Sybelia Drive

by Karin Cecile Davidson

In the small lake town in Florida where LuLu, Rainey, and Saul are growing up, life is complicated by war, longing, and the sharp pain of conditional love. Coming of age while coming to terms with their detached parents, unrealized dreams, and the backdrop of the war in Vietnam, the threesome push past childhood into their teenage years with the shared baggage of a generation—one that is caught up in the lingering innocence of a private world until outside events cast that world in a different light, and the three measure their days by measuring each other: whether in wit, complicity, or hurtfulness. In the years that they are together, men walk on the moon, students are shot at Kent State, and of their three military fathers, only one returns from Vietnam.

An extraordinary debut novel, Sybelia Drive is a story told through layered, kaleidoscopic images and unforgettable language.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, War, Literary Fiction

295 pages, Paperback

Published October 6, 2020

About the author

Karin Cecile Davidson is the author of the story collection The Geography of First Kisses, winner of the 2022 Acacia Fiction Prize (Kallisto Gaia Press, April 2023), and the novel, Sybelia Drive (Braddock Avenue Books, October 2020). Her stories have been published in Five Points, The Massachusetts Review, Story Magazine, Colorado Review, The Los Angeles Review, Passages North, and elsewhere. Her awards include an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, the Waasmode Short Fiction Prize, the Orlando Prize for Short Fiction, a Peter Taylor Fellowship, and residencies at the Fine Arts Work Center, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and The Studios of Key West. Originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, she now lives in Columbus, Ohio.

Reviews

[Lori]

I'm the publicist for this title. This novel in stories is going to mess with your heart, and shouldn't be missed! Hit me up if you are interested in reviewing the book or interviewing the author!!

The book is up for pre-order right now: https://shop.braddockavenuebooks.com/...

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once I got into the rhythm of the changing perspectives (this is a novel of linked stories) and got grounded in who was who, this southern novel took off and soared. Davidson's prose is eloquent but not overdone, her narratives are intelligent, poignant, and honest, and she creates fully realized characters. A hard thing to do. It reminded me of Before Women Had Wings by Connie May Fowler, but in her own voice and style, of course:

"Mama always said that absence cannot embrace, only presence can."

She even bravely takes on Vietnam in some stories. I often feel that endings don't hold up to beginnings, but that's not the case with this novel. And for fans of sister novels, this one won't disappoint.

"And in the dream we stood together and saw how the world wrapped us up, like birthday presents, slightly undone, the writing on the pink envelope smeared. And then we saw how the world held us on its sharpest edge, judged us by how carefully we took the corners, and then dropped us to see how we fell."

Richly observed and beautifully crafted. I look forward to the next one!

[Julie Butcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my. This book is what I read for: the characters we get to feel and know and love, varying points of view, Vietnam, real and without sentiment, all the sister/friendship/childhood tumult, the place made so real. A beautiful read, I could not put it down until I reached its satisfying end.

Thanks to the publicist for a copy to read. I'll be buying it to highlight - and for the cover!

[Sherry · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 This was a beautifully written story of a family living in a Florida town at the time of the Vietnam war. The story is told from multiple perspectives and weaves a little back in forth in the timeline amongst different people of the town. I say story, because though it is written like a series of stories from multiple perspectives there is a destination and a storyline running through the heart of the novel. I loved the character of Lulu so much and to be honest, there was a bit of a To Kill a Mockingbird vibe when the story was told from the perspective of Lulu. Her voice was so true and indelible and confused, trying to make sense of her father’s absence in a way that was all heart and for which I dearly loved her. So often books or characters are compared to beloved books and I feel ripped off when they fail to deliver. This book is definitely not trying to copy tKaM at all and I didn’t mean that but there is something about how these 2 young girls try to make sense of a world where there is a larger conflict to grapple with and understand and doing so with an absent parent that I find resonates with me, especially when the character is so well written and did remind of the parts of tKaM I loved, which was namely Scout.

The parts written from the father’s perspective were just so beautiful and his character so full of grace and strength. and it’s with the character of the father and the daughter that the novel shines best for me.

The imagery in this book of the Florida weather and landscape and of the seventies evoked the time so perfectly and I remembered things I myself did as a child during this time ( putting pins in barbie’s ears for earrings was a real flashback!) and though I lived in a different place and the war in Vietnam affected me only so much as something horrific I was viewing on television I can still remember it vividly.

