Poignant and engaging, with strong female characters.
A mother and daughter are ripped apart in Burns’ novel of family strife.
It’s 1924 in New York City when Ruby Farrar del Palacio gives birth to her sixth child, a beautiful little girl—but the baby, who will be named Faith, dies during delivery. When Ruby’s Colombia-born husband, Juan, finally arrives at the hospital, Ruby narrates, “His face revealed not even a hint of kindness. Or sadness.” His indifference sets the stage for the sad narrative. Ruby decides that Faith will be her last child, but a year later she has another daughter, named Alice. Ruby and Juan, whose families are prominent in Brooklyn society, are locked in a loveless marriage. By 1930, Ruby knows she can no longer live with her dismissive, authoritarian husband, nor abide her judgmental mother-in-law, who regularly descends upon the del Palacio household to manage it as she sees fit. Confident in her decision—their large Brooklyn home is in her name, a wedding present from her parents—she tells Juan she’s filing for separation.He smirks, predicting she’ll wind up on a bread line; Ruby has no idea of the cruel lengths to which Juan will go to exact his revenge. Alternating chapters follow the stories of Ruby and Alice, a mother and daughter separated from one another for almost half a century. Ruby narrates her own tale in a voice filled with pain and melancholy, but also sharp wit. Once Alice’s story begins to dominate the novel, significant portions of Ruby’s life remain a mystery for lengthy passages of time. Alice’s life, affected by the longing and anger that set in when she was a young child denied the comfort of her mother, unspools through third-person narration, which is compelling but emotionally less dramatic than Ruby’s. Burns is a skillful wordsmith who vividly captures the details of the social milieu and extraordinary legal misogyny of the period. Despite an accumulation of tragedies that stray across the line into melodrama, Burns has delivered an addictive read.
Poignant and engaging, with strong female characters.Pub Date: Feb. 27, 2024
ISBN: 9798891321380
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
