A subtle study of relationships that values character over plot.
Grei examines the delicate tensions of friendship, trust, and unspoken obligations through the story of a 30-something man and his tightknit social circle after he returns to his Iowa hometown.
Frankie is back living at home on the farm outside Des Moines where he grew up; his mother suddenly abandoned his father, Clayton, months ago, after 39 years of marriage, and left for points unknown (“He loved his wife, but her absence was as much a part of her as her presence ever was”). Frankie’s sister, Jules, had come back home briefly, as well, but she soon returned to her husband, Damon, and their daughter in the nearby city. Frankie tried to go back to his life with his partner, Shane, but wound up back on the farm after discovering Shane cheating on him. Overall, the novel unfolds mainly through measured interactions, domestic rituals, and reflective interiority, offering a texture of emotions rather than a conventional narrative momentum. From the earliest chapters, Frankie’s struggles with intimacy and relational accountability are set against a world of subtle social hierarchies. Small gestures—Jules’ obsessive washing of dishes by hand, Damon’s reflective pauses—carry disproportionate weight, focusing on desire, regret, and moral ambiguity. Social gatherings, professional encounters, and interpersonal provocations, as when Jules’ ex-boyfriend re-enters her life early on, serve less as plot drivers than as instruments of observation, exposing character arcs and illuminating relational power dynamics. Grei’s prose is precise, deliberate, and attentive to rhythm and mood. Moments of tension, confrontation, or tenderness emerge naturally through dialogue, interior reflection, and gesture, producing a sense of latent energy beneath the novel’s composed surface. At times, this focus on texture and interiority slows the pace, and conflicts—particularly involving Frankie and Hugo, a new man in Frankie’s life—occasionally echo rather than escalate. Still, the novel succeeds as both a character study and an aesthetic exercise: careful, observant, and quietly precise.
A subtle study of relationships that values character over plot.Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781965629000
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Kingbird Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
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
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