A timely critique of corporate vassalage in the form of an elegant, if somber, parable.
A beguiling sophomore novel by noted graphic designer Mendelsund, a timely exploration of alienation and power.
When Mendelsund’s novel opens, a young man known only as “the delivery boy” is riding down the streets of some unknown city. The Kafkaesque anonymity is appropriate, for no character has a name; the closest such thing is the moniker “Wodge,” used for a co-worker “born in a trash heap,” and the delivery boy isn’t sure whether it’s a given name or not. He has a limited command of the language, which Mendelsund, in a brilliant visual turn, signals by single-line paragraphs, most of them quite simple: “Little-to-no traffic. Few customers.” The delivery boy lives and breathes by tips, but more by customer reviews, and if less than stellar, then the Inquisitor—beg pardon, the Supervisor—intervenes: “The Supervisor took you into the office with the barred door if he became aware of negative comments.” The Supervisor is the seat of all power, a man of reptilian gaze who worries toothpicks so much that his jaw muscles bulge. The delivery boy has one sort-of friend, N., a woman who corrects his English (“Gro-ss. It means vomit”) but seems caught up in the Supervisor’s web. That nexus remains mysterious even as we learn that the delivery boy is not without his resources: He had been a student of languages in his unnamed homeland, and he begins to piece together words and phrases: “ ‘Asswipe.’ He tried the word out, quietly, to himself. He knew the word sideswipe, and wondered.” As the delivery boy acquires this new tongue and awareness, the paragraphs grow longer and shapelier, but this doesn't necessarily mean he’ll ever be free of debt to be repaid to the company: As the book ends, he doesn't know whether he’ll ever be happy or at home in this new land, only that he has the wretched capacity “to go on endlessly if necessary, on and on.”
A timely critique of corporate vassalage in the form of an elegant, if somber, parable.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-3746-0042-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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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