More than a few lines in “Evensong” will choke you up, but this is a novel scrubbed of sentimentality and mawkish sadness. Instead, with steely realism, it’s aspirational — not just in terms of living long but living well.
—Ron Charles, The Washington Post
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Stewart O’Nan’s newest novel, “Evensong,” is many things all at once: part gorgeous meditation, part intense observation, and part walking chronicle of Pittsburgh, a city he clearly holds very close to his heart.
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Evensong, by Stewart O’Nan
O’Nan’s latest novel finds the “oracle of the ordinary and maven of the middle class” — as NPR reviewer Heller McAlpin described the novelist in 2012 — once again mining the mundane for its hidden magic. In Evensong, the cult favorite centers a small, lovingly rendered group of older women as they navigate the peculiar challenges of growing older, together as friends.
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Emily Maxwell is back.
The star of Stewart O’Nan’s novel “Emily, Alone” and a co-star of O’Nan’s “Henry, Himself,” she plays a supporting role in the author’s latest, “Evensong.” She’s one of several elderly female characters, mostly widows, mostly living in an independent-living complex where they have settled into being a family of friends.
I know a tiny bit about this situation — my mom lives in a similar place, has a similar weekly game group and a similar bunch of friends, who deliver meals to each other, drive each other to hair and eye doctor appointments and bus as a group to plays and concerts. From what I can tell, O’Nan has depicted the comforts, joys and heartbreaks of this kind of situation with precision and compassion.
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The Works of Stewart O'Nan 