A demented, often funny satire of American health care.
Werner tells the story of a man’s nefarious scheme to sell a hospital in this debut novel.
Edward Teak serves as the CEO of a failing hospital in the depressed town of Little Falls. He hates his job—he can’t stand the sight of blood—and only accepted it in a misguided attempt to live up to the memory of his deceased father, a beloved Little Falls physician. Edward would like nothing better than to bail on the entire enterprise and move his family back to the city. The opportunity comes when a national for-profit health care chain expresses interest in acquiring the hospital, but only if Edward can somehow improve its bottom line. It seems impossible, until Edward comes up with an idea: He simply needs to eliminate a few of the hospital’s “High Cost Patients.” As Edward explains, “The ‘High-Cost Patient’ is to the American hospital what norovirus is to the cruise ship industry. These patients are sicker than most, often poorer than most, and chock-full of pre-existing conditions. When they land on your hospital doorstep you might as well start writing a check and auctioning off the furniture.” Edward draws up a list of the five costliest cases and starts brainstorming ways he might hurry their exit from the hospital system. But how far is he willing to go to help them on their way? Werner imbues Edward with a comical misanthropy, which the character directs at himself and the rest of society in equal measure. “This world is filled with people who walk around like they have it all figured out,” Edward opines at one point. “They’re mostly mediocre losers blessed with an undeserved confidence. I have never been a part of this club, but for the first time in my life I feel as if I have a plan.” The book is over 450 pages long and would be stronger at half that length. Even so, Werner unspools a captivating (if slow-moving) ambulance crash, one that will hold the reader’s attention for a long time.
A demented, often funny satire of American health care.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9798988779001
Page Count: 382
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Oct. 24, 2023
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
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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