A peculiar novel driven more by bogeymen than brains.
America is overtaken by an idiocracy in Shriver’s latest satire/anti-PC screed.
In this tale of alternative recent history, circa 2010 the word stupid has become verboten, thanks to the rise of a “Mental Parity” movement that insists nobody is smarter than anyone else. Narrating this lamentable turn of events is Pearson Converse, a college English teacher, mother of three, and fierce critic of the campaign against “smartism” and the “brain-vain” that strictly prohibits all variations of the S-word. (She’s nearly fired when she cheekily assigns her class Dostoevsky’s The Idiot.) In the years that follow, Shriver chronicles the intensifying catastrophe of this anti-intellectual effort: The crossword is canceled, the Mars rover crashes, Osama bin Laden gets away, gay marriage remains illegal, China tramples the U.S. on the world stage. On the home front, Pearson’s two very gifted children grow slack in the absence of academic rigor, while her third, less-bright child turns informant on her mom. Pearson’s partner, a tree surgeon, suffers for lack of competent assistance; her journalist best friend, once as exasperated with “cognitive justice” as Pearson, turns into its vocal supporter, a move Shriver depicts as vile Vichy collaborationism. Practically every Shriver book in the past decade has been a critique of liberal hobbyhorses; imagining a made-in-the-U.S.A. Cultural Revolution, for her, is business as usual. But without a clear sense of what kind of tyranny of the (lib) commons Shriver fears—DEI? the language police? socialism? virtue signaling? grade inflation?—the conceit is a better fit for a tart short story than an extended narrative. And given that today’s most robust anti-intellectual initiatives come from right-wing quarters—book bans, shutdowns of college liberal arts departments, efforts to drain public school funds—Shriver’s process for picking a target seems, let’s say, cognitively subpar.
A peculiar novel driven more by bogeymen than brains.Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9780063345393
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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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