Gemlike stories from a master of the form.
Deceptively simple stories about older women who meet for lunch.
In her latest collection, Segal, now in her mid-90s, displays a seemingly effortless sense of lightness—even effervescence. These are not stories that strain toward their subjects in agony. They glide with a cleareyed calm and the grace of a writer’s lifelong career to inform them. The book’s first part is made up of a sequence of whisper-thin stories about a group of elderly women who meet every month or so for lunch. It doesn’t feel too presumptuous, going by their conversation and characteristics, to assume these women are loosely based on Segal and her own friends. They chat about topics that are light and topics that are less so. “Our children would not believe how calmly we look around the table wondering which one of us will be next,” Bessie says in one. In the book’s second part, Segal branches out a bit to revisit some of the material that has appeared in her work previously: fleeing Nazi-occupied Vienna as a 10-year-old, for example. Then, too, there are charming and bittersweet stories like the three-page “Divorce,” in which Lilly calls Henry to ask, “ ‘Can you remember exactly why we got divorced?’ ‘You always think things can be explained exactly,’ said Henry. ‘Oh, really!’ she said. ‘Is this one of the things that I “always” think?’ ” It isn’t just that Segal has a fantastic ear for dialogue, a magnificent wit, and an apparently infinite patience for her characters, who can be, as we all can, grumpy, difficult, forgetful, and argumentative. At this point in her career, Segal’s confidence in her own narrative ability is such that she allows her grasp to loosen to glorious effect. These are stories as light as air, as life itself, and yet they go on reverberating afterward.
Gemlike stories from a master of the form.Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2023
ISBN: 9781685891015
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Melville House
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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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