A lugubrious family drama.
Siblings take a last-gasp vacation to Mexico in Dahl’s novel.
Something happened to Kathy Talley 30 years ago on a spring break trip to Mexico that made her not want to go back. In the story’s present (it’s set in 2016), she is planning to return because her sister Corina, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s, wants to go to the beach again before she loses her memory entirely. Kathy’s other sister Becca and her brother, Pete, who has kidney disease, also plan to come along. Kathy’s husband, Bernard, thinks the trip is an odd idea: “I mean, is it wise? Two sick people? A long car trip? To Mexico?” Readers get glimpses of each of the siblings’ current lives: Corina is divorced, and her ex-husband now lives in their beach house; Becca and her husband are struggling with their troubled teenage son; Pete’s poor health may preclude his participation in the trip. Kathy is a do-gooder who does a lot of volunteer work and takes care of everyone in her life, sometimes at the expense of her own mental health (she almost doesn’t notice that her marriage is falling apart). By the time the group finally leaves for Mexico—eventually with Bernard, Becca’s husband, Toby, and Corina’s caretaker, Imalia, in tow—everyone is feeling very stressed. The trip is a nightmare, and everything that can go wrong, does. There’s a palpable sense of melancholy hanging over the narrative. The pathos is almost too much—on top of everything else, several characters deal with addiction problems. The journey to Mexico doesn’t commence until halfway through this short novel, which lends the first half of the book a drawn-out feeling of anticipation. There’s a lot of complexity crammed into this fairly brief story, and the realism is impressive, but there isn’t much hope or uplift at its conclusion.
A lugubrious family drama.Pub Date: July 22, 2025
ISBN: 9781647429300
Page Count: 245
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: April 30, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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