This would have been a solid five for me except for the teeny tiny issue I had with all the internal dialogue of each of the characters seeming too similar after a while when it came to describing time and place. About two thirds of the way through I began to feel that all of them noting weather and scenery in the same way became a distraction for me and took me a little out of the story. I hate to bring this part up because the author really shines when she is writing about those subjects and it was still so beautifully written but I felt it not feasible that each person would be as observant and as articulate about these things to such a degree. I think if it had not been a first person narrative from each character the similarities would not have been an issue for me but that’s just me. I sometimes struggle with the first person narrative and I can be obnoxiously picky.

Overall this was a beautiful book and if you’re not as obnoxiously picky as I am and are interested in a book dealing with the Vietnam war and it’s effects on the people involved you could do no better than this book. I would happily read more from this debut author. Thanks to the publicist Lori Hettler for an advanced copy of the book.

[Margo Littell · Rating 5 out of 5]

LuLu, Rainey, and Saul are Vietnam-era kids living in Florida on Sybelia Drive. The war saturates their daily lives, shaping their families in ways they can’t always predict or understand. The children find ways of coping, but their absent fathers are a source of endless heartache and confusion. The adults who make up their world confront their own longings and losses. It’s often hard for them to see any future that goes beyond the borders of their Florida home.

Davidson conveys the whole of these characters’ world through multiple points of view, diving deep into the psyches of children and adults alike to reveal the universally transformative impact the war has had and continues to have. The cadence of each scene and sentence is beautiful and haunting throughout these stories, connecting them even though the voices are absolutely distinct. The stories and viewpoints coalesce into a focused, moving examination of a community, and a country, reeling from war and desperate for peace.

[Georgia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book felt like fall in the Deep South to me — it's still hot and humid but you can finally sit outside in the golden light and look back with a sweet wistfulness. Set in the 1960s and 1970s, this book isn't as saturated in nostalgia as many books about area — there are just enough details that the people and places feel true without a heavy handedness.

The central characters are Lulu and Rainey who are in elementary school when the book starts. They are growing up under the shadow of the Vietnam War, which has disrupted both of their families. The two are one year apart and when Rainey's mother leaves her indefinitely with the Blackwood family, they end up sharing a room, thus becoming both best friends and defacto sisters.

Lulu is precocious, edgy, and angry. She's particularly mad that her dad has gone off to Vietnam, but in general, she doesn't know how to handle her big emotions and she has very little desire to do so.

Rainey is angry in her own quiet way. Her father is MIA in Vietnam and her glamorous but flakey mother has left her in the keep of Lulu's family, for which is both grateful and resentful. She fights to come into her own while by turns placating, admiring, and hating Lulu.

While the book always comes back to the voices of these two characters, it also provides a 360 view of the people and place of Sybelia Drive, where the Blackwoods live, with glimpses of Vietnam. Royal and Minnie, Lulu's parents, are full of desire and longing and would have beens. Their own fears and coping (or inability to cope) preoccupy them while their children come of age without much guidance. There's an elderly French neighbor who remembers her own early life as she watches Rainey and Lulu grow up. Next door, a mother grieves her son killed in action, while across town the owner of the grocery store doles out wisdom to war wives after her own failed marriage leaves her free to do as she pleases.

The book is infused with melancholy, and I was fearful it was going to be a hopeless tale of war and home fires extinguished, but I was pleasantly surprised that, despite plenty of heartache, there was hopefulness. The final chapter might be too tied up in a bow for some, but I was thankful to see how many of the characters fared.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This author knows her characters’ world and this debut novel captured me with its strong sense of place—Sybelia Drive—a beautiful Florida neighborhood surrounding a lake—and the organic cast of characters who are forever connected by it. Davidson’s lush sentences ring with precision, heart, and poetry.

Set during the Vietnam war, Sybelia Drive is told from rotating points of view. It opens with the voice of precocious, determined, 9-year old, Lulu, who introduces us to Rainey and Eva, a girl and her mother who came to live with Lulu’s family when their fathers left for Vietnam. Rainey’s beautiful mother soon leaves her—if only a bus ride away—to find herself as a stage performer while her husband, Rainey’s father—is officially declared missing in action.

We meet the heartbreakingly good, older boy next door, Alan—a young man who befriends Lulu, Rainey, and Lulu’s brother, Saul. Alan soon sets off to Vietnam, and his sweet dog wanders the neighborhood in his absence. One of the most poignant, stand-alone chapters for me was, “The Peterson’s Field Guide to the Birds,” an aching account of Alan’s mother’s life after he is gone—brilliantly told within the context of his love of birding.

