Shek Yeung is a fascinating figure, but Chang-Eppig doesn’t quite know what to do with her.
A debut novel inspired by the legendary career of one of history’s most successful pirates.
This story begins with the heroine watching her husband die during a failed attack on a Portuguese ship. Cheng Yat’s death is both a personal and professional problem for Shek Yeung. He freed her from her life as a sex slave to make her a pirate, and upon his death she's surprised to realize she loves him. Her more pressing concern, though, is that Cheng Yat has left his ships to his male protégé, Cheung Po. She commands her own junks and her own men, but the Red Banner Fleet cannot survive divided. The character Shek Yeung is based on a real historical figure, a woman who survived sea battles with both the Qing Empire and the East India Company during the early 19th century. In making Shek Yeung her heroine, Chang-Eppig didn’t have to commit herself to writing a story that conforms with the basic contours of this real-life pirate queen’s life, but that’s what she’s chosen. At the same time, it seems like the author doesn’t want to commit to writing historical fiction. Chang-Eppig is a serious writer, and there are many moments of real lyrical beauty in this novel. While it might be anachronistic to expect a pirate queen to spend a lot of time in introspection, Shek Yeung never quite emerges as a fully formed character—and, given that the story is told from her point of view, the other characters are flat and opaque, as well. It’s no surprise that the author devotes a lot of this book to sea battles, political machinations, and the logistics of running a vast criminal enterprise, but any reader primarily interested in those elements of the story may be best served by nonfiction, while those looking for a rich story may have trouble caring about these details without a three-dimensional, compelling protagonist.
Shek Yeung is a fascinating figure, but Chang-Eppig doesn’t quite know what to do with her.Pub Date: June 6, 2023
ISBN: 9781639730377
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
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
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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