An immersive and culturally acute coming-of-age story convincingly set on the darker side of the New York theater industry.
An aspiring Afro-Latina actress in New York City tries to reboot her life after her sister’s sudden death.
“When I was a kid, I thought I’d be rich and famous by now. I thought that I’d have a record deal or a poodle or a pool somewhere out in California. Enough money in my bank account to airlift my mother out of our tiny apartment in Washington Heights, and get my frizzy hair blown out twice a week, and buy my sister, Nena, the Mercedes-Benz she always wanted. But I’m still broke, and barely even singing in the shower, and my hair is a mess, and my sister is dead, so nothing I imagined has come true.” Xiomara Sanchez is very close to the edge, emotionally, financially, and otherwise. She’s working two jobs, one at a quick-print shop with a shady owner, the other at Ellen’s Stardust Diner, the Times Square restaurant where Broadway hopefuls wait tables and perform musical numbers, vividly recreated here. She’s sleeping with unpleasant men, fighting with her friends and her mother, powerless against the weight of her grief—until the opportunity to audition for the rare lead made for a Black woman comes up, and she makes a connection with the showrunner Manny Santos. The first-person narration has the fluid, associative character of internal monologue, immersing us in Xiomara’s experience of racism, sexism, and sexuality, of her body as it appears to herself and others. When a very nice guy is hired at the print shop, and when she progresses in the audition process, the main thing holding her back is her damaged self-esteem: Toxic situations come easier to her than healthy ones. After some brutal setbacks and judgment errors, the gritty realism of Guerrero’s debut gradually morphs into contemporary fairy tale, rewarding our princess with second chances she didn’t see coming, but finds she has the resources to grasp after all.
An immersive and culturally acute coming-of-age story convincingly set on the darker side of the New York theater industry.Pub Date: July 15, 2025
ISBN: 9780593977330
Page Count: 256
Publisher: One World/Random House
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
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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