The extended cast of characters dips in to inform and connect each of their stories more deeply: the older French neighbor, Hélène, whose memory of lost love is reignited by watching her young neighbors in the shadows of their shared orange grove. We meet Royal, Lulu’s father, and witness what war might do to a body, a mind, and a marriage—at home and abroad. We are in Vietnam with soldiers, photographers, and children. We are reminded of how these characters are connected by their home—Sybelia Drive. It is where the children learn to dive, to kiss; where a child buries the bullets from his dead father’s gun, where a fractured, grieving mother takes her nightly swim; where a wife longs for her husband and confides in the grocer; where a bride, returning to her childhood home, swims at dawn before her wedding.

This novel was a pleasure to read not only because of its sentences—each one written with such authority and grace—but for the resonance of its collective stories—a layered, laced exploration of love, family, grief, forgiveness, and redemption.

-- Jennifer Genest

Karin Cecile Davidson

[Lynda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a gift from a friend who knows the author. I was nervous about reading it because I was concerned I might not like it. Boy was I wrong. The cover makes the book look like it might be a romance but this is not the case. It is a story told, from multiple viewpoints, about life in a street in central Florida during and immediately after the Vietnam War. Each chapter gives bits and pieces of the story, but each could be a complete short story on its on.

The most central characters are Lulu and Rainy, two little girls thrown together when their mothers become friends after their husbands ship off to Vietnam. The story follows their friendship from the early 1960s until the mid 1970s. Because I was close to their ages during that time period I enjoyed the cultural references of the era.

The writing is lovely and the charters well developed. I hope to see more from this author.

[Beth Mowbray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whew ... what a stunningly different read this was! Sybelia Drive is a beautifully written coming-of-age tale which follows a group of children in Florida through the 1960s-1970s. Lulu and her brother Saul live on Sybelia Drive and spend their summer days swimming in the lake with neighborhood friends. After their father goes off to fight in Vietnam, a young girl named Rainey begins to spend more and more time at their home. With Rainey’s father MIA and her mother off chasing dreams of fame, weekend sleepovers extend to weeklong stays and Rainey quickly becomes an unofficial, full-time family member.

Set primarily in the difficult years of the Vietnam War, this novel tackles love and loss, life and death, alongside the challenging journey of growing up itself. This is Davidson’s debut, but you wouldn’t know it. Her prose is sharp and beautiful. Her narrative bleeds from one character’s point of view to another, changing with each chapter, jumping back and forth in time. The novel reads much like a series of short stories stitched together by a cast of characters that will capture your heart.

Many thanks to the publicist for gifting me this advance copy. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

[Ellie Hawkes · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has been a long time since I read anything set in the era of the Vietnam war, and I certainly can’t remember reading anything that uses the backdrop of the war in such a clever, complex way. On one level, we have a coming-of-age story, as we follow Lulu, Rainey and Saul through their childhood by the lake, into adolescence and early adulthood. All three grow up in the shadow of fathers and older friends lost to the war, some to return, some not, and the absences at the heart of their young lives are poignantly depicted. Rainey has the added complication of being more or less abandoned by her mother, living with the Blackwoods in a kind of limbo between sibling and stranger. A novel that focused solely on these three incredibly complex, real, fascinating characters would have been a triumph of a debut in itself.

But Davidson is even bolder with her structure and the breadth and depth of her exploration: a multitude of characters are given a voice, in a dazzlingly skilful balancing act. I’m still puzzling out how she manages to flick so smoothly between first person viewpoints, something I have rarely seen done so effectively, and certainly not in a debut novel. We move between the inhabitants of Sybelia Drive (and also characters from across the world) getting glimpses of insight into their secrets and desires, and by the end, as the community comes together again, we feel we are a part of it. It is powerful to feel so bonded to a fictional place and its people; I was genuinely sad to leave them behind at the end of the book.

This review is hard for me to write, because I loved this book so fiercely – similar to how I felt recently about Cory Anderson’s What Beauty There Is – and it is difficult to express just how much the prose moved me. Davidson writes with a magic touch, weaving truth and beauty out of words, creating sentences that honestly made my heart ache. There is a sense of the organic here, of personal growth and development and the ebbing and flowing of affection and resentment between characters that just feels stunningly real. Every character had my sympathy at one point or another, though I think spiky, funny, sometimes cruel Lulu was probably my favourite. These are characters so vivid, written so beautifully, that I miss them and carry them with me still.

Sybelia Drive is the sort of book that leaves me feeling that everyone should know about – it deserves to be widely read and loved. It’s a lyrical, intelligent, probing book that also hums with the comfort of friendship and connection, and moves along at a rhythmically soothing pace. It is subtle but also surprising, written with a lightness of touch and a depth of feeling that left me feeling changed. I am so excited to have discovered Karin Cecile Davidson’s work, and I urge you all to seek it out as well.

