An ambitious hospital saga with a worthy message of compassion undermined by a heavy-handed delivery.
Del Toro’s medical drama follows a young intern as he cares for a Jane Doe patient admitted after an opioid overdose.
Feeling burned-out, David Scholz intends to keep his head down and get through the end of his internship before taking a year off to travel prior to starting his ophthalmology residency. University Charity Hospital is an extremely busy place, and David’s patience is stretched to the breaking point. Despite this, he connects with an older patient whose surprising backstory serves as a reminder of the human side of his work. The story toggles back and forth between David’s interactions with this person and another patient identified as Jane Doe, juxtaposing the former, who is the picture of gratitude, with the latter, who is about as defiant as a patient can get. Jane even attacks David while going through withdrawal (a plot point that becomes significant later), but his compassion wins out in the end, and David continues working to break through her tough outer shell. As he does, the other doctors and nurses around him provide support and wisdom; one character distills one of the novel’s themes when he says, “Kindness’s greatest virtue is anonymity, but in a small hospital such as ours, few things go unnoticed.” Several aspects of the prose and plot keep readers at a remove, however. The text is crammed with medical jargon, which, while accurate to the setting, becomes distracting and alienating for readers without medical backgrounds. Characters rarely use contractions when speaking, making their dialogue sound like scripted lectures rather than natural conversations. Both of David’s primary patients turn out to be rather prominent public figures; this narrative turn, in addition to an abundance of coincidences that favor David’s growth and development, undercuts the narrative’s believability.
An ambitious hospital saga with a worthy message of compassion undermined by a heavy-handed delivery.Pub Date: April 1, 2024
ISBN: 9798989421008
Page Count: 372
Publisher: Bowker
Review Posted Online: Nov. 14, 2024
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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