"The Correspondent" | Reviewed by Tonya O'Connell

“The Correspondent,” by Virginia Evans, is the story of Sybil Van Antwerp, a single lady of a certain age who finds the meaning of her life and those she loves (and doesn’t) through lettering writing.

Sybil is a mother and grandmother, divorced, retired from a distinguished career in law, and an avid gardener. Most mornings, she sits down to write letters, letters to her brother, her best friend, the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a course she desperately wants to take, and to authors Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books. Sybil also writes letters to her grandson regularly. Harry, her grandson, is a quiet, withdrawn person who doesn’t relate well to his family. Through her letters, and by having him spend time with her, she changes his life and hers as well.

Sybil has some trials in her life, such as when her family gives her a genealogy test for Christmas and when she finds out she is going blind. At 73, Sybil uses her letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. But as Sybil expects her life to go on as it always has, letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods in her life.

The style in which “The Correspondent” is written is unique, a style that worked and worked well. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the world through Sybil’s letters and the people she wrote to, and was intrigued at how they reacted to her.

I highly recommend this novel. It offers the opportunity for us to read a person's private letters and learn about their life and their secrets.

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