A thought-provoking volume for anyone interested in the evolution of women’s fiction.
This volume, consisting of three examples of short fiction by almost-forgotten 19th-century author Davis along with Olsen's biographical essay about her, first appeared in 1972 at the height of second-wave feminism.
Born in 1831, Davis spent most of her first 30 years as an obedient member of her wealthy Wheeling, West Virginia, family, though she was deeply affected by her “acquaintance with” radical reformer Francis LeMoyne while at finishing school in Washington, Pennsylvania. Then, in 1861, she published the title novella, about Hugh Wolfe, a lowly ironworker who possesses natural artistic talent, and his hunchbacked cousin, Deb, who silently loves him and inadvertently causes his ruin after misunderstanding some thoughtless words from wealthy visitors to the mill. Harding (not yet Mrs. Davis) became a literary darling for her realistic portrayal of the proletariat. Olsen makes clear that while Davis continued publishing fiction after she married until her death at 79, her embrace of her position in society as subservient wife and devoted mother battled against her literary ambitions. The two other stories here concern women facing that struggle. “The Wife’s Story,” written during Davis’ first pregnancy, concerns a woman deciding whether or not to leave her marriage to pursue her musical talent; Davis concocts an unsatisfactory double ending of tragedy and happy complacency that exposes her own ambivalence. In a later story, “Anne,” an older woman, outwardly successful in business and at home, briefly leaves her family to seek the creative dreams of her youth; the sense of the vibrant girl she once was becomes all the more moving when she returns home with her illusions about artists and intellectuals shattered. Davis was no Louisa May Alcott, but Olsen argues that her writing about women’s needs for both love and self-fulfillment was groundbreaking. The stories themselves are less noteworthy than Olsen’s biography of a writer grappling with issues she’d still face today.
A thought-provoking volume for anyone interested in the evolution of women’s fiction.Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-936932-88-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Feminist Press
Review Posted Online: June 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
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
A debut novel with bright spots, but unbalanced and lacking in finesse.
A high school senior pursues an affair with her teacher.
Seventeen-year-old Waldo, the narrator of McCurdy’s fiction debut, lives in Anchorage, Alaska, with her mother, though she’s long been the parent in their relationship. She heats her own frozen meals and pays the bills on time while her mom chases man after man and makes well-meaning promises she never keeps. Waldo blows her Victoria’s Secret wages on online shopping sprees and binges on junk food, inevitably crashing after the fleeting highs of her indulgences. Mr. Korgy, her creative writing teacher, has “thinning hair and nose pores”; he’s 40 years old and married with a child. Nevertheless—or possibly as a result?—Waldo’s attraction to him is “instant. So sudden it’s alarming. So palpable it’s confusing.” Mr. Korgy professes to want to keep their friendship aboveboard, but after a sexual encounter at the school’s winter formal that she initiates, an affair begins. Will this reckless pursuit be the one that actually satisfies Waldo, and is she as mature as she thinks she is? Waldo is a keen observer of people and provides sharp commentary on the punishing work of female beauty. Readers of McCurdy’s bestselling memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died (2022), will surely be curious about the tumultuous mother-daughter relationship, and it is one of the novel’s highlights, full of realistic pity and anger and need. (“I want to scream at her. I want her to hug me.”) Unfortunately, the prose is often unwieldy and sometimes downright cringeworthy: When Waldo tells Mr. Korgy she loves him, “The words hang in the air in that constipated way they do when you know that you shouldn’t have said them.” Waldo frequently lists emotions and adjectives in triplicate, and events that could be significant aren’t sufficiently explored or given enough space to breathe before the novel races on to the next thing.
A debut novel with bright spots, but unbalanced and lacking in finesse.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2026
ISBN: 9780593723739
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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