A cleverly conceived, character-driven, if overstuffed, anthology sure to delight and enchant.
A debut collection of brief stories reflects on the human condition.
Beginning as a campaign to write one tale a week for 50 weeks, Becker’s book spans many literary genres, moods, and situations, all set in a succession of American states. While many stories create mere cursory circumstances sketched over an economy of pages as the subtitle suggests, others are somewhat lengthier, like the opener, “Broken People,” starring an Idaho farmer and father of four. The man aches for absolution years after a tragedy. The irony and sometimes the cruelty of humankind ground much of this collection, making it both thoughtful and relatable. The ways furniture connects to a family unit constitute the Connecticut-set tale “The Lake House”; next-door strangers finally find common ground in “Good Neighbors” just as one family moves away; and ruthless looters take advantage of Oregon’s wildfire season in “Where There’s Smoke.” The volume’s standout quality lies in its variety. Pain and passion intermingle with history and culture (New Orleans Voodoo, Alaska, the circus) while a mixture of spontaneous adventures and deadly consequences saturates many stories, like “Dead Ends,” in which a couple on a Utah desert highway recklessly take a detour. They end up embroiled in a nightmarish government biohazard contamination setting. The Halloween yarn “Shine on You Crazy Diamonds” features a haunted house bedeviling a group of Detroit friends who gathered there as kids. As impressive as some of the longer tales are, the shorter entries can pack the same punch, as in the single-page drama “The Blue Door.” Here, a California woman who abandons her marriage still feels a scintillating pinch of sorrow, freedom, and terror at relinquishing her husband’s “safety net that would never catch her again.” As an anthology, Becker’s book is ultimately satisfying, if uneven in spots. Some stories lack enough narrative definition or distinguishing characteristics to link them to their locations. Still, the varying states of the characters’ minds form a kaleidoscopic array of reflections, regrets, accomplishments, and the stress of both good and bad relationships. Whether melancholy or blissful, each of Becker’s tales offers an engaging coda and even some food for thought for readers who enjoy vivid short stories grounded in humanity.
A cleverly conceived, character-driven, if overstuffed, anthology sure to delight and enchant.Pub Date: July 28, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-00-681115-9
Page Count: 358
Publisher: Blurb
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
An evocative and moving tribute to the death-defying, heart-opening, infinitely redemptive power of storytelling.
A chance meeting in a museum unlocks a long-closed door in a family’s past.
Of a piece with her last three novels—Commonwealth (2016), The Dutch House (2019), and Tom Lake (2023)—Patchett’s latest explores the evolution of families over time, romantic secrets, and step-relationships, again giving these topics the wry and tender treatment that is distinctively hers. As it begins, Daphne Fuller’s attentive husband, Jonathan, notices that a man has been following them through the Metropolitan Museum of Art. At first they chalk it up to the fact that “old guys love [Daphne],” as she told Jonathan decades ago, a notion he has held onto "like a souvenir postcard from another era." But it turns out that, though Daphne doesn’t recognize him, Eddie Triplett is her former stepfather. Like the author herself, as recalled in her 2020 essay “Three Fathers,” Daphne has had three dads. Her biological father, a deep-sea fisherman named Buddy Zabriskie, left the family early; her current stepfather, Lucas Ekker, lives with her mother in retirement in Massachusetts. Ekker is an unprepossessing sort Abby met working as the publicist for his self-help books, Positivity!, Positively Positive!, The Positivity Workbook!, Positive Every Day!, ad infinitum. The man in the museum, Eddie Triplett, was also someone her mother met through her job in publishing, and once Daphne realizes who he is, she remembers that “[their] hearts were forever stitched together.” This is because Daphne and Eddie were in a serious car accident when she was 9 years old, after which her mother immediately divorced him and evicted him from their lives. The details of that accident—among them lies the reason the novel is named after a horse called Whistler—are gradually wheedled out of Daphne by her younger sister, Leda, a clinical psychologist in New York and a reliable source of insight on the narrative’s key issues. “‘You make it sound like I’ve been keeping all this from you, but I’m not,’ [Daphne] said. ‘Who goes through life thinking about what happened when they were nine?’ ‘It’s all people think about,’ Leda said.”
An evocative and moving tribute to the death-defying, heart-opening, infinitely redemptive power of storytelling.Pub Date: June 2, 2026
ISBN: 9780063511637
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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