A story with minimal tension, but its offbeat realism offers readers much to consider.
Debut author Russin presents a novel about a recent college graduate facing an unexpected career possibility.
It’s 2013, and the Slavic Brotherhood Organization is hosting its 100th anniversary convention in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. It’s an institution that allows its members to bond and network and also provides low-cost life insurance and annuities. One person in attendance who cares little about his Slavic heritage—or about life insurance, for that matter—is Graham Mercy, who hails from Wilkes-Barre. He recently graduated from Columbia University with a degree in creative writing, and the job offers aren’t exactly pouring in. Life in Wilkes-Barre isn’t exactly thrilling, either; Graham only attends the conference because his parents are involved in it and because he’ll receive $600 and some free meals for being a delegate. He doesn’t even have to say anything during the meetings—that is, until the organization’s president suddenly wants him to become the new treasurer. The position wouldn’t require him to do much and comes with a salary of $13,000 per year. The catch? If Graham accepts the post, he’ll ruffle a few feathers among the other members. Even worse, it will likely upset a young woman at the convention on whom he has a crush. It’s clear early on in Russin’s novel that the stakes for Graham are very low. However, the fact that there’s not much to win or lose results in the narrative’s taking a headier tack: What does it mean for an Ivy League grad to come back to a town that’s been on the decline for years? Graham engagingly ruminates on such topics as the real meaning of money and even whether real life follows the type of arc that one finds in fiction. These considerations don’t weigh down the story, though, but instead give the protagonist’s odd struggle a personal, distinctive feel. The protagonist isn’t just wandering adrift in a post-undergraduate funk—he’s fully immersed in a dying tradition, at least for a few days, and he and those around him do their best to make sense of this fact.
A story with minimal tension, but its offbeat realism offers readers much to consider.Pub Date: April 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73649-910-8
Page Count: 175
Publisher: Shining Life Press
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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