A mesmerizing soldier’s tale, grippingly dramatic.
In this historical novel, a Scottish soldier stationed in America meets a mysterious woman who draws him into a dark conflict with Native Americans in the 18th century.
Sara—a lonesome, peripatetic 18-year-old—finds what she’s been searching for: the military outpost where she believes her mother, Elizabeth, died. A weathered, ageless man lives there—he’s cryptically known as the Seer, a hermit with stumps in place of hands. He’s in possession of a book of which she’s heard rumors—an “orderly’s day book,” written in Gaelic by Thomas Keating, a Scottish soldier and engineer dispatched to the outpost to inspect its fortifications. The bulk of Snodgrass’ bewitching novel consists of Keating’s remarkable memoir, conveyed by the Seer to Sara in a deliciously slow march into a brutal past. When Keating comes upon the outpost, Lt. Robbie Stewart, its ranking officer, has already left with 14 of his men on a mission to help the Onagonas, an ancient tribe threatened by its neighbors for planning to leave the region. But Keating does find Elizabeth Cawley—Sara’s mother—bound to a stake, apparently by orders of Stewart, with whom she may have had a romantic relationship. Elizabeth was kidnapped by Native Americans when she was 15 years old after they killed her family, and now her true identity remains muddled, an alienation she shares with Keating: “For one thing, because neither of us belongs here. In this wilderness. Barricaded in this outpost. We were brought here to this frontier by forces totally outside of ourselves. That had nothing to do with us. You in service to your king. Me because my family looked for a new life.”
With artfully executed suspense, Snodgrass unfurls this taut knot of a story. Fearful that Stewart is in trouble, Keating and the next ranking officer, Sgt. Adam MacKenzie, plan to set out in search of him. But another soldier, referred to as Black Duncan and endowed with a kind of premonitory vision, believes danger lurks nearby. Elizabeth is an intriguingly drawn character—readers will be unsure if she is sympathetic, sinister, or some complex amalgam of both. But the author’s writing style can be ponderously leaden. For example, consider Keating’s explanation to his beloved girlfriend, Jean, as to why he feels compelled to sail to America: “ ’Tis the way [philosopher] David Hume describes it. If there can be no knowledge of anything beyond experience, then I need to seek more experience. It is a matter of honor. Of honesty with myself. I need to seek the experiences that will teach me the world is real. So I know I am real. So I know what I think and feel is real.” Nevertheless, Snodgrass does wonders with the virtue of literary restraint—why precisely the men are in such grave danger and who the Seer really is are astonishing revelations and worth suffering the sometimes-overwrought prose.
A mesmerizing soldier’s tale, grippingly dramatic.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 263
Publisher: Calling Crow Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PROFILES
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 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
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