Powerful, well-crafted short stories that sneak up on the reader to deliver a jolt.
A debut collection of short stories about illness, family, and sudden twists of fate.
Jones’ book disconcerts at first. The stories don’t seem to relate to one another, and a few are very brief, like “The Father” (less than two pages) and “The Short History of her Heart” (three paragraphs). Eventually, the themes and concerns overlap: Multiple stories follow Eleanor, who’s in late-stage cancer, and the repercussions of the fatal illness on her family. The collection also explores endings of various kinds. Relationships fall apart, people get sick and die, situations change. Another commonality is unexpected, even brutal, behavior. Two older women beat up a younger pregnant woman in “I’ll Go With You.” In “Realtor,” the main character snips off the tip of his nose with scissors in a misguided attempt to save his relationship. A car crashes into a living room in “Help Will be Here Soon,” and an estranged uncle shows a disturbingly keen interest in his almost 11-year-old niece in the violent “Thanksgiving.” Characters might try kindness, but their efforts are often futile. For example, in Eleanor’s family, “Everyone wanted to be the one whose job it was to keep the washrag on her forehead cold,” but holding the washrag is a one-person job, and it doesn’t help that Eleanor has a lump the “size of a grapefruit” (a fine example of the author’s wry humor and insight into family dynamics). Characters often lash out in the face of their helplessness, but even when they do awful things, Jones uses dark humor to convey their humanity. The power of the story collection creeps up slowly. At first, the writing style seems almost drab (“Her father died. My father left her. Her mother died. And we all grew up and moved away”). But the cumulative effect of these stories is intense, and the contrast between the understated writing and the shocking events works exceedingly well every time.
Powerful, well-crafted short stories that sneak up on the reader to deliver a jolt.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781958506639
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Zibby Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 29, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
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
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.
An artwork’s value grows if you understand the stories of the people who inspired it.
Never in her wildest dreams would foster kid Louisa dream of meeting C. Jat, the famous painter of The One of the Sea, which depicts a group of young teens on a pier on a hot summer’s day. But in Backman’s latest, that’s just what happens—an unexpected (but not unbelievable) set of circumstances causes their paths to collide right before the dying 39-year-old artist’s departure from the world. One of his final acts is to bequeath that painting to Louisa, who has endured a string of violent foster homes since her mother abandoned her as a child. Selling the painting will change her life—but can she do it? Before deciding, she accompanies Ted, one of the artist’s close friends and one of the young teens captured in that celebrated painting, on a train journey to take the artist’s ashes to his hometown. She wants to know all about the painting, which launched Jat’s career at age 14, and the circle of beloved friends who inspired it. The bestselling author of A Man Called Ove (2014) and other novels, Backman gives us a heartwarming story about how these friends, set adrift by the violence and unhappiness of their homes, found each other and created a new definition of family. “You think you’re alone,” one character explains, “but there are others like you, people who stand in front of white walls and blank paper and only see magical things. One day one of them will recognize you and call out: ‘You’re one of us!’” As Ted tells stories about his friends—how Jat doubted his talents but found a champion in fiery Joar, who took on every bully to defend him; how Ali brought an excitement to their circle that was “like a blinding light, like a heart attack”—Louisa recognizes herself as a kindred soul and feels a calling to realize her own artistic gifts. What she decides to do with the painting is part of a caper worthy of the stories that Ted tells her. The novel is humorous, poignant, and always life-affirming, even when describing the bleakness of the teens’ early lives. “Art is a fragile magic, just like love,” as someone tells Louisa, “and that’s humanity’s only defense against death.”
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781982112820
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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