Dazzling characters front this quietly sublime period piece.
Moore’s debut novel zeroes in on one day at a South Carolina high school in 1970.
On a cool October morning, 16-year-old Rusty Boykin is ready for a midterm exam at Summerville High. The principal, however, sends him home to change his shirt and cut his hair, which are in violation of the school’s dress code. This prompts Rusty’s chance encounter with his crush, Sandy Welch, who, like some of her friends, is still reeling from her boyfriend’s fatal plummet off a bridge only a week earlier. Most of their fellow students, including the brainy new kid, Ollie Wyborn, are stuck in classrooms, worrying over quizzes and itching for the bell to ring. Summerville High has its share of subcultures, including bullies, so-called hippies protesting the ongoing Vietnam War, and teens just struggling to fit in. The school operates in a community of “backward” conservatives who resist full integration of Blacks and whites and scoff at such wild notions as “permissive parents.” The author brightens this story with an effervescent cast; a variety of students and teachers headline their own subplots or steal others’ scenes, as when a teenager sent to the principal’s office simply walks out the front door while Kevin Manigault, one of the few Black people enrolled at Summerville, suffers another student’s blatantly racist comments in silence. Moore makes historical nods to Vietnam and the counterculture with sincerity, depicting serious moments like a school administrator effectively harassing a “negative” student until he drops out. There’s nevertheless plenty of room for humorous morsels: In one scene, a teacher “clandestinely transfers his flask” to his sports coat; later, an office assistant hears one side of the police chief’s telephone conversation with the principal, consisting of “uh huh” on repeat. An unexpected turn in the latter half of the novel helps bring this eventful day (and copious subplots) to a gratifying close.
Dazzling characters front this quietly sublime period piece.Pub Date: March 31, 2023
ISBN: 9781685626112
Page Count: 230
Publisher: Austin Macauley
Review Posted Online: Aug. 21, 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
SEEN & HEARD
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
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