A fascinating portrait of a woman torn between her single-minded artistic ambition and her yearning for love.
In a novel inspired by the life of the artist Agnes Martin, Foley invents a fictional scenario while capturing Martin’s emotional essence.
The outer contours of Agatha Smithson’s life resemble Martin’s—early artistic success in New York City, a stay at Bellevue Hospital after a psychotic break, a university teaching stint in Albuquerque, a secluded hand-built cabin, complicated friendships with Georgia O’Keeffe and others, a return to painting, an uncloseted lesbian identity. When the novel begins in 1971, 68-year-old Agatha is living, as Martin did, in Mesa Portales, New Mexico, but fiction takes over as Agatha narrates a romantic drama involving her with a variety of local characters, some imagined, others amalgams of real figures in Martin’s life. Agatha’s attention is currently consumed by the intense love affair she has been carrying on with local widow Alice for four years. She indignantly, perhaps defensively, claims that Alice remains “whole in her mind,” despite what others consider Alice’s increasing dementia. Rejecting the decision of Alice’s son to put her in a facility, Agatha acts to relocate Alice from her small house in town to Agatha’s unplumbed, unelectrified cabin. Agatha even digs up the grave of Alice’s daughter, who was tragically murdered at age 21, to keep her body near Alice. But readers will notice early on that whenever anyone comes looking for Alice, Agatha explains that she is “on a walk,” and so conveniently unavailable. That Agatha is not merely an unreliable narrator but an irrational one becomes increasingly clear. Then, midway through the book, Agatha begins to grapple with difficult truths that begin to reveal themselves both to her and the reader. Despite exaggerated, almost silly plotting, a rich portrayal emerges on multiple layers: the self-centered, prickly but gifted artist, the woman fighting the realities both of mental illness and aging, the derider of sentiment who desperately wants, and often makes, deep and lasting connections with others.
A fascinating portrait of a woman torn between her single-minded artistic ambition and her yearning for love.Pub Date: March 17, 2026
ISBN: 9781668098578
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
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
Though uneven, this is still a pleasurable, comforting read.
Infertility, family secrets, and alpacas all figure in Quindlen’s latest meditation on mothering and domesticity.
Polly’s life looks enviable. Happily married to the adoring Mark—a vet at the Bronx Zoo—she teaches English at a private Manhattan girls’ school and loves her work. She has a protective older brother and close girlfriends, who’ve formed a book club where no one is expected to read the book. But Polly desperately wants a child and, at 42, knows time is running out. She and Mark have gone through endless fertility treatments, to no avail. Meantime, Polly’s friends have given her a DNA kit as a jokey birthday gift, and something mysterious shows up in the test results. Then, out of nowhere, a young woman contacts her, suggesting they may be related. That’s not all: Polly feels estranged from her mother, a revered judge who’s insufficiently maternal in her daughter’s view. Her father has always cherished her, but he’s in a nursing home now with a rapidly failing mind. And something is amiss with her best pal, Sarah. Quindlen’s trademark empathy is evident throughout, and her wry humor leavens some of the serious goings-on. Early on, Mark and Polly visit a fertility clinic with photos of babies in the waiting room; for Polly, “it felt…like a Weight Watchers facility with hot fudge sundae pictures on the wall.” Then we meet these charming alpacas, humming and pronking, on a farm run by an earth mother, whose wisdom will help Polly get on with her life. The plot swerves around a bit, there may be one surplus narrative thread (e.g., Polly’s star student Josephine running aground after graduation), and at the end, the author ties things up too neatly, pushing the “circle of life” theme too hard.
Though uneven, this is still a pleasurable, comforting read.Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2026
ISBN: 9780593734605
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
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