The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

I loved this book, told entirely in what is known as the epistolary format--it is all written communication, a story told entirely through letters and emails. There is some very serious stuff herein, but strangely, the overall tone is light and upbeat. Sybil Van Antwerp has throughout her life used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings, around half past ten, Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter. Through her correspondence the learn about who Sybil is and was--a mother, a lawyer, a wife, a friend--and someone who has suffered great loss and failed to successfully navigate grief. She is wise and funny, she is at once lucky and unlucky, and best of all we really get to know her through her writing. I could not put this down--I stayed up late to finish it, and was quite satisfied with it from start to finish. The best in a long time, simple and yet remarkably deep.