Two tales of impassioned struggles that are often compelling, despite uneven prose.
A pair of character-driven stories from Leven.
In the first of the book’s two tales, “Mom and Apple Pie,” Laura Halprin is a young girl with family problems. Although she, her parents, and her grandmother live in a seemingly pleasant country setting, their home is beset with domestic turmoil, due mainly to mother Amelia’s alcoholism, which has been a problem for years, and even endangered her husband’s job as a lawyer. After their move to their new house, Amelia seems to get control of her behavior—but after a few months, she’s stumbling home drunk again, and her family is pessimistic about her ever changing her ways. In the second story, “Alliance of Affliction,” a New York City couple forms an odd bond. Lilly Stanton always wanted to be a dancer, and she worked hard toward this goal, training religiously and pushing her body to its limits. Now in her 20s, she finds herself in incessant pain. Along comes a young man named Peter Morgan,who’s also obsessed with physical prowess. He spends hours in the gym, and has pushed his body as far as it can go—and, despite his sculpted appearance, he’s also in agony. He and Lilly meet and discover their shared experience, but will they learn how to yield to their limitations? Both stories tell of people in grim circumstances, but they also offer inklings of hope that, for example, Amelia will kick the booze or Lilly will find a calling outside of dance; this not only keeps readers’ attention, but also allows the narratives to move at a quick pace. Several passages, however, earnestly express sentiments that are obvious from context, such as that Peter “couldn’t accept the fact that his body was deteriorating and rebelling…and at the young age of twenty-nine!” At another point, it’s noted that Amelia “reeked from the smell of booze, smoke, and vomit,” followed by the unnecessary statement that the “stench was horrendous.” Still, the main characters’ situations are engaging enough that readers will want to find out if they can manage to defeat their personal demons.
Two tales of impassioned struggles that are often compelling, despite uneven prose.Pub Date: April 23, 2021
ISBN: 979-8-67-235857-4
Page Count: 107
Publisher: KDP Amazon
Review Posted Online: April 7, 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
A debut novel with bright spots, but unbalanced and lacking in finesse.
A high school senior pursues an affair with her teacher.
Seventeen-year-old Waldo, the narrator of McCurdy’s fiction debut, lives in Anchorage, Alaska, with her mother, though she’s long been the parent in their relationship. She heats her own frozen meals and pays the bills on time while her mom chases man after man and makes well-meaning promises she never keeps. Waldo blows her Victoria’s Secret wages on online shopping sprees and binges on junk food, inevitably crashing after the fleeting highs of her indulgences. Mr. Korgy, her creative writing teacher, has “thinning hair and nose pores”; he’s 40 years old and married with a child. Nevertheless—or possibly as a result?—Waldo’s attraction to him is “instant. So sudden it’s alarming. So palpable it’s confusing.” Mr. Korgy professes to want to keep their friendship aboveboard, but after a sexual encounter at the school’s winter formal that she initiates, an affair begins. Will this reckless pursuit be the one that actually satisfies Waldo, and is she as mature as she thinks she is? Waldo is a keen observer of people and provides sharp commentary on the punishing work of female beauty. Readers of McCurdy’s bestselling memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died (2022), will surely be curious about the tumultuous mother-daughter relationship, and it is one of the novel’s highlights, full of realistic pity and anger and need. (“I want to scream at her. I want her to hug me.”) Unfortunately, the prose is often unwieldy and sometimes downright cringeworthy: When Waldo tells Mr. Korgy she loves him, “The words hang in the air in that constipated way they do when you know that you shouldn’t have said them.” Waldo frequently lists emotions and adjectives in triplicate, and events that could be significant aren’t sufficiently explored or given enough space to breathe before the novel races on to the next thing.
A debut novel with bright spots, but unbalanced and lacking in finesse.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2026
ISBN: 9780593723739
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
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