A playful, if often dense, work about a man at odds with history, America, and himself.
In LaTour’s debut novel, a professional shopper comes unwound during the coronavirus pandemic.
Toulouse Charles Rochambeau is not, by own admission, a “modern man.” Although he’s scion of a once-prominent family (his French ancestor helped Gen. George Washington defeat the British at Yorktown), the 60-something Charles works for his living. Specifically, he’s employed as the “Certified Professional Shopper” and majordomo for blue-blooded divorcee and “giftaholic” Beatrice Wolcott, who owns a three-acre farm in Westchester County. Charles himself resides down the road in a tiny studio apartment in a hideous modern building owned by Beatrice’s inept handyman, Ryan Keneally. Charles is highly literate, unbearably pretentious, and preternaturally good at finding bargains: “You will never see me in a department store from November to March. These ‘sales’ are fraudulent or outright scams. Stores charge ‘bust out retail prices.’ By Thanksgiving, retailers gradually withdraw discounts and promotions, mark things up and insidiously bolster their net selling prices and profit margins.” He grouses his way through life with little positive to say about anyone other than his aristocratic employer, whose closeness with Ryan fills him with suspicion. A fierce believer in the American dream—which he feels he has been denied—Charles maintains increasingly contrarian positions regarding Covid-19 as the pandemic continues. While he attempts to unspool the nature of the relationship between Beatrice and Ryan and hatches plans to restore the Wolcotts (and, therefore, the Rochambeaus) to greatness, the bargain shopper and self-described “Soldier of Truth” recounts missed opportunities in his life and pens a manifesto worthy (in his mind) of the philosophical and literary greats that crowd his bookshelves.
In Charles’ narration, LaTour’s prose takes on a delusional grandiosity worthy of Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy, littered with literary references, syntactical gymnastics, and orotund vulgar jokes. Here, for example, the narrator asserts that his talent for shopping is equivalent to a sex act, thus allegedly producing an orgasmic reaction in a cashier: “To put it bluntly, my vendeur, Donna has been transmogrified into a horny wench. Although not quite une salope. Nakedly exposed to the staggering value of my purchases, she is turned on—not just aroused, but desperate to seduce my monster, the unrepentant Dingle Screw.” The story is rather threadbare, but the plot is hardly the point: This book is centered solely on the voice and personality of Charles, who proves, ultimately, to be even stranger than he initially appears. The shopper is a proud Luddite, and much about the novel feels like a throwback to an earlier literary postmodernism. Even so, Charles manages to capture something of the madness of the moment, as embodied in a certain type of aging White American male (former president Donald Trump included, who’s referenced often). Readers will know after only a page or so whether this book is for them, but it’s most likely to appeal to fans of such verbose authors as Sterne, James Joyce, and John Kennedy Toole.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2023
ISBN: 9781736534700
Page Count: 204
Publisher: Bridlegoose Books
Review Posted Online: March 12, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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