A rousing success: Moreno-Garcia proves, once again, that she is a master of her craft.
A bitter actor goes to war with a Hollywood newcomer in this historical novel.
It’s 1955, and Hollywood can’t stop talking about The Seventh Veil of Salome, a film that its beleaguered screenwriter calls “one of those sword-and-sandal flicks” and a “picture with a camel, a palace, and a garbage plot thinly inspired by a Biblical story.” The film has been in the works for years; one of the reasons is that its director has had trouble finding an actor for the title role, the first-century princess who plays a part in the New Testament. The director finally settles on a 21-year-old Mexican newcomer named Francisca Severa Larios Gavaldón, whom the studio renames Vera Larios. Vera’s rapid ascent irks Nancy Hartley, “a professional party girl more than she was an actress,” who nevertheless badly wanted the role herself. Nancy also wants Jay Rutland, a handsome jazz pianist who has his eyes set on Vera. Nancy is a racist with a nasty temperament—“God help the person who incurred her wrath”—which means she has no intention of letting Vera go unpunished. Meanwhile, Vera tries to adjust to her new life in Hollywood, deal with her overbearing mother, and avoid the unwanted attentions of a sex-pest actor who believes he’s entitled to her body. Moreno-Garcia’s novel is told from a variety of perspectives, and she captures each voice perfectly, with dialogue that’s artfully and subtly reminiscent of Golden Age movies. She also proves to be an expert at building suspense—she telegraphs that Vera and Nancy’s rivalry will end explosively, but still manages to end the novel with a genuine surprise. The author has proved with previous books like Mexican Gothic (2020) and Velvet Was the Night (2021) that she’s a master storyteller who can move among genres with ease, so it’s no surprise that this foray into historical fiction is intelligent, exciting, and written absolutely beautifully.
A rousing success: Moreno-Garcia proves, once again, that she is a master of her craft.Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9780593600269
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
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
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
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