Tender yet mournful writing by a sharply observant poet.
In his second book of poetry, Defibaugh explores love and loss and living with a disability.
Defibaugh began writing in his early teens, or roughly when he was confined to a wheelchair as a result of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. His debut collected 16 years’ worth of poetry, from his amateur beginnings to his later, more mature verse. This second book also deals with coming to terms with illness but with a greater sense of self-assuredness and poetic dexterity. The collection is divided into three parts—“Virginia Beach, 1990,” “Red Flags,” and “Broken Shells”—which underscore a coastal theme prevalent throughout. The collection opens at a point of innocence when the poem “Virginia Beach, 1990” offers a tableau of a small child making sand castles: “She’s flipping over / a fifteen-cent sand bucket, / her first real castle, / hastily constructed under / a flimsy yellow sun.” In a nod to imagism, Defibaugh deftly captures a fleeting and serene moment in the child’s life that is unselfconsciously carefree, soon to be interrupted by the turbulence of experience. He presents the trials of life in various forms that include stifling parental authority in “Bars”: “Being guarded isn’t the freedom / she was born deserving.” “Selective Service Exemption” links disability and estrangement in the phrase “how to love without being loved.” Defibaugh’s poetry has a cumulative impact. The poem “Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy” charts the progression of the poet’s illness from his diagnosis at age 4, remarking: “Pines replaced peers repulsed by awkward moving. / Nature disregarded disability.” Elsewhere the comfort of exploring nature is torn away by further deterioration: “By fourteen, I could not navigate the forest / Or even hobble from room to room.” Admirers of Defibaugh’s debut collection will note that this one has fewer moments of levity here, and excursions into comedy can prove mordantly dark. In “vs. Modern Medicine” the poet notes: “Waiting for a cure is silly; / this chair will be my resting place, / and I’d settle even sooner / if it had a higher voltage.” This is a deep emotional excavation of hardship, carefully conceived and keenly executed from the author of Dynamic Parts (2014).
Tender yet mournful writing by a sharply observant poet.Pub Date: Dec. 4, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-69078-827-0
Page Count: 58
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: March 18, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2020
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
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.
With only a month left until the world ends due to a swiftly approaching black hole, Don and Rodney, a retired gay couple, road-trip from Maine to Washington to spend their final days with their son.
After reports that a planet-swallowing black hole is making its way toward Earth, Rodney and Don—who have been together for 40 years and survived everything from homophobia to the HIV crisis—decide to pack their belongings into an RV, say goodbye to their neighbors, and travel from Camden, Maine, to Washington to uphold a promise to spend their final days with their son. They can’t wait any longer, since there’s already chaos around the country: “Military vehicles in the streets of most cities and towns. Looting, rioting, the burning of cars and buildings and people, all of it had already happened.” As they make their way west across the country, they encounter fellow travelers ranging from close-knit families to free-spirited hippies, some of whom have come to terms with the impending end of the world and others who haven’t. While the story seems to be asking readers what they would do if they had 30 days left to live, and reflects on what different kinds of acceptance might look like in the face of unavoidable tragedy, it loses some of its poignancy in a series of thinly padded monologues about the meaning of life. Clearly intended to pack an emotional punch, it’s failed by an abrupt ending, and the way the journey’s mystery—which will be obvious to many readers—is revealed by an info dump in the last chapter.
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781250881236
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
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