A delightfully meta novel about a woman writing her way out of calamity.
A would-be biographer pursues two potential paydays in Upton’s comic novel.
Tabitha Acrete is 50, divorced, and in need of some cash. She’s a biographer by trade, and though her last effort—Annie: Her Life Story, about her deceased dog—was a flop, she has two prospective subjects whom she hopes will rejuvenate her career. One is Brent Vintner, an actor “so good looking they should bottle that man and spray him on belligerent people as a form of crowd control.” The other is Piper Fields, a renowned children’s book author whose career has taken a hit since the discovery that she writes erotic novels on the side. Both Brent and Piper happen to be in Tabitha’s hometown of Midlothian for the next several months, which should give Tabitha plenty of time to pry into the recesses of their private lives. The only problem is that Tabitha’s past celebrity profiles were so poorly received that she’s basically blacklisted—a fact that she misrepresents to her publisher. As Tabitha attempts, with mixed results, to worm her way into the lives of Brent and Piper, she also grapples with the legacy of her deceased ex-husband’s ashes, the colorful patrons of her nephew Leon’s bar (called The End of the World), an unwanted intern, and the fact that she might not be a very good biographer at all. Upton’s prose is razor-sharp—as filtered through the unpredictable and slightly delusional perspective of Tabitha, it takes on a magical, frenetic quality. Here, Tabitha tries to justify why a biographer isn’t really a writer: “As a biographer I’m ferreting out truth, outlining a life until the contours are visible. It never feels like writing to me. I’m not inventing anything. I’m releasing a life, clarifying a life. I’m more like a painter or a photographer than a writer. I hardly even work in—in—words.” Though many madcap events occur, it’s Tabitha’s humorous and hypnotic voice that propels the story.
A delightfully meta novel about a woman writing her way out of calamity.Pub Date: May 3, 2024
ISBN: 9781952386893
Page Count: 310
Publisher: Sagging Meniscus Press
Review Posted Online: May 21, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
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
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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