A well-told, entertaining story of dogs overcoming all odds.
A dog’s-eye view of a long-shot project to save a dog shelter.
Smith’s novel starts off with all the high tension of a professional dog meet. It’s the Eastminster International Dog Show, and the happenings are narrated by Elvis, an Airedale terrier (“the gentlemen dog of the terrier group”) and returning champion. He desperately wants to win this dog show because his Man needs the prize money in order to renovate and salvage the dog shelter where all of Elvis’ canine pals, especially one named Freddy, worship Elvis. They’re counting on him for their literal survival. The Airedale knows the pressure is on, but he’s confident of his chances—until his archnemesis (“she’s white, though her heart is black as onyx”), a standard French poodle named Chaussay, seems somehow to curse the chances of the other contestants in the show, arranging for each dog in turn to fail in their showing, leaving her and her snooty handler, Pierre, in possession of the prize—and sending Elvis home in the most bitter of defeats, certain that Chaussay’s treachery and his defeat have sealed the doom of his friends. There follows a long and fast-paced adventure full of plot twists in which not only do the shelter residents strive to right the wrongs of Chaussay’s schemes, but, surprisingly, they also strive to shine the spotlight on humble Freddy (“I always thought that was for ‘special dogs’ and that did not include me,” he thinks at one point, “I neverthought of myself as special”). Smith’s novel joins the ranks of other dog-narrated stories like Richard Adams’ The Plague Dogs(1977) and Donald McCaig’s Nop’s Trials(1984) in that he dispenses completely with sentimentality or predictability in order to tell a hero’s journey story in which the hero isn’t quite human. He manages humor and suspense with equal skill.
A well-told, entertaining story of dogs overcoming all odds.Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2021
ISBN: 979-8-54-265678-6
Page Count: 283
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2021
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
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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