The Correspondent by Virginia Evans 4

 

"If all of this amounts to you as nothing more than drivel, then you might also consider a simpler value of the written letter, which is, namely, that reaching out in correspondence is really one of the original forms of civility in the world, the preservation of which has to be of some value we cannot yet see. The WRITTEN WORD, Mr. Watts. The written word in black and white. It is letters. It is books. It is law. It's all the same. I had some notion of this from as far back in my life as I can remember, and I've been writing letters out into the world since I could form a sentence with a pen (age nine).

                    -Sybil Van Antwerp, from the novel

The Correspondent was highly recommended to me by a close friend, and I had seen it near the top of the Best Seller list for quite some time, so I figured it had to be special. This was the third book I have read lately in the epistolary style; the plot is revealed in letters written by and to the main character.

In 2012, Sybil Van Antwerp is turning 73 and experiencing a vision problem that will ultimately leave her blind. She is a divorcee, a retired attorney, an avid reader and prolific letter writer, thus the title. She is also wrestling with guilt from events in her past.

She writes letters, emails, and notes to, and receives responses from, her brother, her best friend, her neighbor, a suitor, a young man she is mentoring, and favorite authors, among others. It is fascinating to see how an author can establish a plot purely through correspondence. I am rating the book a 4. I loved the references to authors and books, some of which were familiar to me. I could empathize with Sybil since I am near her age and suffering my own infirmities. I thought it was not realistic that so many people in the 2000's would be writing letters, especially a next-door-neighbor. It does seem like a lost art, which is somewhat unfortunate.