Glowing moments of wisdom but imperfect prose.
An unexpected inheritance leads a young woman on a trip across the U.S. and Canada.
Leah Fern and her magician mother, Jeannie Starr, were part of the Blazing Calyx Carnival up until her mother left her with a friend and never returned. Fifteen years later, on her 21st birthday, Leah feels “penned in by the impenetrable wires of solitude, weighted by the kind of shapeless helplessness only the abandoned know,” and has decided to end her life. A knock interrupts her plans, however, and she receives news that her neighbor Essie East has died and left her an inheritance. After some initial reluctance due to not knowing the woman well, Leah is given a box containing a letter, a check, and an obelisk-shaped urn inlaid with gemstones containing Essie’s ashes. The letter explains that Essie knew Leah’s mother and that if Leah follows her instructions to scatter her ashes, more information about her mother will be revealed. The letter also has the address for the post office where she'll find the next letter. With each letter Leah learns more about her mother and Essie’s life. Essie describes how she befriended four kindred spirits at an artists’ colony, and they decided to perform nine full moon ceremonies across North America together—the same route Leah discovers she is following to scatter Essie’s ashes. Though this plot feels familiar, there is much to admire about the author's glittering imagination. Descriptive writing is both a strength and a weakness for Chin. The pacing is unbalanced because she spends too much time on vivid descriptions of very minor things. While beautiful, these meandering moments often untether the plot, which eventually becomes hard to recover. Nevertheless, traveling with Leah Fern and seeing the world through the eyes of an empath are enjoyable. And Chin's final piece of insight—“What we know is that even the most lost people can find their way”—reverberates through the pages.
Glowing moments of wisdom but imperfect prose.Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-612-19986-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Melville House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
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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