[Melanie Vidrine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel generally reads like a series of stories, which is how it started life according to the acknowledgements. Each chapter has a title and a date. The dates help the reader maintain some continuity since the action jumps back and forth. I feel that naming the narrator at the beginning of each of chapter would have eased the reader through the considerable changes of pace and the tone. That being said, I enjoyed the relationships portrayed , especially between Rainey and LuLu. Of the two mothers, Minnie and Eva, I felt there was more to be said about Minnie to help explain her behavior toward everyone: men, children, other women. The ending tied up lots of loose threads. Much of the author’s writing is lyrical, symbolic.

[Mim Chenfeld · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sybelia Drive by Karin Cecile Davidson is a compelling, beautifully written book , totally unpredictable, engrossing and intriguing. Davidson writes with an authority that is outstanding. She knows her characters, their journeys and relationships , their environments and challenges with perfect
storytelling gifts. The dialogue, descriptions, adventures and actions are described with pinpoint precision . I totally recommend this book to all who love to read.

[Margot Livesey · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this war novel we don't often go to Viet Nam. Instead Karin Cecile Davidson mostly follows the lives of two girls, Lulu and Rainey, who have each, in different ways, have lost their father to the war. She renders the girls and the characters around them - their mothers, Lulu's brother, her father, their neighbours - with wonderful precision and vividness. This brilliantly structured novel feels dangerous and exciting and morally complex. I couldn't stop reading.

[Chaney Kwak · Rating 5 out of 5]

It must have been daunting to take on a momentous point in history like the Vietnam War era, but Davidson pulls it off—and more—with great empathy and beauty. Every page, every sentence of this book is gorgeous, and the story is deeply human, told from many different vantage points. The story may take place mostly in an idyllic Florida neighborhood, it manages to encapsulate the world at large —and by doing that, it shows how ordinary lives are shaped by forces beyond their control.

[Gwen Goodkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

In ‘Sybelia Drive,’ Davidson deftly uses a shifting POV to examine the impact that war has on soldiers, their families and the entire community as injuries seen and unseen drive some away and fix others in place. Davidson skillfully runs a narrative thread through this novel which keeps the reader fully engaged and invested. An excellent debut.

[DeValerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I chose to read this book based on the review of a friend of mine who's also a goodreads member...Thanks Lynda! This was a beautifully written book. Exploring friendships, family, longing and loss with the Vietnam war as a central, although silent character. All told from different perspectives...those who fought, children and wives left behind, and a supporting cast of friends/neighbors with their own stories to tell.

This is Karin Cecile Davidson's debut novel...WELL DONE. I look forward to what's next.

[Crystal Odelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A song, a tender dream. Every description in “Sybelia Drive” is a nostalgic photograph that captures the beauty and heartache of a white family and friend group from Florida during the US’s Vietnam era. I’ve never read an entire novel written with such patience and a care that I can only describe as love.

[B. Goodwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes war takes its biggest toll is on those left behind: wives, sons, daughters, neighbors, and the community. Some families never realize the influence of a parent until that parent goes to war. In the case of Karin Cecile Davidson’s exquisite debut novel, Sybelia Drive, both those parents are fathers and husbands. Sybelia Drive shows us the emotional tolls of war in linked stories told from the POV of kids who’ve lost their fathers and wives who’ve lost their husbands, or in one case a woman who has lost her son.

The book opens from the point of young LuLu who’s an outspoken, opinionated collector of people’s possessions. She keeps the treasures she pockets as an odd proof that she matters and she’s loved. They stabilize her off-kilter world. Her brother is pushy and their often-distant mother opens their home to Rainey, whose mother has abandoned her for a singing career in Florida. Rainey, a year older than LuLu, is as beautiful as her mother, Eva, who abandoned her to a singing career after her husband died. The facts are confusing and complicated—just like Lulu’s ever-growing sense of loss countered by her more daring adventures. Their life, though, will draw you in because of each narrator’s tone and the beautiful language. As we are introduced to one story after another the puzzle pieces click together. Love, loss, and moving on alter the three young people’s perceptions of reality. Maybe that’s what growing up is all about.

Davison’s prose is sensual and evocative. Her characters present the world of the late sixties and early seventies from their unique points on the same prism. What does loss cost young people? Sybelia Drive explores the many layers of complexity contained in this question and escalates short stories with her engaging structure. Outstanding and not to be missed.

[Bookworm Blogger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was given an ARC of this book by the publicist in exchange for an honest review.

