The Correspondent is an epistolary novel made up entirely of letters. Septuagenarian Sybil Van Antwerp has been a letter writer since she was a girl. She writes to her brother Felix, her friend Rosalie, the son of a former colleague, authors, newspapers, and an anonymous correspondent – those letter are never sent. Sybil lives alone, is prickly, outspoken, feisty, and obstinate and has just discovered she will gradually lose her sight.
But I think of life rather like a long road we walk in one direction. By and large a lonesome walk out in the wildness of hills and wind. Mountains. Snow. And sometimes there is someone to come along and walk with you for a stretch, and sometimes (this is what I’m getting to) sometimes you see in the distance some lights and it heartens you, the lone house or maybe a village and you come into the warmth of that stopover and go inside.
The reader learns about Sybil’s life through the letters written over ten years. She tells us about her legal career, her divorce, her children including the death of her son, and her two suitors. She has lived a full life with friendships, regrets, love, guilt, grief and forgiveness.
And yes, I will go into the year as you said: boldly, unapologetically, head up and not taking bullshit from anyone with a penis. You seem a worthy person to offer such advice.
Letters provide Sybil a way to connect with people that is within her comfort zone. The Correspondent is a beautifully crafted, character driven novel about finding connection and solace in literature. I read the story on recommendation from a friend – it took me a little while to get into it, but once captured I was totally absorbed.
I have found it to be absolutely astounding, all the trouble living has turned out to be. Things nobody ever warned me about. I wish someone would have thought to say to me, earlier on, ‘Sybil, over and over again serpents will emerge from the bottom of the sea and grab you by the feet.’ Of course I didn’t say anything of the sort to my own children, and I probably never would.
