A diverse collection of tales that skillfully illustrate various facets of modern life.
People share stories at an unusual gathering in Desai’s novel.
The second installment in Desai’s series picks up right where the initial entry, Bad Americans: Part I (2025), left off. The year is 2020, and Covid-19 is rampant throughout the world. Twelve diverse guests are assembled at the home of a wealthy man named Olive Mixer. It is a reality-show-like setting where people mingle romantically, argue over their differing worldviews, and participate in activities like dodgeball and Family Feud. The main thrust, though, is the stories: Each guest receives an allocated time to address everyone else in the house with a tale (Part 1 covered six guests; this sequel features the remaining six). The attendees include Lisa, tells of a traumatic experience she experienced while in college and the many uncomfortable situations she encountered while working for a Spanish artist, limning an adult life marked by “microaggressions” from men. Khassan has a more fantastical tale about a young Muslim man named Amir, whom he describes as “an utterly incompetent NYU dropout with zero real world experience.” Amir may be incompetent, but he goes on quite an international adventure. The stories are as varied as the characters who tell them: An Indian man named Pritesh spins a yarn about an Indian man in America involved in a love triangle that takes an unexpectedly dark turn; 19-year-old model and social media star Hayley outlines the predatory aspects of being a pretty face on Instagram. While these narratives hold the reader’s interest, the action between the stories is not as stimulating; a bit about horseback riding is no more exciting than it sounds (“Eventually, everyone learned to mount the horse and led by their trainer, were pulled along the plain and then through a small horse show track, avoiding the hurdles and jumps”). Still, the novel proves memorable for its presentation of many distinct points of view.
A diverse collection of tales that skillfully illustrate various facets of modern life.Pub Date: April 15, 2026
ISBN: 9781734727852
Page Count: 447
Publisher: The New Wei LLC
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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