyline about Sonny and Lola’s marital troubles is not convincing.
Wonderful characters, Texas-sized helpings of wit and insight, and, believe it or not, a vision of post-partisan redemption.Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9780593537374
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
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
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
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