An intriguing but meandering volcano tale with little to balance its bleak worldview.
In this debut literary novel, a young family begins a wildfire-inspired road trip across the Beehive State.
Seasonal wildfires continue to decimate the Western United States, and the town of Logan, Utah, is in danger of being consumed. Young married couple Lee and Becca Smith are about to hit the road—not a moment too soon. Lee has his mind on the Yellowstone supervolcano, which is apparently getting quite fidgety, while Becca doesn’t know if she can stand any more time alone with their infant daughter, Analise: “The two of them walked outside and Lee locked the front door of their tiny duplex behind them, Becca sarcastically thinking that the imminent destruction of the planet via a volcano or earthquake or wildfire seemed more pleasant to her than marriage or motherhood.” As they make their unhurried way across the state of Utah to a family wedding at Zion National Park, the couple fret about the parenthood that forced them into marriage and the many untaken roads in their separate lives. Along the way, they encounter a gaggle of friends, relatives, and strangers, including both Lee’s and Becca’s mothers and an unhinged veteran–turned–domestic terrorist. Rogers’ plainspoken prose deftly depicts ordinary life interspersed with images of personal and societal doom. Lee’s dreams feature “images of the bubbling caldera under Yellowstone,” its yellow and red lava “hissing, creeping, slowly making its way to the surface of the earth. The wolves and mountain lions and grizzly bears all fleeing from the impending disaster in the area in their mammalian omniscience.” The story is a bit too long and a bit too slow, with the human drama taking a back seat to the ominous climatic and volcanic imagery and literally apocalyptic conclusion. (Readers learn, in the introduction, that this volume is meant to be read as a manuscript found beneath the rubble of the former state of Utah.) While the title, premise, and Tolkien-inspired state map at the book’s beginning all suggest a work of levity—or at least satire—the actual novel is a largely dreary tale of people enacting the Freudian death drive. As pressures build in their own lives, so too do the pressures beneath the ailing Earth’s crust.
An intriguing but meandering volcano tale with little to balance its bleak worldview.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-63752-975-1
Page Count: 318
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Review Posted Online: March 18, 2021
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
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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