A fertile mind provides many smiles in this entertaining collection—and more than a few out-loud laughs.
Many of these 11 stories from gifted humorist Rich explore the joys and trials of parenthood.
Two pirates are all at sea when they discover a stowaway little girl and must add a bit of niceness to their nastiness. A screenwriter reluctantly abandons work to be the Beast in his daughter’s obsession with the Disney-fied fairy tale, but he realizes something about the film that helps transform him into a less-beastly father. When simian superhero Clobbo learns that Empire City no longer needs him, he discovers a new role entertaining his granddaughter with bubble wrap on a Facetime call. A young woman raised by wolves returns to human society at 18 and has a normal life, only interacting with the wolves when they visit for Thanksgiving, and eventually she learns to accept their differences. A story about a medieval king’s not very bright son hiding among peasants during a revolution was adapted for Rich’s TV series, “Miracle Workers.” In his sixth collection of stories, and eighth work of fiction since 2007, Rich presents parody, absurdity, observational wit, the sudden shift in a familiar premise, and a surprising touch of sweetness and charm throughout. Fans won’t find anything quite like Rich’s earlier “Unprotected,” with the point of view of an unused condom in a young man’s wallet, or the macabre twist in “The Tribal Rite of the Strombergs,” when a Scrabble game ends in ritual human sacrifice. A couple of pieces are even a bit clunky. But there is much to smile at here, and “The Big Nap” (nodding to Chandler), which uses noir style for a toddler detective on the trail of his baby sister’s lost unicorn, Moomoo, is so consistently funny, so exceptional in its imaginative use of parody as to be near genius.
A fertile mind provides many smiles in this entertaining collection—and more than a few out-loud laughs.Pub Date: July 27, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-316-53668-4
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2021
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
Though uneven, this is still a pleasurable, comforting read.
Infertility, family secrets, and alpacas all figure in Quindlen’s latest meditation on mothering and domesticity.
Polly’s life looks enviable. Happily married to the adoring Mark—a vet at the Bronx Zoo—she teaches English at a private Manhattan girls’ school and loves her work. She has a protective older brother and close girlfriends, who’ve formed a book club where no one is expected to read the book. But Polly desperately wants a child and, at 42, knows time is running out. She and Mark have gone through endless fertility treatments, to no avail. Meantime, Polly’s friends have given her a DNA kit as a jokey birthday gift, and something mysterious shows up in the test results. Then, out of nowhere, a young woman contacts her, suggesting they may be related. That’s not all: Polly feels estranged from her mother, a revered judge who’s insufficiently maternal in her daughter’s view. Her father has always cherished her, but he’s in a nursing home now with a rapidly failing mind. And something is amiss with her best pal, Sarah. Quindlen’s trademark empathy is evident throughout, and her wry humor leavens some of the serious goings-on. Early on, Mark and Polly visit a fertility clinic with photos of babies in the waiting room; for Polly, “it felt…like a Weight Watchers facility with hot fudge sundae pictures on the wall.” Then we meet these charming alpacas, humming and pronking, on a farm run by an earth mother, whose wisdom will help Polly get on with her life. The plot swerves around a bit, there may be one surplus narrative thread (e.g., Polly’s star student Josephine running aground after graduation), and at the end, the author ties things up too neatly, pushing the “circle of life” theme too hard.
Though uneven, this is still a pleasurable, comforting read.Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2026
ISBN: 9780593734605
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
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