A timely patchwork of fictional bits and pieces that lands few punches.
A compact collection offers fictional vignettes.
The subtitle of this work hints at the form of flash fiction, which is characterized by brevity— usually 100 to 200 words grouped around a pithy hook or twist. Regardless of what the “Flesh Friction” mentioned in that subtitle means (it’s never made clear), the book’s contents reflect the elements of flash fiction. This is a compilation of two dozen or so quick dramatic bits, usually well under a page in length, with the whole book being only a few dozen pages long. Two other features found in flash fiction—slangy delivery and a tendency to sprinkle in sexual references—are likewise present in many of these miniature chapters. Readers should expect explicit sexual references and racial epithets. Throughout these stories, the author invokes figures from the current news cycle—Bill Gates, Betsy DeVos, Kanye West, Donald Trump—and employs plenty of attempts at humor in order to make each vignette snappy and readable. Readers are clearly expected to be already familiar with American politics and culture. McGrouchpants admirably tackles a wide range of provocative subjects and offers some amusing tidbits here. But even knowledgeable readers will sometimes be at a loss since the author frequently lapses into incoherent babbling, as in “Why Big Pharma and Sociopathic Sex Advice-Givers are Shoveling Dirt Over Generation X’ers and Wilhelm Reich’s Graves” and other tales. A postscript to “ ‘FAMILY TIES’ and ‘GROWING PAINS’ Re-Runs Are Reality!” tells readers: “P.S. Try The Marx-Engels Reader, The Federalist Papers, Foucault’s Discipline and Punish, The Interpretation of Dreams, and Trotsky’s The Russian Revolution (Abridged)…or, shut up! Shoot pool”—with the whimsicality obviously intended to be offbeat and cynical. Yet the result often reads like a slightly protracted and extremely disjointed series of in-jokes that fall flat, rendered in prose that’s jumpy and sneering rather than sharp and funny. Even flash fiction fans will likely be disappointed.
A timely patchwork of fictional bits and pieces that lands few punches.Pub Date: June 9, 2017
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 41
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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