An impressive coming-of-age tale enriched by its bleak setting.
A young man in Northern Ireland sees little hope of escape from hard times in this persuasive debut.
Sean Maguire returns home to Belfast with a university degree in literature and no prospects. A recession has eroded the job market, and serving drinks in a nightclub doesn’t pay much. As his narrative opens, he’s 22, sharing a mold-ridden flat that’s soon to be repossessed, cheating the supermarket's self-checkout for free food, and drifting from one binge to another. A violent assault lands him in court, where 200 hours of community service and a hefty fine add to his woes. His family is haunted by his father’s sexual abuse of Sean’s older brother when he was a child. And 20 years after the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, Sean’s contemporaries see few gains in the wake of the Troubles, with its legacy of trauma and bitterness. Magee’s is a dark tale but rather understated when compared with the extreme sorts of dead-enders found in Rob Doyle’s Here Are the Young Men (set in Dublin) and Gabriel Krauze’s Who They Was (in London). What’s especially plausible are the many snares that even an intelligent fellow like Sean falls into because of self-pity or laziness or that old reliable demon, peer pressure, thanks to enabling childhood buddies. Only a chance meeting with an old friend—one of the two strong female characters, along with Sean’s mother—suggests that a better life is within reach. Mairéad was “always getting into all sorts of trouble with the peelers” (police), but she went to university and crucially found a better life afterward with fellow graduates. As she says, “I made new friends.” That sounds simplistic, but the key is the inverse: She avoided the old friends, the old snares.
An impressive coming-of-age tale enriched by its bleak setting.Pub Date: May 16, 2023
ISBN: 9780374608323
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2023
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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