A beautifully rendered collection from a writer to watch.
A debut set of 13 stories that largely portray the struggles of people pursuing optimistic promises of life in Southern California.
In these richly evocative tales, Feyder’s various protagonists confront their own lack of control over their lives. The author skillfully centers each story on the exact moment in which dreams and hopes are crushed. She sketches her characters—of different ages, genders, and classes—with pitch-perfect honesty. Older women reassess and reshape their identities, particularly in “All’s Fair,” about a woman with an ill husband who befriends a boy with albinism, as well as “Robbie Released,” about a small-town manicurist whose troubled brother comes to retrieve a family heirloom. Children must reevaluate their parents in “Joint Custody” and “Grace,” in each case painfully realizing that their hopes for a functional family life are unachievable. Feyder is particularly deft in her portrayal of teenage girls searching for answers and escape plans in “Engaged” and “Horse, Rope, Mud, Rain.” Not all is bleak, however; a wary hope arises in the stories in which characters directly face the disconcerting fragility of life or of themselves. In “White Shoes,” for example, a young girl realizes how precious her family is after witnessing the effects of her mother’s estrangement from her long-absent brother; suddenly aware of her parents’ foibles, Gloria feels newly bound to her loved ones. “Blind Date” shares the story of an awkward man’s search for romantic connection after he feels he’s missed his chance at love. In “T-Zone,” one of the collection’s strongest pieces, a dismissed U.S. Navy officer deals with his idolatry of—and attraction to—his brother-in-law. Overall, an aching sense of loss permeates this collection, which is heightened by the way in which it contrasts with the expansive natural beauty of the Pacific Ocean and the thriving orchards along its coastline: “The ocean sparkles at its points of height, as if the crests of swells hold blinking lanterns.” In the end, Feyder effectively captures what it’s like to be emotionally bereft in a land of plenty.
A beautifully rendered collection from a writer to watch.Pub Date: Sept. 28, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64742-199-1
Page Count: 160
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022
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 touching portrait of courage and friendship.
A lifetime of friendship endures many upheavals.
Ellie and Homa, two young girls growing up in Tehran, meet at school in the early 1950s. Though their families are very different, they become close friends. After the death of Ellie’s father, she and her difficult mother must adapt to their reduced circumstances. Homa’s more warm and loving family lives a more financially constrained life, and her father, a communist, is politically active—to his own detriment and that of his family’s welfare. When Ellie’s mother remarries and she and Ellie relocate to a more exclusive part of the city, the girls become separated. They reunite years later when Homa is admitted to Ellie’s elite high school. Now a political firebrand with aspirations to become a judge and improve the rights of women in her factionalized homeland, Homa works toward scholastic success and begins practicing political activism. Ellie follows a course, plotted originally by her mother, toward marriage. The tortuous path of the girls’ adult friendship over the following decades is played out against regime change, political persecution, and devastating loss. Ellie’s well-intentioned but naïve approach stands in stark contrast to Homa’s commitment to human rights, particularly for women, and her willingness to risk personal safety to secure those rights. As narrated by Ellie, the girls’ story incorporates frequent references to Iranian food, customs, and beliefs common in the years of tumult and reforms accompanying the Iranian Revolution. Themes of jealousy—even in close friendships—and the role of the shir zan, the courageous “lion women” of Iran who effect change, recur through the narrative. The heartaches associated with emigration are explored along with issues of personal sacrifice for the sake of the greater good (no matter how remote it may seem).
A touching portrait of courage and friendship.Pub Date: July 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781668036587
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
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