A quirky, multifaceted, unpredictable tale of narcotics, misfit bonding, and curative laughter.
A debut novel chronicles the life of a disillusioned drug addict.
At the helm of New England native Antonopoulos’ book is apathetic, struggling protagonist Leo, a “bored, anxious, twenty-three-year-old with no direction and a total lack of motivation to find one.” He’s also a prisoner to both his opioid addiction and a brooding, indifferent life stuck in a rural Massachusetts town. Coping with overdoses he barely survives and then rushing to score more drugs from his New Hampshire dope dealer, Leo feeds what’s left of his literary soul by devouring the works of Beat Generation greats like Burroughs, Kerouac, and Pynchon. Not even a visit to a Zen monastery (while benumbed from a heroin fix) can bring Leo any semblance of clarity. While readers may not enjoy their first encounters with Leo, the author, employing a singular, ambitious writing style braiding spontaneous interior monologues with graphic narcosis confessionals, creates a distinctly original novel in which hope floats above all the dismal, rigorously portrayed compulsion. Running alongside Leo’s tale is the story of Cole, an unhappily divorced, middle-aged Bostonian plagued with sleepless nights and fits of rage and regret. After his existential crisis manifests in a near psychological breakdown, he experiences an epiphany, realizing how depression “cushioned me like a trampoline and now I am skyrocketing into each moment.” One morning, he oddly awakens laughing. This sparks an intensive interest in the dynamics of laughter, and he embarks on a promotional endeavor to engage the entire city in his “vision of ecstasy and joy and love.” These two troubled souls converge at a poetry reading and, together with homeless pal Zanzi and love interest Sienna, Leo and Cole launch the “Ultimate Laughter Challenge,” a humanitarian, unification effort that makes them social media stars and challenges both protagonists to move beyond their struggles. In raw, often rambling, but always vividly graphic prose, Antonopoulos’ renderings of desperate, vein-popping drug binges are harrowing, and his descriptions of the frustrations of being trapped in a cycle of opioid abuse and withdrawal are palpably authentic. What makes the book unique is the mix of rapid-fire revelations, poetry, and odd, spontaneous interludes that readers of alternative fiction will savor.
A quirky, multifaceted, unpredictable tale of narcotics, misfit bonding, and curative laughter.Pub Date: April 27, 2020
ISBN: 979-8-63-994926-5
Page Count: 397
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: March 30, 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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