A celebration of a woman who worked behind the scenes.
The life, work, and passion of Jessie Redmon Fauset, a lesser-known figure of the Harlem Renaissance, is examined in this historical novel.
“You’ve birthed most of us. It’s like you’re a literary midwife”: This is what her protégé Langston Hughes has to say to Fauset toward the end of Murray’s novel. Fauset, a poet and novelist in her own right, is best remembered as the mentor of Harlem Renaissance luminaries including Hughes, Countee Cullen, and Claude McKay through her role as literary editor of the Crisis, a magazine founded by W.E.B. Du Bois and published by the NAACP. Not only did she rise to a position of prominence in the literary world—almost unheard of for a Black woman of her time—but she also went above and beyond to edit, uplift, and support her writers. One of the book’s most exciting moments comes when Jessie first interacts with the delightfully precocious 17-year-old Hughes, who has just written “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”and whose work she will continually champion and refine. But Jessie’s life is not without tribulation or scandal. Though we learn about her continual search to find a place for herself as a Black woman writer, much of the novel is taken up by her on-again, off-again affair with the married, and frequently prickly, Du Bois, whom she calls Will. (According to a historical note at the end of the book, Murray extrapolated the affair from information in David Levering Lewis’ W.E.B. Du Bois: A Biography, 1868–1963, which called the pair “star-crossed lovers.”) At times, Jessie’s bullheadedness can be irksome, and readers may grow tired of the time Murray spends detailing her repetitive, and often saccharine, meetings with Du Bois. But Jessie Redmon Fauset is such a captivating figure that Murray’s success comes from bringing her accomplishments to greater attention.
A celebration of a woman who worked behind the scenes.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593638484
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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
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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