by Anthony Conty (Parkville, MD): “The Correspondent” by Virginia Evans has received some fair comparisons to the Olive Kitteridge series, thanks to its retired, misanthropic heroine. As a quirky epistolary, the obvious similarities end there. I haven’t read many collections of letters, and I didn’t see the appeal. Evans does and develops a great character and story about a life well-lived with regrets and what-ifs.
Cynicism will say that you cannot fall in love with a character if all of the action takes place off the page, but Evans ends those fears quite efficiently. It will inspire you to write to friends via snail mail and maintain communication. Even the customer service at a DNA testing organization inspires a back-and-forth that shows Sybil’s enviable persistence.
Maintaining correspondence is a lost art that many of us have not mastered or implemented since the ’90s. Sybil has enough introverted extroversion for us to meet her this way. Evans embodies this through the inclusion of “unsent” messages, showing the self-editing necessary and the uncanny power of unspoken thoughts. You relate to this quirky 77-year-old woman more and more.
All the communication builds to something I will not reveal, and the late climax makes it a surprise. You do not get the point until it hits you hard. We, as humans, tend to underestimate the written word as opposed to the spoken, even though many of us do not appreciate the tact that comes with writing before speaking foolishly.
The best novels do not tell what they are about, but rather allow you to experience the life of the protagonist and empathize. Sybil will make you apprehensive about getting older and allowing regret to fester. In a society where letter writing died in the 1990s, you will envy Sybil for saying (in sent and unsent mail) what many cannot.
