Tales that present emotionally complex characters with empathy and insight.
Themes of escape and longing ripple the calm surfaces of small Florida towns in this volume of short stories.
Like the howl of a faraway train whistle in the darkest hours of a small-town night, this thoughtful assemblage conjures up feelings of lonely goodbyes—and sometimes desperate escapes. In the collection’s first tale, “Welcome to Silver Springs, We Hate To See You Go,” a woman flees a lover who abuses their dog, but she is also escaping her oppressive hometown. Deep feelings are prevalent in these stories, and sometimes unattainable desire turns into dramatic fantasy. In “Mrs. Shiloh Sings to Her Dead Husband,” a lonely woman swears she saw a friend’s husband come back from the dead. And a mother helps her bullied son chase the mythical “chupacabra” beast in “Do You Believe?” Egnoski’s razor-sharp command of descriptive language is notable. Examining one small town, she writes: “Midway, population 2864, was as small as the period at the bottom of a question mark.” The multifaceted characters who inhabit these humid worlds are often societal outsiders—in “The Last Resort,” a low-income boy is determined to flee a special needs class. Lack of communication is also a difficulty. The title story focuses on a father quietly grappling with his teenage daughter’s abortion while he tends to a sick horse. Reflecting the struggles of the working class in an economic downturn, both the landscapes and the people are gloomy, with abandoned housing developments and men who have been on unemployment so long they “consider it a paycheck.” But the author offers plenty of hope-filled plot twists. For example, in “Veterans of a Foreign War,” a jilted wife finds solace at a VFW fish fry, and—in the soft, sexy final scene—she dances arm-in-arm with the woman who stole her husband.
Tales that present emotionally complex characters with empathy and insight.Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-59948-823-3
Page Count: 124
Publisher: Mint Hill Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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