In these searing stories, the gulf between who we think we are and who we become when gripped by desire is ever widening.
Eight stories about men and women in the thrall of vertiginous desires, negotiating the precariousness and joys of sex, love, and commitment.
The stories in Lowenthal’s latest collection simmer with fearless honesty as characters struggle with intimacy and learn that we are as much strangers to ourselves as we are to others, even those whom we most fiercely cherish and love. Frenzied by longing and loneliness, these diverse characters startle themselves with their own thoughts, desires, and behaviors and reckon with what their shortcomings and mistakes must mean about who they are. In “You Are Here,” a newly ordained priest is granted the position of chaplain on a cruise through the Caribbean, though this reward for graduating at the top of his class becomes a hurdle when a middle-aged married couple confides in him about the wife’s infidelity and he reencounters an ex-girlfriend, a crew member of the ship. Should an oath be rescinded for the sake of one’s happiness? he asks. And what does it mean that he’s suspended in ongoing attraction and love for his ex when he has renounced corporeal desires in service to God? In “Uncle Kent,” a single mother observes her teenage daughter mature beneath the gaze of a dear family friend. How does she protect her daughter from someone they both trust, and what is the cost? In the collection’s final and most poignant story, “The Gift of Travel,” a young gay man nurses his mentor, a writer afflicted by AIDS, and struggles to salvage a relationship he ruined by cheating. “Thomas had wondered what could be the point in pleasing strangers, but what I found was that I wasn’t focused on the other men, whose names I rarely bothered to discover; the stranger I discovered was myself.”
In these searing stories, the gulf between who we think we are and who we become when gripped by desire is ever widening.Pub Date: March 23, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-299-33264-8
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Univ. of Wisconsin
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
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 touching portrait of courage and friendship.
A lifetime of friendship endures many upheavals.
Ellie and Homa, two young girls growing up in Tehran, meet at school in the early 1950s. Though their families are very different, they become close friends. After the death of Ellie’s father, she and her difficult mother must adapt to their reduced circumstances. Homa’s more warm and loving family lives a more financially constrained life, and her father, a communist, is politically active—to his own detriment and that of his family’s welfare. When Ellie’s mother remarries and she and Ellie relocate to a more exclusive part of the city, the girls become separated. They reunite years later when Homa is admitted to Ellie’s elite high school. Now a political firebrand with aspirations to become a judge and improve the rights of women in her factionalized homeland, Homa works toward scholastic success and begins practicing political activism. Ellie follows a course, plotted originally by her mother, toward marriage. The tortuous path of the girls’ adult friendship over the following decades is played out against regime change, political persecution, and devastating loss. Ellie’s well-intentioned but naïve approach stands in stark contrast to Homa’s commitment to human rights, particularly for women, and her willingness to risk personal safety to secure those rights. As narrated by Ellie, the girls’ story incorporates frequent references to Iranian food, customs, and beliefs common in the years of tumult and reforms accompanying the Iranian Revolution. Themes of jealousy—even in close friendships—and the role of the shir zan, the courageous “lion women” of Iran who effect change, recur through the narrative. The heartaches associated with emigration are explored along with issues of personal sacrifice for the sake of the greater good (no matter how remote it may seem).
A touching portrait of courage and friendship.Pub Date: July 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781668036587
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
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