A complex but uneven novel of art and mental illness.
An amnesiac returns to Australia to confront her past in Skilbeck’s debut novel.
Ruby Rivers is in Newcastle Jail in New South Wales for a murder that she doesn’t remember committing. Back in London, she was the owner of a posh gallery known for exhibiting “antipodean” art (works from Australia and New Zealand). Ruby and her wealthy husband, acclaimed philosopher Sir Hugo Rivers, made a trip to her native Australia on a search for new artworks. However, she has no memory of living in Australia, as she was somehow struck with amnesia shortly after her arrival in England, where she started a new life several years ago. Ruby only has vague notions of a dark romantic affair and a vision of a woman playing the violin—but once she’s back in Sydney, the pieces of her past start to fall into place. There, a musician and an artist have a shared history with the woman Ruby once was. Their reunion ends in blood, but the identity of the guilty party isn’t so clear-cut. Skilbeck’s prose is as measured as poetry, and the way the narration shifts between different characters provides an almost cubist view of people and events. For example, in Hugo’s memory of the first time he saw Ruby, she was wearing a fur coat: “In an age of hunt saboteurs, animal rights, she stood out like Wanda in Venus in Furs”; later in their relationship, she notes its cost: “Only ten pounds can you believe and twice as much for old raincoats that looked as if they’d come straight off a flasher’s back.” The chapters are intercut with excerpts that address the concept of the fugue state, which lend Ruby’s condition a bit of context. For all its style, however, the story at the center of the novel simply doesn’t feel quite as emotionally stirring as it could be. Skilbeck creates some memorable characters as she whets the reader’s appetite for mystery, but the plot that unfolds never becomes fully engrossing.
A complex but uneven novel of art and mental illness.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-99-227792-5
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Postmistress Press
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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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