An engrossing war saga that mixes harrowing battle scenes with resonant pathos.
An American doughboy experiences horror and heroism on the Western Front in Davis’ searing World War I novel.
This story centers on the mysterious diary of a soldier (with the American Expeditionary Force in France in 1917 and 1918) whose vivid account of the war never mentions his name. The diary is discovered in the present day, hidden in a Parisian bookstore, by Alex Grover, an American high school senior on an awkward graduation holiday with his estranged dad, Walter, a retired U.S. Army veteran. The two bond over the journal’s gripping portrait of the war. The diary recaps the soldier’s training as he learns to survive the extraordinarily lethal environment of high-intensity combat, where death lurks in everything from snipers’ bullets and explosive shells to poison gas and, late in the war, the Spanish flu. The action ramps up to the great Allied offensives of 1918 as the diarist weathers shattering bombardments and leads his squad through machine-gun fire as they storm German trenches. Reading the diary and visiting American military cemeteries in France, Alex and Walter piece together clues indicating that the diarist might be the man buried in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. Davis, himself a veteran, has penned a rousing, blood-and-guts combat narrative, steeped in meticulously rendered military procedure and ghastly carnage, depicted in blunt, visceral prose. (“All of a sudden, I heard the sound of metal on metal. I looked over to the soldier on my right. He just lay there. Half his head was gone.”) He also deftly traces the psychological transformation of his protagonist, who is brave, patriotic, and self-sacrificing but increasingly coarsened by war. (“Once we got out of the building, we laid the soldier on the ground…I didn’t cry. I don’t feel empathy or sadness. I’m mad I’m one soldier short in my squad.”) The result is a riveting tale of a nameless everyman charging through hell on earth.
An engrossing war saga that mixes harrowing battle scenes with resonant pathos.Pub Date: May 1, 2024
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 210
Publisher: My Random Thoughts
Review Posted Online: April 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
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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