A slim, accessible volume that offers gentle inspiration while beckoning readers to widen their worldview.
Mehra’s inspirational verses tackle emotional questions that “span the gamut of life” and advocate a global mindset.
This 14-poem collection covers diverse ground, including such subjects as marriage, friendship, betrayal and politics, the value and purpose of sex, and what constitutes a well-lived life. Throughout, Mehra looks at human emotions using easy-to-understand language. His verses aren’t driven by images and symbols; instead, they connect to quotidian concerns in thoughtful ways. For example, in “Life,” the narrator reminds readers: “Not money, nor fame, nor power nor name…None of them matter in your soul’s brilliant flight, / So, live full, love well, be kind, and live right.” The rhyme scheme, typical of these poems, has a songlike quality that makes for a quick, easy read. Some readers may find the poems’ dependence on platitudes, and their use of outmoded words such as “ ’twas,”“ ’tis,”“aye” and “thou,” unappealing. The author also occasionally forces rhymes (“beaver/…Shiva” in “Da Chief”). That said, readers seeking easy-to-swallow advice and inspiration will find these poems comfortable and unintimidating. That’s not to say Mehra shies away from harder-hitting subjects, however. In “Sex—The Greatest Gift of All?,” he digs into tantric tradition, playfully wishing readers the joy of energized chakras. In three other poems, he intellectually critiques India’s history. In “The Littlest Particle,” for example, he fascinatingly compares Switzerland’s Large Hadron Collider with a hardhearted Mumbai woman—the original “littlest particle”—who perpetuated “a negative vortex [that] never before had been seen.” The woman, who bears a striking resemblance to Indira Gandhi,“lived in her tiny universe” and “shrunk even further / Beyond the tiny and miniscule and sub-atomic layer” until “one day she exploded—’twas the grand / finale.”
A slim, accessible volume that offers gentle inspiration while beckoning readers to widen their worldview.Pub Date: May 2, 2013
ISBN: 978-1481139663
Page Count: 64
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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