A quiet yet engrossing exploration of the period following a cultural revolution.
A novel focuses on drugs, free love, and one man’s daily escapades in mid-1970s San Francisco.
Billy Johnson is just getting by, but he seems mostly OK with that. He likes to read works by Beat poets; he toils at a T-shirt shop in the Haight (though he would like to be a writer); and he drives a Volkswagen bus named Kozmic. In his downtime, he enjoys a lot of drugs and dabbles in romance. While Billy casually dates Ti, he also has his eye on Lannie and her “frustrating elusiveness.” Throughout this drama, Billy remains mainly passive, adapting to his various situations. Yet there’s also a quiet sadness to him, as when he reminisces about an ex-girlfriend and their dreams. The couple thought they “could find a way to rent a house over here…leapfrog the bay to Marin, where hippies lived in paradise.” But he faces a huge shock when he discovers his roommate chose suicide. Later, when Billy gets the opportunity to pen a magazine article, his dreams of writing are renewed, but his deepening relationship with Lannie and his increasing drug use may have dire consequences. The vibrant Bay Area locales that Billy visits are the true stars of Mater’s story: “At Broadway, I crossed with the crowd, then entered City Lights Books, passing through the main room with its novels of the moment, browsing tourists, and perishable magazines.” Yet Billy’s near aimlessness, along with the tale’s slow pace, is the book’s most intriguing aspect because it mirrors the purposelessness other characters feel living in the post–Summer of Love era. There are holdovers from previous cultural shifts: a woman who blows bubbles and peddles her poetry; all the Grateful Dead T-shirts that Billy sells; and his appreciation for the Beats and his inability to live up to them (“God, the standard they set”). The author highlights the characters’ desires to cling to the beautiful moments of their youths while examining how many are moving on. Constantina, one player, asserts: “I marched like we all did. What did it mean?…But that was then. This is now.” Mater’s novel is not an exciting page-turner, but his vivid descriptions of the city and his protagonist will draw readers in nonetheless.
A quiet yet engrossing exploration of the period following a cultural revolution.Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-73682-301-9
Page Count: 260
Publisher: Boulevard 55 Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 8, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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