 | A WRITER'S WIT |  K. Hannah |
MY BOOK WORLD
Evans, Virginia. The Correspondent. New York: Crown, 2025.
The Correspondent is a novel about a woman in her late seventies who, in the 2010s, writes to all kinds of people in all kinds of ways: traditional letters that have to be stamped and posted, emails, handwritten notes, and “unsent” letters that the woman writes more or less for herself, to herself. I’m always amazed at how yet a different author can alter the epistolary form of writing fiction to make it yet her own.
Sybil VanAntwerp, herself adopted as an infant, is a distinguished retired attorney who once worked elbow-to-elbow with a distinguished male judge. She also is divorced with two adult children, a brother who is adopted as well, and loads of friends and acquaintances with whom she corresponds—including noted authors like Ann Patchett, Joan Didion, and Larry McMurtry (all of whom respond). She reminds me of a feisty Elizabeth Strout character like Olive Kitteridge. Opinionated and always right (mostly), she takes no nonsense from anyone. Anyone.
The letters that relate this story begin in 2012 and end in 2021. They slowly unveil the life that Sybil has lived. One day she receives a threatening letter from someone who signs it with the initials DM—as if the author of the letter has set up a guessing game for Sybil, as if the person wishes to get “caught.” The intensity of these letters increases until one day the flower garden she adores cultivating is destroyed at the height of its beauty.
As an adopted person, Sybil has always held a muted curiosity about her biological parents, but when she is confronted with the opportunity to swab her mouth and submit to a DNA test, she is hesitant—also hesitant to mark the box indicating that she would like to correspond with any relatives who might pop up in the research. She marks it but almost immediately “forgets” that she has done so (haven’t we all done something like this, subliminally indicated our wishes?).
When Sybil eventually receives the results (and through some additional efforts), she finds that she has a sister living in Scotland with whom she shares 49% of her DNA. This strand of the novel may be the most important because it helps Sybil more firmly to establish her identity. But there are other threads: a gay brother living in France whose partner has cheated on him; the revelation that one of Sybil’s sons drowned as an eight-year-old. Near the end of the novel, Sybil reveals to readers in one of those set-aside letters how little Gilbert actually drowned, how she was negligent, how she hid what feels like a crime from everyone for decades.
This event from the past proves to be a powerful climax for the novel. Everything following this revelation is goodnews: her son resumes life with his partner after a short separation; Sybil discovers who DM is (the embittered son of an innocent man she once frivolously confined to prison), and they form a friendship; she visits Scotland to become acquainted with her newly discovered sister; she reunites with a daughter who has always felt ignored by her mother. Oh, and she develops a romantic relationship with a neighbor widower, and he moves in with her. So much seems to be resolved in the denouement, a satisfying situation that the narrative has “earned,” because readers know the hell Sybil has lived through to achieve such an innocent peace.
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TUES: A Writer's Wit | Marissa Moss
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Truman Capote
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My Book World | Ramona Ausubel, Unstuck: a Writer's Guide
The Correspondent is a novel about a woman in her late seventies who, in the 2010s, writes to all kinds of people in all kinds of ways: traditional letters that have to be stamped and posted, emails, handwritten notes, and “unsent” letters that the woman writes more or less for herself, to herself. I’m always amazed at how yet a different author can alter the epistolary form of writing fiction to make it yet her own.
Sybil VanAntwerp, herself adopted as an infant, is a distinguished retired attorney who once worked elbow-to-elbow with a distinguished male judge. She also is divorced with two adult children, a brother who is adopted as well, and loads of friends and acquaintances with whom she corresponds—including noted authors like Ann Patchett, Joan Didion, and Larry McMurtry (all of whom respond). She reminds me of a feisty Elizabeth Strout character like Olive Kitteridge. Opinionated and always right (mostly), she takes no nonsense from anyone. Anyone.
The letters that relate this story begin in 2012 and end in 2021. They slowly unveil the life that Sybil has lived. One day she receives a threatening letter from someone who signs it with the initials DM—as if the author of the letter has set up a guessing game for Sybil, as if the person wishes to get “caught.” The intensity of these letters increases until one day the flower garden she adores cultivating is destroyed at the height of its beauty.
As an adopted person, Sybil has always held a muted curiosity about her biological parents, but when she is confronted with the opportunity to swab her mouth and submit to a DNA test, she is hesitant—also hesitant to mark the box indicating that she would like to correspond with any relatives who might pop up in the research. She marks it but almost immediately “forgets” that she has done so (haven’t we all done something like this, subliminally indicated our wishes?).
When Sybil eventually receives the results (and through some additional efforts), she finds that she has a sister living in Scotland with whom she shares 49% of her DNA. This strand of the novel may be the most important because it helps Sybil more firmly to establish her identity. But there are other threads: a gay brother living in France whose partner has cheated on him; the revelation that one of Sybil’s sons drowned as an eight-year-old. Near the end of the novel, Sybil reveals to readers in one of those set-aside letters how little Gilbert actually drowned, how she was negligent, how she hid what feels like a crime from everyone for decades.
This event from the past proves to be a powerful climax for the novel. Everything following this revelation is goodnews: her son resumes life with his partner after a short separation; Sybil discovers who DM is (the embittered son of an innocent man she once frivolously confined to prison), and they form a friendship; she visits Scotland to become acquainted with her newly discovered sister; she reunites with a daughter who has always felt ignored by her mother. Oh, and she develops a romantic relationship with a neighbor widower, and he moves in with her. So much seems to be resolved in the denouement, a satisfying situation that the narrative has “earned,” because readers know the hell Sybil has lived through to achieve such an innocent peace.
Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Marissa Moss
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Truman Capote
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Marielle Heller
FRI: A Writer's Wit | Jack Finney
My Book World | Ramona Ausubel, Unstuck: a Writer's Guide
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