The minutia of daily life, transformed into affecting narratives.
Bennett’s collection of short stories centers flawed, vulnerable characters as they navigate loss, regret, and fleeting joys.
The author captures the quiet struggles of everyday life with warmth and occasional tension in this subtle exploration of aging, loneliness, and human connection. In the first story, “Daredevils,” a couple moves through a strained Sunday morning after the woman returns from an unexpected night away. As she gets dressed to head out for work, the narrator is reminded of the lack of excitement in his life as he watches a pilot pull off daring stunts in a nearby field. Dissatisfaction with the realities of adult life is a common theme, also cropping up in “Rain,” in which 46-year-old Carl wakes up after a drunken argument with his teenage son. After storming out of the house, Carl is clipped by a kid on a bicycle, whom he then spends the rest of the story trying to track down; his misguided pursuit escalates into an embarrassing standoff with a group of boys on the boardwalk, revealing Carl’s fear, anger, and difficulty with letting go. The vulnerability and helplessness that comes with aging are movingly depicted in “Dancing Guy,” in which an evening on the boardwalk finds a man named Eddie tap-dancing for Jack, his eccentric neighbor, and a woman named Roz. This is interrupted by a tense confrontation with two punks, highlighting the lack of dignity afforded to those on the margins of society. Bennett ends the collection with “Messes We Made,” the tragic tale of two lifelong friends who grow up drinking and lifeguarding along the Jersey Shore. The story deftly charts the slow unraveling of one of the friends, Phil, whose alcoholism leads to his divorce and the loss of his job. The narrator struggles to reconcile nights when Phil insisted they had plenty left in the tank and Phil’s lonely death. Throughout these stories, Bennett displays a gift for turning ordinary moments into rich, emotional landscapes, though the sheer number of the pieces gathered here can make this a slog at times.
The minutia of daily life, transformed into affecting narratives.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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
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