A perceptive but uneven tale about a physician’s daily struggles.
In this novel, an aging doctor feels burned out and contemplates retirement, but then her life is stirred by new colleagues and a romance.
Norah Waters always wanted to become a physician—she played doctor when she was only 3 years old. Now she’s pushing 60 and, after 30 years of practice in Arizona, is mentally and emotionally depleted and ready to call it quits: “Seven more years to retirement. I could barely imagine doing this seven more days. It used to be that I thought about quitting every month or so. Then every week. Now I thought about it every single day. I had to get out of there.” In addition, she just broke up with her hopelessly irresponsible boyfriend, Austin, and is so depressed that her partners worry she’s suicidal. Then Norah takes on two medical students—George Clark and Jeremy Newell. The former is impossibly timid and all but incapable of discussing sex with his patients. The latter is incredibly arrogant, bereft of compassion, and astonishingly immature. Miller delivers an astutely sensitive depiction of life as a physician—all the ways in which a medical practice is a “little village” populated by “happy shoppers” and “unwilling tourists.” This is also a companionably agreeable novel laced with lightsome humor. Norah’s mother is an octogenarian unwilling to let go of her hippie past, looking to “make her life messy again, unpredictable,” and is a source of great amusement. But the plot moves at a leisurely pace and lacks the bite of a gripping, emotional drama. Norah is an intelligent character who thoughtfully grapples with the ennui that envelops her life, yet her disappointment is familiar and feels like the stuff of literary formula. Still, readers will appreciate the genuinely sharp insights into the often burdensome world of private medical practice.
A perceptive but uneven tale about a physician’s daily struggles.Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-64779-059-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: University of Nevada Press
Review Posted Online: June 14, 2022
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
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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