A finely crafted novel about sidelined dreams and second chances.
A would-be frontwoman gets a later-in-life shot at stardom in Wilke’s novel.
Back in the 1980s, teenage Libby Conlin was the lead singer of the Los Angeles rock band Liberty, who could have been the next big thing if Libby hadn’t gotten pregnant before they could secure a major label deal. Now, she works as the bookkeeper for a shop in Hollywood; she’s a single empty-nester since her youngest went off to college. The nest does not remain empty for long: Her semi-estranged 35-year-old daughter Bridget—the one whose birth interrupted Libby’s music career—arrives out of the blue one day at Libby’s Beachwood Canyon home, newly divorced and in need of a place to stay. Libby invites her in, hoping this might prove an opportunity to repair their strained relationship. Both women decide to go back to school—Libby aims to become a full-fledged CPA, and Bridget intends to pursue an old, abandoned interest in filmmaking. As part of a documentary project, Bridget ends up uploading some of Libby’s old Liberty demos to the internet—and the internet responds. With industry interest bubbling, Libby may finally have a shot at the stardom she never achieved in her youth, and Bridget may have the chance to assuage the guilt she feels for derailing her mother’s career. But will this opportunity finally bring them together—or tear them apart for good? Wilke’s prose is chatty and fluid, pulling the reader along with Libby and Bridget as they dip their toes back into the waters of art and romance. Though the two leads are in different places in life, they both feel too old to be where they are, which adds a compelling twist to the mother-daughter dynamic. (“Please don’t revert to being a teenager, Bridget,” Libby scolds her daughter at one point. “We already did that bit, and we’re both too old for a replay.”) The music industry material and Los Angeles setting add fun color, but readers will most appreciate the attention Wilke pays to her characters’ inner lives.
A finely crafted novel about sidelined dreams and second chances.Pub Date: April 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781960573704
Page Count: 376
Publisher: Sibylline Press
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2025
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
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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