Fans of war stories and nautical tales will enjoy this one.
War, love, and the sea intermix in this novel of bravery and conscience.
Capt. Stephen Rensselaer is overqualified to lead Patrol Coastal Ship 15, the Athena, but that is his assignment. While a hot war blazes in the Middle East, he and his vessel are assigned to the Indian Ocean near the Horn of Africa. His patrol craft is “best suited to the littorals,” while his crew, including SEALs, itch for action. They need not worry, as they engage in seven battles of increasing ferocity, ultimately resulting in Rensselaer’s trial for a capital crime. In one instance, a French cruise ship is hijacked by Islamic State group terrorists off the Somali coast. IS starts butchering the passengers one by one, drawing out the process to maximize worldwide publicity and fear. The Athena is in the area, but the president of the United States expressly forbids her to come to the aid of the ship. Rensselaer disobeys and follows his conscience. He is highly educated and loves to quote Shakespeare to his puzzled subordinates. “Our indiscretions sometimes serve us well, Horatio,” he tells a bemused officer, “and praisèd be rashness for it.” Comments like that fire up the ship’s gossip machine: “It was in fact a lot of fun to think that the old man was slightly off his nut.” Indeed, he is crazy about Katy Farrar, whom he meets early on, plans to marry, and thinks about in quiet moments during their inevitable separation. “Katy alone was worth all the blue oceans and all the bright stars,” he muses. The yarn hits a snag 60 pages in when the author stops for 10 pages to describe Athena’s architecture. Skip to Page 70 if you don’t want to read about it, he writes, but it interrupts the story’s momentum. Better he weave it in or tack it on at the end. But the action is terrific, and despite occasional verbosity, the writing is as good as anything else in the genre.
Fans of war stories and nautical tales will enjoy this one.Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2023
ISBN: 9781419769085
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Overlook
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
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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