A strange but ultimately beguiling account of the life and times of mankind’s oddest companion.
A supernatural being searches for meaning in the human world in this novel by LaTorre.
As this story begins, an amorphous, inhuman being called the Rauschmonstrum has existed about as long as humanity has been on Earth—but all that time, he’s felt truly alone. There’s no other entity like him, and he suffers from a profound lack of purpose and direction. For this reason—and for the sake of “a few chuckles” on his part—the Rauschmonstrum decides to intervene in human history in order to make some kind of mark. Humans want guidance, he observes, and a moral code set in stone; the Rauschmonstrum is aware that there is no God and, as a result, humanity lacks a “divine master.” He volunteers himself for the job, and he quickly decides to inspire a human from Nazareth named Jesus to live a morally exemplary life and lay out a moral framework for humankind. Much to the Rauschmonstrum’s surprise, Jesus is not in on the “absurd joke that has been played on him,” up to and including the crucifixion. The monstrous protagonist then decides to turn Jesus’ death to his advantage, using his vast powers to convince people of Jesus’ resurrection (“If I do this, then the myths about him will never die,” he thinks. “Nothing is bigger than coming back from the dead”). The Rauschmonstrum later becomes a strange kind of media star—living through the centuries and interacting with humans as a well-known but otherworldly celebrity.
In the first of the novel’s three sections, readers follow the Rauschmonstrum as he shadows Jesus during the key moments of the Gospels, offering an effective, cynical counterpoint to well-known events. In the second and most entertaining section, “Interviews with the Rauschmonstrum,” readers follow the “shapeshifting monster” onto the stages of a number of well-known talk shows; he joins William F. Buckley on the set of Firing Line (“Based on your writing,” Buckley says, “it’s obvious to me you are…a creature of the left”), trades quips with Dick Cavett, and talks about books with Charlie Rose (who tells him that Christopher Hitchens is not the Rauschmonstrum’s biggest fan) He also hits The Tonight Show stage multiple times. Throughout this section, LaTorre very cleverly unfolds the alternate reality that ticks along in the background of his book; at one point, for instance, Norman Mailer becomes the president of the United States. Overall, the author makes the Rauschmonstrum’s reflections on the changing nature of American society even more amusing and thought-provoking than his observations on key moments of the New Testament. The book’s most intriguing element, however, is its complete lack of moralizing about the Rauschmonstrum himself, whom it simply presents as a flat fact of existence—and a surprisingly likable one, at that. The book’s third section, which is essentially one long encounter between the Rauschmonstrum and Jesus, is the most strained, but the book’s overall cheery tone remains consistent throughout.
A strange but ultimately beguiling account of the life and times of mankind’s oddest companion.Pub Date: Dec. 25, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-73443-350-0
Page Count: 250
Publisher: Nick Daydreams
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.
Stockett heads to Mississippi for another historical novel about feisty women.
This time, perhaps recalling criticisms of cultural appropriation in The Help (2009), she sticks to feisty white women, with one exception. The setting is Oxford in 1933. For two miserable years, 11-year-old Meg has lived in “the Orphan,” a county asylum for parentless girls. Chairlady Garnett—a villain so one-note she’d twirl a mustache if she had one—makes it her mission to ostracize the older girls she deems unadoptable, stigmatizing them as offspring of the “feebleminded” mothers who abandoned them. She particularly has it in for smart, sassy Meg, who refuses to believe her mother’s mysterious disappearance was deliberate. Elsewhere in Oxford, Birdie Calhoun comes to visit her sister Frances, who married a wealthy banker, to ask for money on behalf of their mother and grandmother back in Footely. Frances isn’t thrilled by this reminder of her impoverished small-town origins. But she’s trying to climb up in Oxford society by volunteering at the Orphan, the asylum’s books need to be done before the state inspector shows up in a few weeks, and Birdie is a bookkeeper. Having neatly arranged to keep Birdie in town and draw these two storylines together, Stockett goes on to spin a compulsively readable yarn with enough plot for a half-dozen novels. Birdie and Meg become friends, Meg is adopted despite Garnett’s best efforts, Meg’s mother turns up at the Orphan demanding to know where her child is—and that’s less than a quarter of the way through a long, winding narrative that keeps piling on more dramatic developments until all loose ends are neatly, if hastily, wrapped up in the final pages. Stockett might be making a point about Southern women facing facts and standing up for themselves, but mostly this is just a satisfyingly twisty tale that should make a great miniseries.
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9781954118812
Page Count: 656
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
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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