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
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
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