A compassionate, informed novel about loss in postwar Japan hampered somewhat by slow pacing.
A financially struggling Japanese couple makes a painful decision to send their son to the United States to be raised by relatives in Stephens’ novel.
Noriko Ito was only 7 when the U.S. military dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima. Her parents owned a sushi shop in the city,but the brutal end to the war threw their business and Noriko’s childhood into disarray. As a hibakusha, or survivor, she lives in fear of eventually contracting a radiation-related illness. As a young adult, she hopes to enter a drama academy and become an actor, so she moves to Osaka, where she works in her half sister’s tearoom. With her hair cut in a short, modern style, she’s ready to take on the world—but then she’s rejected by the school. The tearoom’s general manager, Ichiro, sees that she’s depressed and begins to court her; he’s a gentle, kind man who put aside some dreams of his own to earn a living. Eventually, the two marry and have a son, but then Ichiro is diagnosed with tuberculosis. The couple relies on help from family to get by, and Ichiro convinces Noriko they should send their son to live with his sister, who married an American and lives in Montana—a move that only causes more pain for Noriko. Stephens’ sprawling novel is loaded with details about Japanese culture, postwar history, and the Tenrikyo religion in particular. It also features some wonderful lines that give readers keen insight into Noriko’s psyche: “Japanese people believe that children up to the age of five can communicate with angels, but can they also communicate with the dead?” she wonders to herself, not long before her son is to depart. The pace of the storytelling is quite leisurely, though, as it methodically moves along a relatively flat story arc. Still, the characters’ perseverance through continual struggle makes for a compelling story of survival of life’s many trials and of one person’s drive to stay true to oneself.
A compassionate, informed novel about loss in postwar Japan hampered somewhat by slow pacing.Pub Date: May 11, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64428-198-7
Page Count: 360
Publisher: Rare Bird Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
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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