An Entertainment Weekly, "1 of 6 Twisty Female–Led Books to Read This Fall"
A Literary Hub Most Anticipated Book of Fall
"Unfolding over the course of a shiva, with digressions into past affairs, Evening is a mourning novel and a ghost story, the novel’s rooms crowded with opinionated family and friends and all the history and complicated relationships they carry. Each family grieves in its own way."
—Chloe Schama, Vogue
"Tight, clever and poignant, with crackling dialogue that could be transposed almost directly to stage or screen."
—David B. Green, Haaretz
"[A] mournful, poignant novel."
—Sarah Neilson, Shondaland
"Tender and mournful, yet sparked with moments of joy and heat, Evening is a compassionate, lyrical portrait of grief, longing, and love."
—Kristin Iversen, Refinery29
"Rapoport draws us into the pleasures of her splendid new novel, Evening, full of lush language used to describe women’s sexuality, lost loves and family secrets."
—Elizabeth Edelglass, Hadassah
"Like a darker, sexier Little Women, it excavates a seemingly saccharine family dynamic to reveal the tangled knot of obligations and entitlements, admirations and resentments, that underpin the closest of sibling bonds."
—Irene Connelly, Forward
"[Rapoport] limns the emotion of every action, cutting straight to the heart. Eve’s inner life is on full display, but the novel’s real drama and magic comes from Eve’s relationships with others. How can we truly understand and love someone when we are so stuck in our own lives? Though Rapoport does not get quite so philosophical, the power of Evening is that she forces you to do that thinking yourself."
—Eric Ponce, BookPage
"Smart, darkly funny . . . Rapoport’s prose crackles with wit . . . and erotic heat, as Eve remembers her first sexual experiences with Laurie. Suffused with deep feeling, Rapoport’s narrative boldly faces the darkness that can fuel sisterly rivalry."
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"An introspective drama about a woman reconsidering her family mythology . . . Written in clear and thoughtful prose, Evening will keep readers entranced with the bonds and the competitions between sisters and the questions of what remains when loved ones are gone."
—Shelf Awareness
"Somber but hopeful, this work reveals truths about family dynamics, which are always messier and more complicated than unquestioned family lore."
—Library Journal
"Written in sensuous yet clear–eyed prose, Evening is a novel that adroitly touches on everything we've ever wanted to know about the inner lives of women, from how they love to how they pitch their tents in the professional world. In her portrait of three generations of a family, as seen through the eyes of Eve, her endearingly conflicted yet wise narrator, Nessa Rapoport has given us a story rich in unexpected disclosures and impenetrable mysteries. Intimate, funny, and thoughtful, Evening is a novel that draws the reader in bit by bit until you are totally under its spell."
—Daphne Merkin, author of 22 Minutes of Unconditional Love
"A masterpiece . . . Lusty, funny, grand. My shabby words do not even begin to convey how brilliant this book is."
—E. Jean Carroll, author of What Do We Need Men For?
"Evening is a book to read many times: First for the gripping story of two sisters forever entwined by love and competition, then for the lyrical images and lush scenes that shape the narrative, and above all for the sheer joy of reading a beautiful work."
—Francine Klagsbrun, author of Lioness: Golda Meir and the Nation of Israel
★ 08/17/2020
Rapoport’s smart, darkly funny novel (after the memoir House on the River) considers the travails of a Jewish family in contemporary Canada. Eve, 35, returns from New York City to her native Toronto for the funeral of her older sister, Tam, and to sit shiva. Hardworking, straight-arrow Tam was a famous TV news anchor, married with children; unmarried Eve, the rebellious bohemian, teaches adult education classes. Tam sneered at Eve’s lack of accomplishment, particularly in domestic life, and Eve remains tortured by guilt and rage over their final, unresolved fight in the hospital, which occurred shortly before Tam’s death from breast cancer. When Eve receives a card Tam had left for her that contains a cryptic note asking for Eve’s forgiveness, Eve’s attempt to decode the rest of Tam’s note (“The last time we were together, he said, ‘I want to breathe you into me’ ”) brings up memories of serene summers at the family’s house on Lake Ontario. Eve then cheats on her boyfriend with her high school boyfriend, Laurie, and as Eve learns details of her family history, she grasps the meaning of Tam’s confession. Rapoport’s prose crackles with wit (“the past is making guerrilla incursions into my life”) and erotic heat, as Eve remembers her first sexual experiences with Laurie. Suffused with deep feeling, Rapoport’s narrative boldly faces the darkness that can fuel sisterly rivalry. (Sept.)
08/01/2020
Spanning the seven days of shiva (the Jewish mourning ritual), this new work from Rapoport (Preparing for Sabbath) opens in 1990 in Toronto before the funeral of Eve's older sister Tam, a mother of two young children, an admired TV journalist, and a pillar of the community. Eve, 35, irritated by Canada's tameness, has long ago fled to New York City, escaping familial pressures and what she sees as a stultifying, overly conventional existence. Always close to her sister despite their differences, Eve recalls a lifetime of trying to truly understand Tam, who seemed always to have known exactly what she wanted out of life. Eve, in contrast, has never settled down, endlessly researching a PhD dissertation about women explorers between the two world wars who were striving to escape their Victorian upbringings. As Eve withdraws from the family tragedy into a liaison with her first love, she is confronted with stark evidence that there was more to her "perfect" sister than was evident on the surface. VERDICT Somber but hopeful, this work reveals truths about family dynamics, which are always messier and more complicated than unquestioned family lore.—Lauren Gilbert, Ctr. for Jewish History, New York
2020-06-17
Returning to Toronto to sit shiva for her sister, Eve finds herself entering a seven-day hiatus from life, a time in which to not only mourn, but rethink the past, ponder the future, and reevaluate the sibling lost forever.
Methodical, conscientious Tam had achieved it all. Canada’s premier anchorwoman, she also possessed “a great marriage, a wonderful daughter and a new baby, fame and fortune.” Her sister, Eve, however, chose a different, messier life plan. Fleeing Canada to travel, then settling in New York, Eve, now 35, has a semiavailable boyfriend, an incomplete dissertation about unmarried British women writers in the interwar years, and a job teaching continuing education courses. Eve’s return to the family home to grieve her sister’s untimely death comes with the added discomfort that at their final meeting, two week earlier, the sisters argued so vehemently that they never spoke again. Being back also revives Eve’s feelings for Laurence, her childhood love, who is newly single and just as desirable. Could a cozy future in Toronto be hers? Rapoport’s tightly structured novel uses the seven-day Jewish mourning ritual to delve claustrophobically into Eve’s psychology and the family history that shaped it. Parents, grandparents, the sisters' seesaw relationship, and Eve's childhood memories are repeatedly scrutinized, interrupted by occasional plot nodes like a date with Laurence and a video from Tam, prepared before her death. Was Tam as perfect as she seemed? Who envied whom? Can Eve make better choices? These questions, both familiar and overworked, will all resolve themselves neatly as suggestions of moral lapses are excused by extenuating circumstances, and a couple of surprises help other issues melt away.
The scenario is sympathetic but the conceptual bones poke too visibly through this novel’s narrative skin.
