A contemplative but ultimately underwhelming tale.
In Taylor-Garcia’s literary retooling of the biblical story of Job, a school administrator is beset by professional and familial tragedy that challenges his faith.
Principal Malik Rosario has been so successful at rehabilitating a failing school in Atlanta’s Edgewood neighborhood that he’s earned the nickname “The Quiet Lion.” However, a catastrophe transforms his life: A local, poorly constructed bridge collapses, claiming the lives of many people, including two of his three sons. The official story is that the disaster was just an isolated incident, instead of yet another tragic event in this neglected community’s history—a false narrative that Malik is prepared to challenge. However, in anticipation of this response, the school authorities relieve him of his duties on the pretense that they suspect him of financial improprieties. In Taylor-Garcia’s “modern reimagining of the Book of Job,” an enigmatic figure known as “The Watcher” stands in for Satan; he coordinates the assault on Malik’s reputation, using “mass surveillance, media warfare, and political erasure.” Malik demands to confer with God about his troubles—not to hurl accusations, but rather to petition for understanding. As a whole, the story reads less like a novel than it does a didactic parable or lengthy sermon. Whatever one thinks of the author’s revision of the biblical story—a reinterpretation so stark that it bears little theological resemblance to the original—it lacks the fundamental features of a well-constructed novel: a skillfully developed plot, fully realized characters, and believable dialogue. The story’s denouement is triumphantly pious, and Malik delivers plenty of defiant oratory. However, the prose style more often feels distractingly ponderous: “He felt the weight of solitude, but more than that he felt the weight of the world’s betrayal, of God’s betrayal, of grief so dense that it held the air and the light hostage. The weight of a bridge.” The story’s thoughtful focus on technologically driven character assassination is engaging. However, it’s not enough to counter the novel’s other flaws.
A contemplative but ultimately underwhelming tale.Pub Date: April 23, 2025
ISBN: 9798892950183
Page Count: 205
Publisher: Bamboo Village Books
Review Posted Online: June 16, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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