An imaginative if sometimes rambling collection of short stories.
Miller shares offbeat tales set in Southern California in this collection of literary short fiction.
“Art is a lie that tells the truth.” A creative writing teacher chalks this phrase onto a blackboard in the title story from Miller’s new collection, right underneath the eccentric spelling of “fiction.” The teacher—who has crossed eyes, braces, and a garbled voice—is himself slightly eccentric, as is the story and the 12 others that follow: An unusually tall high schooler attempts to ask a girl to prom while preparing for a presentation on the moons of Jupiter; in a neighborhood full of rumors of death and divorce, a father and his son learn the long, strange tale of their Vietnamese neighbor; an aspiring writer-turned-teacher experiences heart palpitations while preparing a lecture on California’s Channel Islands; an Uber driver gives a 98-year-old man a ride to the airport, where he is asked to go above and beyond the normal expectations of the job; and a motorist realizes he has the power to hear other drivers’ thoughts by staring at them via their side mirrors. Miller’s stories are, at their best, infused with wry humor, as in “The Time I Met Weaver McCracken,” in which the narrator—another of Miller’s numerous aspiring writers—travels to a conference to meet his idol: “I was going over ninety miles an hour, so I eased off the gas and turned on the cruise control. You have to take chances in life, but you have to be smart about them. Like Weaver McCracken, leaving his job as a golf journalist to write golf fiction.” The chatty narration sometimes hides a lack of plot, however, and many of the stories tend to run on without much of a sense of purpose or urgency. (The more successful pieces, like “Manfred Rutherford Junior’s Last Dance,” about the elderly Uber customer, tend to be shorter and less digressive, arranging themselves around a clearer premise or relationship.) Even so, readers will find a wealth of truthful lies to ponder here.
An imaginative if sometimes rambling collection of short stories.Pub Date: Dec. 19, 2022
ISBN: 9798986335872
Page Count: 234
Publisher: Gnatcatcher Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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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