Bold, wry, and delightfully dirty.
In Melissa Broder's follow-up to The Pisces (2018), a young talent manager struggles to transform her relationship to desire.
Thanks to her mother's strict training, Rachel is obsessed with staying thin. "I was softly plump, like a dumpling," recalls Rachel of her childhood. Rachel's mother feared "future pain, frightened that I would grow up to be like her parents, whose obesity had caused her shame, or her fat cousin Wendy, who was unhappy." As a result, adult Rachel counts calories, allowing herself only squares of nicotine gum, diet snack foods, chemical sweeteners, and a sad procession of salads. At the behest of her therapist, Rachel finally attempts to set firmer boundaries with her mother and parent herself. While ignoring her mother's increasingly unhinged texts, Rachel meets Miriam, an Orthodox Jewish woman whose family owns Rachel's favorite frozen yogurt shop chain. Rachel is immediately drawn to Miriam, who is "undeniably...irrefutably fat" and unabashedly kind. Her desire marks the beginning of a major internal shift for Rachel—an acceptance, of sorts, of both fatness and queerness. When it comes to both sex and food, Broder is a formidable writer. She captures all the sticky sweetness, the pleasurable tensions between yearning and satiation. Instead of turning her sharp, acerbic eye on the internal ups and downs of recovery and coming out, however, Broder largely focuses on Rachel's outward expressions of desire. It's nice to think that setting boundaries with pushy family members and hopping into bed with a fat woman could heal Rachel's psyche. Unfortunately, a handful of rejected therapy sessions does not codependency, disordered eating, and internalized homophobia fix, and we don't get to see much, if any, of the internal observations that made The Pisces such a formidable debut. Even so, this novel offers a sad, funny romp about learning to let yourself want what you want, even if it means letting down the people whose acceptance you crave the most.
Bold, wry, and delightfully dirty.Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-982142-49-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
A standout in the series.
The sixth adventure of Harvard symbology professor Robert Langdon explores the mysteries of human consciousness, the demonic projects of the CIA, and the city of Prague.
“Ladies and gentlemen...we are about to experience a sea change in our understanding of how the brain works, the nature of consciousness, and in fact…the very nature of reality itself.” But first—Langdon’s in love! Brown’s devoted readers first met brilliant noetic scientist Katherine Solomon in The Lost Symbol (2009); she’s back as a serious girlfriend, engaging the committed bachelor in a way not seen before. The book opens with the pair in a luxurious suite at the Four Seasons in Prague. It’s the night after Katherine has delivered the lecture quoted above, setting the theme for the novel, which features a plethora of real-life cases and anomalies that seem to support the notion that human consciousness is not localized inside the human skull. Brown’s talent for assembling research is also evident in this novel’s alter ego as a guidebook to Prague, whose history and attractions are described in great and glowing detail. Whether you appreciate or skim past the innumerable info dumps on these and other topics (Jewish folklore fans—the Golem is in the house!), it goes without saying that concision is not a goal in the Dan Brown editing process. Speaking of editing, the nearly 700-page book is dedicated to Brown’s editor, who seems to appear as a character—to put it in the italicized form used for Brownian insight, Jason Kaufman must be Jonas Faukman! A major subplot involves the theft of Katherine’s manuscript from the secure servers of Penguin Random House; the delightful Faukman continues to spout witty wisecracks even when blindfolded and hogtied. There’s no shortage of action, derring-do, explosions, high-tech torture machines, attempted and successful murders, and opportunities for split-second, last-minute escapes; good thing Langdon, this aging symbology wonk, never misses swimming his morning laps. Readers who are not already dyed-in-the-wool Langdonites may find themselves echoing the prof’s own conclusion regarding the credibility of all this paranormal hoo-ha: At some point, skepticism itself becomes irrational.
A standout in the series.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9780385546898
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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
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