A winding, offbeat, and sometimes-affecting journey.
Lieberman presents a literary novel about a man in crisis.
It’s the 2010s, and Lev Ockenshaw is a 29-year-old transgender man living in Boston and working at a company that makes security cameras. He’s not too excited about the job; what garners his interest instead is Chad Goeing, a man who died in 1900 and left behind an unpublished work called The Nature of Time. His official cause of death is unknown, which prompts Lev to do some investigating—and obsessing. Then Chad appears to Lev as a ghost. This is, however, not the only thing on Lev’s mind; he has a tumultuous friendship with a trans man named Stanley. For the most part, the two get along swimmingly until an incident involving a 1998 Ford Taurus. Back at Lev’s job, he receives a cryptic email about the company that reads, in part: “You are all being investigated now to account for your crimes.” Lev tries to bring this to the attention of his boss, but the response is tepid at best. Lucky for Lev, as he tries to unravel various mysteries, he also forms a bond with his co-worker Aparna. At one point, Lev, Stanley, and Aparna wind up swapping stories around a campfire in an homage of sorts to the 1990 Nickelodeon TV show Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Interspersed throughout these and other events are many heady conversations and observations involving a wide range of topics, including the philosophy of René Descartes, the Talmud, and the talking toy Teddy Ruxpin. There’s a portion considering “Rumpelstiltskin” as “a story that assumes cisgender people’s fear of transgender people,” for example, and frequent references to Abraham Zapruder’s film of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination (to which the title refers). Lev’s saga unfolds in a conversational manner, and as absurd as the hero’s adventures may seem at times, Lieberman uses them to form real connections with readers. For example, although Lev’s spat with Stanley is silly, Stanley’s absence for portions of the book has emotional impact, as when Lev says simply, “I wish I could call Stanley.” But the story, for all of its philosophical discussion, is not without its humor. At one point, for example, wild turkeys congregate behind Lev’s car not long before Thanksgiving, and he comments on how they seem to say, “We are not afraid of your car…nor your holiday. We are free.” However, most of the plot is resolved before the novel’s conclusion, which results in a meandering later section. Late in the game, Lev gets a new job, but this new position, along with the process of getting it, is largely inconsequential. Likewise, earlier portions, involving Lev’s quest to discover how Chad Goeing died, can drag, as there’s not much to make the reader care about how the writer died other than Lev’s insistence on finding out the truth. Yet, throughout it all, Lev proves to be a memorable protagonist—and one with a great deal on his mind.
A winding, offbeat, and sometimes-affecting journey.Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2022
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 598
Publisher: tRaum Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 4, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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 dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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