A somber but insightful portrayal of addiction and a harrowing past.
In this novel, a dying woman takes a spiritual journey through her tortured life and her complicated family origins.
Anxiety and loneliness plague 30-something Mira Shaw. She’s got a primo Seattle condo and a steady paycheck thanks to her business developer job at Amazon. But a harsh childhood, which included rape, has pushed Mira toward addiction. She wafts through the “dreamy fog” of oxys and dabbles in harder drugs as well, like cocaine. One day, her estranged mother compounds her life further with shocking news: Mira’s father, who she believed died years ago during a special-ops mission to assassinate Saddam Hussein, is alive but now dying of cancer. As Mira soon learns, her family, starting with her maternal grandparents, harbors a few alarming secrets. It’s a lot to take in, and, sadly, the distraught woman overdoses. As EMTs fight to save her, Mira’s spirit floats outside her body. She enters an “in-between place,” where a spirit guide takes her to dark, painful memories as well as the past lives of her relatives. Mira tries illuminating her family’s murky history and her own past while overcoming deeply rooted feelings of guilt. Though Speigel keeps Mira’s out-of-body experience largely ambiguous, he deftly addresses profound themes. Religion, for example, is not only a way characters try to understand life’s meaning, but also a possible explanation for what’s happening to Mira (her guide may be divine). At the same time, the author grounds the story with a realistic depiction of the endless torment caused by drug abuse. Mira may have easy access to drugs, but she incessantly needs them for energy and to calm herself down, sometimes one dose after another. Despite her troubles, the protagonist boasts an appealing bluntness. For example, as her spirit witnesses increasingly confusing images, Mira pleads with the guide to let her “finish dying and move on.”
A somber but insightful portrayal of addiction and a harrowing past.Pub Date: April 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-937977-08-8
Page Count: 243
Publisher: Speigel & Associates Incorporated
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
