My second from the short list of Women’s Prize books, this was another excellent novel. A bit more commonplace than the other, but still an excellent page-turner.
The titular correspondent is Sybil, a septuagenarian woman living on her own in New England, who busies herself with the habits of reading and writing letters. We learn about her, her family and friends, her past and present through her letters. While she’s had difficulties and tragedies, the reader learns that within these are difficulties of her own making through her stubbornness and her unwillingness to open herself to others. Her relationship with her daughter is difficult almost entirely due to her intransigence and reticence, hurdles she is only able to overcome through lots of isolation and more letter writing. At the same time, when she connects with someone, she is compassionate and generous in surprising ways. For example, she befriends the troubled teenage son of a former colleague, and through her persistent letter writing and her consideration of the boy as less troubled and more misunderstood, she provides a safe passage for him to a world where he can thrive.
Oddly, I was reminded here of The Shell Seekers. Sybil is portrayed and considers herself as elderly and almost feeble at 73 yo. She gives in to the stereotype of being doddering and frail when it is clear that she is not: she maintains her house and prolific garden on her own; she takes courses at the local university; she engages in correspondence far beyond her family and friends, creating long lasting pen-pal relationships with authors and prominent folks far and wide. Near the end, she does succumb to blindness (not a feature of old age per se, but a long anticipated loss due to a genetic trait), the emergence of which creates a frenzied time of writing, almost so she can finish all the things she wants to say before she’s no longer able to say/write them. Like Penelope in Shell Seekers, Sybil has strained relationships with her children, is long parted from her husband, and lives a fairly comfortable life due to various inheritances. And like Penelope, Sybil is not someone I especially admire or like; she is not always nice, she’s rarely predictable, she’s stubborn and bossy. And yet, I can’t help but be attracted to such a prodigious reader and writer of well-crafted letters.
While this was a very good book, it’s not one that I see having literary staying power. It uses the epistolary format well (albeit one-sidedly, as the vast majority of the letters are Sybil’s), and has sufficiently complex storylines to be highly engaging. It is a current commercial success, but it would be a shame if it won the Prize based on that, as IMHO The Kingfisher was much better.
Fate: I’ll see if a fellow reader might be interested in it, but it is so ubiquitously available that most can find it close to home.
4 – published 2025/2026
7 – debut
8 – female author
25 – new author to me
rclr 
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