By Karen Webb, Springvale Library Assistant
If you are looking for a sweet, gentle read, you may want to pick up “The Correspondent,” a novel written in an epistolary style, which is quite daring these days. Her protagonist is the stubborn but brilliant Sybil Van Antwerp, a retired lawyer in her 70s who keeps up with family and friends via snail mail. I found it interesting because letter writing is a dying art; people just don’t do it anymore in this age of emails and texting. However, once I got used to this unique writing style and the use of back-and-forth correspondence to tell the story, I became obsessed with Sybil and her correspondents. I felt like I was eavesdropping on Sybil’s personal thoughts and feelings, and I found myself wanting to be on the receiving end of one of her letters!
Sybil spends her mornings writing letters to just about everyone you can imagine – friends, family, famous authors, people she has a beef with or wants to compliment. Letters are her means of communication, and through them we learn of her triumphs and tragedies. We follow Sybil as she learns to break through her emotional walls and let forgiveness flow in. I highly recommend this book, and you can borrow it at the Springvale Library, so come on in for a good read!
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