Unabashedly polemical, angry, and heartbreaking.
The aftermath of a fictional school shooting that closely resembles the Sandy Hook tragedy makes for a very dark read.
While Griner includes background on the teenage gunman and devotes quite a bit of space to Otto’s memories of life with his son, Liam, and wife, May, before the shooting, the novel focuses mainly on the consequences for the survivors and society at large. Beginning in 2018, on the third anniversary, Otto tells his story in nonlinear narrative segments, moving backward to the 2015 shooting and even earlier to a time when his happiness as a father and husband seemed perfect, as well as forward to 2019 as he's going off the rails, drinking and obsessing. Sprinkled between these sections are drawings by Otto, ever higher statistics about school shootings, and a selection of the emails and letters Otto has received, mostly vile accusations and threats from people who believe the shooting never happened. But it obviously did. Eight-year-old Liam was shot but survived the 11 minutes of gunfire. As he languished in the hospital for months, hoaxers zeroed in on him and his parents with particular fury. Otto and May blame themselves if not each other, and their marriage, which seemed so strong, collapses. Liam’s best friend, Latrell, did not survive, and Otto falls into an increasingly unhealthy friendship with the boy's father, Lamont, a former football player, based on their mutual vengeful grief. Lamont becomes increasingly, dangerously violent toward anyone who crosses him. Otto flirts briefly with violence, but his obsession narrows on finding and confronting the woman he thinks controls the hoaxers, who continue to stalk him and May for years. Until an unfortunately rushed ending, Griner’s novel is a powerful excavation into the darkest recesses of grief. Parents of young children, beware: Liam is such a believable child that identifying with his parents’ stark anguish becomes unavoidable—and so unbearable that it’s hard to imagine how the author could bring himself to keep writing.
Unabashedly polemical, angry, and heartbreaking.Pub Date: April 13, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-946448-76-7
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Sarabande
Review Posted Online: Dec. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021
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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