Reich comically airs out many grievances.
Sacred cows of all sorts are skewered by Reich in a broad satire of contemporary mores.
Gershon Gordon, a “world famous literary powerhouse and public intellectual,” is a resident at Camp Jeff, a reeducation center for those who have found themselves implicated by the #MeToo movement—or caught in the hashtag, as Reich wryly puts it. The camp is named after its benefactor, the “good” Jeffrey Epstein, a cosmetics tycoon who refuses to let his name be ruined by the infamous bearer of the same name. Gershon’s own name is a refinement of his given name, George Gordon, also the name of Lord Byron as well as a Protestant who led riots against Catholics mentioned in Dickens. Slippery nomenclature is just one of many verbal sleights of hand Reich plays in her densely packed narrative of Gershon’s attempts to game the systems at Camp Jeff for his own purposes. The primary therapeutic method at Camp Jeff is Zoyaroyan Psychoempathy—named after one of at least three Zoyas playing a part in the novel—which allows Reich to take aim not only at sexual predators but at purveyors of sketchy self-help models. As the madcap plot unfolds, Reich explores themes of antisemitism, Jewish culture in America, and misogyny. At several points along the way to the novel’s apocalyptic resolution, she takes a deep dive into Talmudic studies, too. With the book taking place just before and during the earliest days of the Covid-19 pandemic, the mass hysteria and uncertainty surrounding that disruption comports nicely with the general tone of upheaval as old rules give way to the new. Stereotypes of many sorts—the stern nurse, the mousy female academic, the pederest priest—are present in the cast of characters Reich uses to make her point.
Reich comically airs out many grievances.Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2024
ISBN: 9781644214213
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Seven Stories
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
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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