The Correspondent
Virginia Evans
When I requested this debut novel through the interlibrary loan system, I was something like 85th on the waiting list! Obviously, like me, many others had read the positive reviews and were eager to get their hands on it. While I waited and my name slowly climbed up the list, I wondered if I would actually enjoy it. Could an epistolary novel, one written entirely in letters and emails, truly tell an engaging story or would it be a disappointment?
The day finally came when the the library called to tell me that the book was in and once I started reading it, I had a very hard time putting it down! The more I read, the more I loved it! In fact, I read most of it in one day. As my usual bedtime approached, it was easy to tell myself that I’d read just one more letter. Of course, one letter became two and two became three. After several more letters, wisdom finally prevailed. I reluctantly put the book down and went to bed, but I eagerly picked it up and finished it the next morning.
Sybil Van Antwerp is a mother, a grandmother, a divorcee, and a retired lawyer who lives alone. When the book opens, she, like me, is in her early seventies. She has always been an avid letter writer, feeling that she can express herself better through the written word than orally. She regularly writes to her brother, Felix, her best friend, Rosalie, and her daughter, Fiona, but she also writes to her neighbour, her eye doctor, a customer service representative, and the dean of a university faculty who won’t let her audit a class she desperately wants to take. She even writes to her favourite authors to tell them what she thinks of their latest books. Through the letters that she writes and the responses that she receives, we learn a great deal about her life both past and present. We learn about her losses, her regrets, her fears, and the struggles that come with aging, but we also see kindness and generosity. In other words, Sybil comes across as a real, imperfect person just like the rest of us.
This is definitely a book that was worth waiting for!
Following Augustine 
I read this book earlier in the year. What I enjoyed was the back and forth of the way it was written. Made it so easy to flow through and digest!
I waited with much anticipation to read this book after reading so many recommendations. I was on the wait list at my library for a very long time with my number being in the 200 or 300s on the list. I was so happy when I finally got the book, but I started having to force myself to keep reading it at one point and finally gave up. I gave it a good go – I read about half the book – before abandoning it. I found the main character very unlikeable and unsympathetic. And so many of the letters included felt superfluous. By the time I gave the book up my thoughts just kept being “what is the point of this all?!”.
It’s interesting how we all can view the same thing so differently.