Book Blog #396: The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

 

Title: The Correspondent

Author: Virginia Evans

# of Pages: 280 (ebook)

Genre: Adult, Contemporary

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Synopsis: Sybil Van Antwerp has throughout her life used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings, around half past ten, Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter. Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has—a mother, grandmother, wife, divorcee, distinguished lawyer, she has lived a very full life. But when letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life, she realizes that the letter she has been writing over the years needs to be read and that she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness. Sybil Van Antwerp’s life of letters might be “a very small thing,” but she also might be one of the most memorable characters you will ever read.

Review: To Virginia Evans, I give her a quote from her own book:

"You do very well with inhabiting your narrators and telling the story as they would" 

The Correspondent is a collection of letters/emails between Sybil, a grandmother and retired lawyer and various people in her life ranging from her children to a customer service rep. Sybil's personality is quite apparent in her letters; she's your classic rambling, oversharing, judgmental elderly retiree. I was hating this book in the start because I don't usually like talking with these type of people in real life, but I realized that Evan's was actually very masterful at crafting Sybil's letters to portray this familiar archetype.

Despite Sybil's stubbornness, I liked that she is depicted as a fallible. Although she is still an old woman who tends to be stuck in her ways, this story still captures her character growth in her capacity to reflect, process trauma, and most of all admit fault and make amends.

I usually avoid this format (collection of letters) because it's ultimately my least favorite format (first person POV switching), made worse by not knowing who is writing the letter until you pick up on context clues (or skip to the end to see who's name signs off on it). While these arguments still hold true for this book, Evan's did a great job at taking advantage of taking advantage of the benefits of this format. Major revelations are delivered almost offhandedly, embedded in the natural flow of the letters, which makes them feel more surprising and real as the reader learns about them alongside the recipient. 

Slow paced and a peaceful read. While I appreciate Sybil's realistic depiction, I didn't particularly connect with her and her story emotionally (thus the three stars). I wouldn't recommend this book in a hurry if you don't think you can resonate with this type of person, especially since the story is about a woman who is extraordinary amongst those she knows but unextraordinary otherwise. 

Book Blog #395: Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

 

Title: Wild Dark Shore

Author: Charlotte McConaghy

# of Pages: 300 (hardback)

Genre: Adult, Mystery, Contemporary

Rating: ★★★★☆

Synopsis: A family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washed ashore. A rising storm on the horizon. Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers, but with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants. Until, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman mysteriously washes ashore. Isolation has taken its toll on the Salts, but as they nurse the woman, Rowan, back to strength, it begins to feel like she might just be what they need. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting herself, starts imagining a future where she could belong to someone again. But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, they all must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late―and if they can finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together.

Review: McConaghy has written yet another great book.

But most noticeably, there's a huge climate/nature/animal conservation and appreciation element to this book that seems to be now be a running theme for all her books. This book is actually paced very slowly, and there's a lot of descriptions of the animals on the island and seeds in the seed bank that don't necessarily drive the plot forward. It wasn't surprising to hear that McConaghy visited, researched, and based the setting off Macquarie Island, and reading this book knowing that this is ultimately an ode to that island explains why there's so much focus on this rather than the mystery it's pitched as.

However, surprisingly I actually liked the simultaneously despairing but hopeful slice of life story that allows the reader to get to know Rowan, Dominic, and his children. The whole book could have focused more on these people building relationships with each other (focus on themes of family/parent-child relationships, trauma, etc.) and I would have been happy (4+ stars). 

What did bother me was the first and third person POV switching. The rapid switching between 5 characters means short chapters, but this could have been told equally effectively in omniscient third person. 

Most of the mystery element is created by omission; the characters collectively know the full story but will trickle truth it to the reader. I don't remember much about Migrations after 4 years but IIRC, they similarly used this story telling strategy. Not a fan, and on the mystery aspect and POV switching (especially in the beginning before I became invested in the characters, I was almost going to rate this book 2-3 stars.

The way children were depicted in Migrations felt unrealistic to me, and I feel similarly about the 9 year old child (Orly) in this book, especially in the beginning. This improved a bit later on in the story, but the older children and adult character felt more authentic. 

In the end, this book lands somewhere between a high 3 stars and a low 4 stars. I couldn't put this book down and blazed through the latter half. I'd recommend this book, especially if you're interested in a slower paced, story with a focus on beauty and fragility of nature.