A moving pair of historical tales, as philosophically astute as they are dramatically gripping.
Two novellas poignantly examine characters who find comfort in their roots and find themselves drawn to the unknown.
Hess offers a pair of searching explorations of the push and pull of one’s origins. In The Root of Everything, set in the early 20th century, Richard leaves his native Germany over the objections of his father in order to follow his younger brother, Rolf, to the United States. They both find work at a lumberyard in Missouri, but when Rolf dies tragically on the job, Richard is devastated. Nevertheless, he starts his own business and a family, as well; his son, Cal, follows in his footsteps and runs a lumbering business and marries a woman named Josie. However, Cal is never quite happy with his life, and Josie is so miserable that she finally leaves him; their son, Stanford, who’s secretly gay, leaves for New York City to become a wealthy businessman; there, he has a relationship with a palm reader named Sam. In deeply affecting prose that’s characteristic of the entire book, Hess depicts Richard’s despair over his now scattered family: “Richard…covered his face, and with this sharp action, the dragon flies scattered as if this human grief had poisoned their air.” In the second novella, Lightning, Bud is born and raised in Fayetteville, Arkansas, but dreams of moving out west with his best friend, Jerky. After his father dies, a rich aunt offers him the opportunity to move to New York and ride horses, a passion of his, and it’s a possibility that is as tantalizing as it is frightening. Once again, the author’s writing is poetically subtle but impressively restrained; readers are drawn deep into these stories without any excessive hand-holding, free to draw their own conclusions. With impressive emotional power, both novellas show the paradoxical ways in which one’s family can feel like a prison from which to break free but also like a home in which one can find one’s true self.
A moving pair of historical tales, as philosophically astute as they are dramatically gripping.Pub Date: July 13, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-60-864158-1
Page Count: 204
Publisher: rEBEL SaTOri PrESS
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 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
A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.
A falsely accused Black man goes into hiding in this masterful novella by Wright (1908-1960), finally published in full.
Written in 1941 and '42, between Wright’s classics Native Son and Black Boy, this short novel concerns Fred Daniels, a modest laborer who’s arrested by police officers and bullied into signing a false confession that he killed the residents of a house near where he was working. In a brief unsupervised moment, he escapes through a manhole and goes into hiding in a sewer. A series of allegorical, surrealistic set pieces ensues as Fred explores the nether reaches of a church, a real estate firm, and a jewelry store. Each stop is an opportunity for Wright to explore themes of hope, greed, and exploitation; the real estate firm, Wright notes, “collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent from poor colored folks.” But Fred’s deepening existential crisis and growing distance from society keep the scenes from feeling like potted commentaries. As he wallpapers his underground warren with cash, mocking and invalidating the currency, he registers a surrealistic but engrossing protest against divisive social norms. The novel, rejected by Wright’s publisher, has only appeared as a substantially truncated short story until now, without the opening setup and with a different ending. Wright's take on racial injustice seems to have unsettled his publisher: A note reveals that an editor found reading about Fred’s treatment by the police “unbearable.” That may explain why Wright, in an essay included here, says its focus on race is “rather muted,” emphasizing broader existential themes. Regardless, as an afterword by Wright’s grandson Malcolm attests, the story now serves as an allegory both of Wright (he moved to France, an “exile beyond the reach of Jim Crow and American bigotry”) and American life. Today, it resonates deeply as a story about race and the struggle to envision a different, better world.
A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-59853-676-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Library of America
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
BOOK TO SCREEN
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