A deeply felt work that shows the magical alchemy of art.
Two parents, a writer and photographer, separately grieve for their daughter in Perly’s sequel novel.
Death Valley(2017) introduced readers to war photographer Vivienne Pink, who went to the Las Vegas desert on an assignment to photograph servicemen with her husband, a novelist named Johnny Coma. (Their original names are Vivienne Pinsky and Jonathon Comasky.) Secret atom bomb tests in the area have left Vivienne with side effects that include a bald scalp. In 2004, the couple’s daughter, Stella, was killed near their Toronto home by a hit-and-run bicyclist; now, in 2016, Vivienne and Johnny are estranged. He’s living in a tiny Barcelona apartment, where he quixotically writes letters to Stella and commits them to the ocean, believing that this will return her to him—which it does, in the form of a talking octopus. Meanwhile, Vivienne has come to Amsterdam, hoping to capture images of a rumored terrorist attack and revisiting her favorite paintings in the city. She also strikes erotic sparks with Alexi Green, a charismatic and mysterious man who seems to know all about her. In their different ways, father and mother reconcile themselves with ghosts of the past. In her third novel, Perly writes in a magical realist vein that is often mediated by vivid images linked to local qualities of light and water in the Netherlands (“Pale silver-green, an Amsterdam sky reflecting its own cold canal water”) and Spain (“The Mediterranean sky was lemon and citron and pink and so humid”).For both Johnny and Vivienne, making and responding to art is revealed to be central to their fully engaging with their daughter’s death: Johnny immerses himself in the work of Miguel de Cervantes; Vivienne visits her two favorite paintings in the Rijksmuseum as if they’re old friends. Both characters’ experiences are intriguing, poignant, and passionate—even if they sometimes exist on such a rarefied plane that they seem otherworldly.
A deeply felt work that shows the magical alchemy of art.Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-92-808896-7
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Buckrider Books
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 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
A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.
A falsely accused Black man goes into hiding in this masterful novella by Wright (1908-1960), finally published in full.
Written in 1941 and '42, between Wright’s classics Native Son and Black Boy, this short novel concerns Fred Daniels, a modest laborer who’s arrested by police officers and bullied into signing a false confession that he killed the residents of a house near where he was working. In a brief unsupervised moment, he escapes through a manhole and goes into hiding in a sewer. A series of allegorical, surrealistic set pieces ensues as Fred explores the nether reaches of a church, a real estate firm, and a jewelry store. Each stop is an opportunity for Wright to explore themes of hope, greed, and exploitation; the real estate firm, Wright notes, “collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent from poor colored folks.” But Fred’s deepening existential crisis and growing distance from society keep the scenes from feeling like potted commentaries. As he wallpapers his underground warren with cash, mocking and invalidating the currency, he registers a surrealistic but engrossing protest against divisive social norms. The novel, rejected by Wright’s publisher, has only appeared as a substantially truncated short story until now, without the opening setup and with a different ending. Wright's take on racial injustice seems to have unsettled his publisher: A note reveals that an editor found reading about Fred’s treatment by the police “unbearable.” That may explain why Wright, in an essay included here, says its focus on race is “rather muted,” emphasizing broader existential themes. Regardless, as an afterword by Wright’s grandson Malcolm attests, the story now serves as an allegory both of Wright (he moved to France, an “exile beyond the reach of Jim Crow and American bigotry”) and American life. Today, it resonates deeply as a story about race and the struggle to envision a different, better world.
A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-59853-676-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Library of America
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
BOOK TO SCREEN
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