Sober, sometimes dry, yet an affecting story of the potential for growth.
At a 19th-century psychiatric hospital, a patient and the superintendent travel parallel journeys toward greater peace.
“Pure food, adequate rest, wholesome influences, wholesome occupations” are the abiding principles of “moral treatment,” a novel approach to the care of the mentally ill pioneered by the real-life Thomas Story Kirkbride in the mid-19th century. At an immense hospital in northern Michigan built and run according to Kirkbride’s beliefs—which will be familiar to readers of Jayne Anne Phillips’ Night Watch (2023), set in a similar location—a 17-year-old named Amy Underwood has arrived for treatment in 1889. Diagnosed as insane by two doctors, she is in fact a lonely, alienated young woman whose encounter with a threatening group of lumberjacks left her traumatized. One of the few young people at the hospital, she struggles to establish connections and, after stealing a photograph belonging to the superintendent’s wife, finds herself demoted in the hierarchy of wards and care. Carpenter’s carefully detailed, subtly observed novel is in part a survey of the hospital. Through the eyes of the elderly superintendent, referred to only as James, the reader learns much about methods and means, staff and patients, and various aspects of illness and treatment. James is weary and overburdened. Amy is secretive and misunderstood, although friendship with another young inmate, volatile Letitia, opens her up somewhat. Intrigues involve other doctors, officials, and visitors. James’ wife also plays a crucial role, offering firmness, compassion, and new perspectives to both central figures. She also contributes to the novel’s feminist subtext, which considers the imbalance of confident, empowered men controlling women via social as well as medical norms. There are no simple resolutions for Amy or James, yet the ground has slowly shifted for both.
Sober, sometimes dry, yet an affecting story of the potential for growth.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9798991064606
Page Count: 361
Publisher: Central Michigan Univ. Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
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
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
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