A wild mess of a plot, but a fun wild mess, punctuated by Semple’s signature witty observations and punchlines.
A TV comedy writer turned popularizer of Stoic philosophy falls in love, is swept into an international art incident, and deals with buried trauma. For starters.
“In exchange for health insurance, an office overlooking a formal garden, and a cushy (for a philosopher!) income, I’m asked to research and write in the Library and, four days a week—here comes the weird part—provide moral training for Lionel and Layla Lockwood’s twin tween sons.” This is Adora Hazzard, daughter of self-centered Phyllis, mother of sassy Viv, spiritual trainer to the Lockwood twins’ paralyzed and one-armed father, also one of three members of what she calls a “coven,” an alliance of three women of a certain age, all residents of the same fancy hotel-gone-condo on the Upper West Side, who pledge to share their celery sticks (always too many in the bag for one person) and care for each other in their dotage. Into this forest of promising comic premises walks a handsome stranger named Digby, encountered in the standby line at the ballet, whom Adora bonds with via Grateful Dead references, immediately followed by a Code Red bomb scare at the Lockwood Library, where security is on high alert due to art crimes in Europe—OK, OK, no more plot summary, it’s simply not feasible. Suffice it to say, as fans of Where’d You Go, Bernadette (2012) are well aware, Semple is not afraid to make stuff happen. Sometimes this means leaving the occasional chunk of plot hanging, as when Adora walks out on a packed Paris lecture hall awaiting her views on “The Blight of Hope: The Stoics, Nietzsche and a New Inner Freedom” just in time to catch an explosion at the Louvre and make a quick detour to solve a mystery in the French countryside. (Are those poor people still sitting there?) And there’s a major chunk of distressing #MeToo backstory wedged into all this that seems like part of the idea for a different book. When another character wonders at how the miserable protagonist of that incident has aged into the “gorgeous, self-possessed woman and world-class flirt” that is Adora Hazzard, the answer is…Stoicism? Oh sure, why not.
A wild mess of a plot, but a fun wild mess, punctuated by Semple’s signature witty observations and punchlines.Pub Date: April 21, 2026
ISBN: 9798217176632
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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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