A captivating depiction of an elusive quest.
A fan who interacted with a novelist just before the latter was found dead seeks to find out what happened 10 years later in Upton’s mystery novel.
Geneva Finch, 20, is on the beach near the festival celebrating novelist Mira Wallacz, who has just gone missing. She overhears Mira’s unauthorized biographer, a purported longtime friend, and a jealous-seeming literary rival discussing Mira; one comments that she “stirred a lot of unconscious anger.” Geneva, who came to the conference due to an affinity for Mira’s “lurid fairy tales for adults,” later wanders into the nearby woods and spots Mira, yet the latter refuses to return to the festival despite Geneva’s sense of danger. The narrative then jumps ahead 10 years, and readers learn that Mira was found dead, killed by falling or thrown rocks shortly after Geneva left her (“Most likely Mira Wallacz died in a freak accident. Falling rocks. A simple explanation exists for most things. That made sense, didn’t it?”). At a party, Geneva meets and dances with Thom, whom she later learns is the priest who inherited Mira’s estate, subsequently left the priesthood, and now writes poetry. Geneva tracks down Thom at a poetry workshop and convinces him to attend an upcoming conference commemorating Mira and help interview its attendees, including Mira’s agent. Geneva discovers that many people had possible motives to kill the author—including Thom (“It’s always about the one with the quirkiest motive in Mira’s novels. That’s where I’ll look”). Upton’s novel operates quite effectively as an Agatha Christie–like whodunit, complete with a lineup of colorful suspects and a twisty conclusion. The narrative is further enriched by the author’s musings upon the illusory aspects of real life and fiction—Geneva reflects that “the past ten years had been a long dream of guilt, a repetitive dream, and here was a way to rupture the dream.”
Pub Date: May 1, 2025
ISBN: 9781963846218
Page Count: 242
Publisher: Sagging Meniscus Press
Review Posted Online: April 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
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
A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.
A falsely accused Black man goes into hiding in this masterful novella by Wright (1908-1960), finally published in full.
Written in 1941 and '42, between Wright’s classics Native Son and Black Boy, this short novel concerns Fred Daniels, a modest laborer who’s arrested by police officers and bullied into signing a false confession that he killed the residents of a house near where he was working. In a brief unsupervised moment, he escapes through a manhole and goes into hiding in a sewer. A series of allegorical, surrealistic set pieces ensues as Fred explores the nether reaches of a church, a real estate firm, and a jewelry store. Each stop is an opportunity for Wright to explore themes of hope, greed, and exploitation; the real estate firm, Wright notes, “collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent from poor colored folks.” But Fred’s deepening existential crisis and growing distance from society keep the scenes from feeling like potted commentaries. As he wallpapers his underground warren with cash, mocking and invalidating the currency, he registers a surrealistic but engrossing protest against divisive social norms. The novel, rejected by Wright’s publisher, has only appeared as a substantially truncated short story until now, without the opening setup and with a different ending. Wright's take on racial injustice seems to have unsettled his publisher: A note reveals that an editor found reading about Fred’s treatment by the police “unbearable.” That may explain why Wright, in an essay included here, says its focus on race is “rather muted,” emphasizing broader existential themes. Regardless, as an afterword by Wright’s grandson Malcolm attests, the story now serves as an allegory both of Wright (he moved to France, an “exile beyond the reach of Jim Crow and American bigotry”) and American life. Today, it resonates deeply as a story about race and the struggle to envision a different, better world.
A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-59853-676-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Library of America
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
BOOK TO SCREEN
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