A transformative tale of personal reinvention from a masterful storyteller.
In Huffman’s novel, a young man unwittingly endangers himself and his friends as they retrace a relative’s journey through Utah taken the previous century.
The novel explores two moments in a family’s history, taking place 112 years apart, both concluding in violence. Their convergence point is a young man named Tom Sullivan, who, in the early 1980s, works at a sporting goods store in Golden, Colorado, and hangs out with a salesman and Vietnam veteran named Jack Elmore, drinking in Jack’s garage. Jack has another friend he looks in on, the more opaque and laconic Frank, also a Vietnam vet. The men are paid a visit by Susan Kingsley, an acquisitions assistant specialist at the Smithsonian Museum, and by her ex-husband, Andrew Harrison, an unfaithful and ill-tempered junior FBI agent jealous that Susan’s career’s star might ascend before his. Susan’s on the trail of some letters that might shed light on how Mormons and Native Americans procured the rifles that were used in a massacre of over 100 emigrant travelers journeying through Mormon country in 1879. Those original letters have just been sent to their rightful heir: Tom. As Tom, Jack, and Frank head off on a fishing trip in which they also seek the homestead of William Mitchell, the writer of the letters, Susan follows in their wake, in search of history. And Andrew follows her, in search of revenge for the pall their divorce has cast over his job. In the retelling of William Mitchell’s covered wagon journey to Utah, frontier violence is a way of life; in the late 20th century, the violence is personal. The closing third of the novel ramps up the suspense in both timelines, conveyed in gorgeous prose and featuring rich character development. Both stories’ conclusions are emotionally affecting and unexpected. This irresistible novel manages the curious trick of making the reader want to stand up and cheer when a woman rides up on horseback in the middle of nowhere and says, “Afternoon, gentlemen. I’m Susan Kingsley with the Smithsonian Museum.”
A transformative tale of personal reinvention from a masterful storyteller.Pub Date: Nov. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9798988861300
Page Count: 298
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Nov. 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 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
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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