Evensong Stewart O’Nan (2025) This is the fourth book in which the novelist’s Pittsburgh-dwelling character Emily Maxwell has appeared, and for this appearance she’s part of an ensemble cast. Emily belongs to the Humpty Dumpty Club, a group of elderly women who help their circle of friends with the day-to-day challenges of aging—think rides to medical appointments and delivery of food packages. As I wrote in my review of 2019’s Henry, Himself (Henry being Emily’s late husband), “Somehow, novelist O’Nan is able to turn everyday events into drama that drives his narrative in a highly effective way. I haven’t yet figured out how he does this. It could be the naturalistic dialogue.” (Click here for my full post.) There’s no thrilling climax to the story in Evensong. Rather, there’s a placid and highly believable documentation of human kindness. The other two books in which you can learn more about Emily are Wish You Were Here (2002) and Emily, Alone (2011).
The Winds from Further West Alexander McCall Smith (2024) I’ve long been a devotee of three of McCall Smith’s book series: The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency (reviewed here), 44 Scotland Street (reviewed here), and The Sunday Philosophy Club (reviewed here). McCall Smith also publishes stand-alone novels, of which The Winds from Further West is one. In this book, Dr Neil Anderson is a thirty-something medical researcher in Edinburgh, and he’s a very nice guy. He unexpectedly gets into a messy academic controversy when a comment that he makes is misinterpreted by a student. At the same time, his relationship with his girlfriend ends. In frustration and sadness, he retreats to the island of Mull, off the west coast of Scotland, to get his head straightened out. Mull is isolated and bucolic, with kindly inhabitants, and the retreat is successful. Like all of McCall Smith’s fiction, this book is low-key, focusing on the characters’ internal decision making as they weigh the right and wrong of situations. (Makes sense, since McCall Smith is a retired professor of medical ethics and law.) I did wonder if the emphasis on the unfair accusations of Neil’s student indicates that the author harbors right-wing opposition to “wokeism.” No—McCall Smith is a member of a center-left political party in Scotland, and throughout his fiction he espouses support for social welfare programs and environmental protections. Maybe he himself had a run-in with a student somewhere along the way!
Father of the Rain Lily King (2010) The character of Daley Amory recounts her relationship with her alcoholic and abusive father, starting at her eleventh birthday, when her parents are about to get divorced. Daley’s parents represent two different worldviews, which, historically, were colliding as the story begins in 1970s Massachusetts. Her father is a conservative, patriarchal, racist country-club member. Her mother is not. Over a period of about thirty years, Daley, who adores both her parents, repeatedly tries and fails to remove herself from her father’s destructive orbit. Lily King excels at portrayals of families in crisis, especially through dialogue, as noted in my previous posts about her writing. See my recent spotlight post on this author here.