A bold, confident book that delights in written language even as it probes it.
“Elsewhere” is a fitting description of this literary buffet of a short story collection.
These tales are set across multiple countries and centuries. To give an idea of the range on display, the collection’s two best stories follow a woman falling in love with the Facebook page of a recently deceased stranger and a political plot among the disciples of Confucius. Even more impressively, Yan writes across styles to best serve each story. “Stockholm,” a story about a literary conference, borrows from the blunt confessionalism of autofiction; meanwhile, the protagonist of “Free Wandering,” a story about being overwhelmed by New York, is a direct descendant of Dostoevsky’s Underground Man. This book is Yan’s first to be written in English, and language is a major theme throughout. At a meeting of the Foreign Movies No Subtitles group in “How I Fell in Love With the Well-Documented Life of Alex Whelan,” members debate the plot of a movie in a language they don’t understand. In "Mother Tongue," a couple of Chinese poets commit to surrounding their new baby only with English. But at 6 months old, the baby can speak only nonsense words, and it’s unclear if the experiment is working: “It was impossible to tell if they were Chinese or English, prose or verse.” Language is a source of alienation, a way for characters to be told they don’t belong. But it can also lead to new possibilities as characters find inspiration in misreadings. An Irish man with a Chinese character tattooed on his bicep believes the character reads home. In fact, it reads grave, and though it wouldn’t be difficult to fix, he decides to keep the tattoo as it is: “ ‘Grave’ is grand,” he declares. In an interview, Yan said that she relies on the distance of English, her second language, to talk about her mother’s death. In fact, a few of these stories touch on maternal mortality, a signal that the book’s themes of communication are deeply personal.
A bold, confident book that delights in written language even as it probes it.Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781982198480
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
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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