A powerfully touching story sometimes prone to sentimental sermonizing.
A Jewish family that survived the Holocaust begins life anew in the United States but remains haunted by the past in this historical novel.
Aron and Dyta Lubinski escape the terror of Nazi tyranny in Poland and spend four years living in a displaced persons camp in Warteplatz, once a summer camp for Hitler Youth. While there, Dyta gives birth to fraternal twins Johanna and Bronka. They relocate to New York City and are given a home Aron’s relatives Izzy and Faye. The two New Yorkers also offer Aron employment at one of their bakeries. But despite the Lubinskis’ good fortune, they are haunted by the traumas they suffered in their native Poland, especially Dyta’s familial past. Now answering to the Americanized name Judy, she shamefully hides her father’s role in the abuse of Polish Jews just as Aron zealously attempts to shield his daughters from the weight of the hardships the couple shouldered: “Although he was grateful to be alive and in the United States at this moment, the pain and horror his own family had endured was never far from his mind. But he had already vowed to himself that he would not inflict his story on his children.” Ain poignantly captures the painful paradox of the Lubinskis’ new life—safer and more prosperous than ever before, they can still never outrun a dark history that doggedly follows them like a shadow. When a neighbor spots Rudolf Schmidt, a former Nazi guard from Auschwitz and cruel murderer of Jews, Aron and Judy are again reminded of the long reach of the past, which their daughters are increasingly curious about. The author’s tale is sensitively composed, a thoughtful exploration into the perennially thorny issues of religious identity, assimilation, and the legacy of suffering. But Ain’s prose is plainly clear at best and earnestly lachrymose at other times. She also overindulges in didactic commentary—she strains too laboriously to draw a moral lesson for her readers.
A powerfully touching story sometimes prone to sentimental sermonizing.Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-68463-047-9
Page Count: 264
Publisher: SparkPress
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2020
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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