A briskly paced story of youth in a small, troubled town.
A relationship between two teenagers causes controversy in a small Southern town in this debut novel.
Mendenhall’s work, set in the bucolic fictional town of Andalusia, is a first-person coming-of-age tale told by a character named Cephas. Its tale of “illicit love and unfortunate loss” takes place in the 1970s, as Cephas looks back on his journey toward maturity during his boyhood with good buddies Michael Warren, whose father shared a law office with Cephas’; impulsive Lump; and introverted Brett Cox. The novel’s spirited, condensed plot features townspeople who feel betrayed by two of their own, and believably vivid courtroom scenes highlight an era in which ideas of social morality were upheld with strict deliverance. New families occasionally and unceremoniously arrive in town, but some don’t fare too well and depart mysteriously—as in the case of the Finkelmans,whose patriarch was accused of standing by his window, “playing with himself where everyone can see.” Meanwhile, the boys’ afternoons of innocent mischief are clouded by a complex and forbidden relationship between Brett’s 18-year-old brother Tommy (who “would never reason beyond the capacity of a child”) and Michael’s 13-year-old sister Sarah, who’s seen as the “beating heart” of the town of Andalusia. The truth emerges after the boys catch the pair together and Sarah subsequently confesses everything to Cephas. In the eyes of the law, Tommy’s actions constitute statutory rape and, in the fiery aftermath of a courtroom’s shocking verdict, the town’s reputation as a “bastion of conformity and consistency” is tested.
Mendenhall is a prolific writer of academic criticism and nonfiction,including Shouting Softly: Lines on Law, Literature, and Culture(2021) and in this first foray into literature, he shines. The title is drawn from a line in Romeo and Julietand one can easily draw comparisons to the plot of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird(1960). The author demonstrates a remarkable talent for relating an atmosphere of class and racial division; the region, bordered by “haunted forests” and Native American burial mounds, comes alive with elaborate and rich history; there’s a majestic Georgian revival oak-paneled courthouse, a tall, broken town clock which “stared down like a panoptic cyclops,” and a legend of “an old blind man, the oracle in overalls, [who] wandered Magnolia County in the 1920s and prophesied that Andalusia would perish if a local virgin murdered her one true love.” The novel’s short length doesn’t affect the potency of its pacing and characterization. Mendenhall depicts the older Cephas as a capable narrator who’s eager to tell his vibrant tale; the protagonist displays seasoned maturity as well as a modest ability to take a look backward at lessons learned. Mendenhall believably portrays the group of boyhood friends, as well as the adults who struggle to mold them into an image of purity and benevolence. Overall, this is a dynamic debut that ably depicts a community of God-fearing personalities struggling to comprehend their emotions, hopes, dreams, and fears.
A briskly paced story of youth in a small, troubled town.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 132
Publisher: Livingston Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.
An artwork’s value grows if you understand the stories of the people who inspired it.
Never in her wildest dreams would foster kid Louisa dream of meeting C. Jat, the famous painter of The One of the Sea, which depicts a group of young teens on a pier on a hot summer’s day. But in Backman’s latest, that’s just what happens—an unexpected (but not unbelievable) set of circumstances causes their paths to collide right before the dying 39-year-old artist’s departure from the world. One of his final acts is to bequeath that painting to Louisa, who has endured a string of violent foster homes since her mother abandoned her as a child. Selling the painting will change her life—but can she do it? Before deciding, she accompanies Ted, one of the artist’s close friends and one of the young teens captured in that celebrated painting, on a train journey to take the artist’s ashes to his hometown. She wants to know all about the painting, which launched Jat’s career at age 14, and the circle of beloved friends who inspired it. The bestselling author of A Man Called Ove (2014) and other novels, Backman gives us a heartwarming story about how these friends, set adrift by the violence and unhappiness of their homes, found each other and created a new definition of family. “You think you’re alone,” one character explains, “but there are others like you, people who stand in front of white walls and blank paper and only see magical things. One day one of them will recognize you and call out: ‘You’re one of us!’” As Ted tells stories about his friends—how Jat doubted his talents but found a champion in fiery Joar, who took on every bully to defend him; how Ali brought an excitement to their circle that was “like a blinding light, like a heart attack”—Louisa recognizes herself as a kindred soul and feels a calling to realize her own artistic gifts. What she decides to do with the painting is part of a caper worthy of the stories that Ted tells her. The novel is humorous, poignant, and always life-affirming, even when describing the bleakness of the teens’ early lives. “Art is a fragile magic, just like love,” as someone tells Louisa, “and that’s humanity’s only defense against death.”
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781982112820
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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