Sybelia Drive is a beautifully written story about a family and community in a small picturesque Florida town. We follow the lives of LuLu, Rainey, Saul and their families during the Vietnam war. The story is told from the POV of several characters and jumps between current and past events. I loved the connection between all the characters it gave the whole book a rounded feel and the links made the community feel stronger.

Rainey and LuLu’s relationship was interesting. Lulu played the younger sibling role perfectly and had all the stereotypical traits you would expect; jealous, immature and sneaky. I loved her though and thought she was the firecracker of the book, her personality was colourful and candid. By the end I loved the bond between the two girls and the last chapters left a smile on my face.

I’m a huge fan of war stories and how they affect not only the soldiers but they’re family as well. This book hit the mark with the description of the Vietnam war and I liked Royal’s story. It felt honest, raw and emotional a true reflection of what life is like when soldiers return from the battlefield.

For me this story was a little hard to get into at the start, I can’t put my finger on why, maybe it was the jumping between characters initially? Once I got used to it I became more invested in the characters and knowing how their stories played out. I also would of liked a little more to happen and got to know some of the other characters more such as Alan. It would of been interesting to hear some of his story from his POV.

By the end this story had broken my heart, pieced it back together and filled it with love and warmth. I look forward to seeing what Karin produces next.

[Hilary Zaid · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Two girls in that in-between age, still grounded in childhood and wanting so badly to be all grown up. Two girls, best friends, inside the design of a place and its people, a mosaic..." Karin Cecile Davidson's _Sybelia Drive_ is that mosaic, a tale of friendship between two girls set in a time and place that rise from the page--vivid and lush and tinged with memory. In Davidson's hands, this slice of the late 1960s in Central Florida comes alive, her characters complex and breathing on the page. A masterful novel for those who appreciate rich, delicious writing.

[nvsblmnstr · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5

I’m conflicted. I really enjoyed reading this book but it was just so sad. At least for me it was. The Vietnam War era was a dark time in the United States’ history and it was beautifully realized in this story. I felt myself living amongst these characters and I was left uncomfortable and anxious. However, this is not a criticism. It seems to me that this is is what Davidson is wanting and expecting of her readers. And if that’s true what an amazing success this is! Unfortunately, at a slim page count I still felt it to be a tad too long.

[Brenda W. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read Sybelia Drive over a long weekend in Florida. I loved it! If I had to pick one word to describe Davidson's writing, I would say....well, maybe two....very smooth...it carries the reader through the worlds of Rainey, Lulu and all those in their circle. The sense of place was so authentic...total recall as I read her descriptions of homes, lakeside life, veterans' demeanors, and the tumultuous spin of emotions from every direction. I just loved it. She did great as this was her first novel!! Now, what's next?!! I can't wait!!

[OhioSQ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Karin Cecile Davidson’s debut novel is a gem. I was a tween and a teen during the Vietnam War and this novel transported me right back to that era. Davidson captured the personal impact of the war on the soldiers and their families back home. The book focuses on the coming of age for two girls, Lulu and Rainey. Through their eyes we get to witness the tragedy of the war along with their tumultuous journey into adulthood. The book is full of historically accurate references to the music, styles, and culture of the time. Kudos to the author.

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I seldom rate a book five stars, and I did this one. It is undoubtedly one of the best books I have ever read. Each of the characters was brilliantly crafted, and I loved the way some of them were introduced, and woven into the story.The prose made me pause many times, and reread a passage and take in it's meaning. For those of us at a certain age it brings back memories both happy, and sad
, and takes us back to a time when things wore both simple, and complicated. Don't miss the opportunity to read this story. Bravo Karen Cecile Davidson!

[Natalie Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

The characters, settings and prose in this novel are just lovely. Davidson paints a lovely picture of each scene and builds the characters beautifully. The syntax of some her sentences was a lot like poetry--so fresh and nice, I read them multiple times.

[Ann Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The characters and the situations seemed very real to me - like something from my youth. You get to know each character and learn how each deals with their grief and trauma related to the war in Vietnam. The writing and story are complex but not confusing. A pleasure to read.

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It’s a well-told story with wonderful characters and so many relatable images from the 60’s and 70’s. The flow and writing style were beautiful. I was sad when it ended.

[Katherine Hinchey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this book. It is a really great story told from differing viewpoints through each chapter - it made me laugh and cry.

[kglibrarian (Karin Greenberg) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes I miss a book’s entrance into the world. This one came out nearly four years ago and I can’t imagine that it was out there all that time waiting for me to read. It’s one of those novels that doesn’t get the attention it deserves. Literary, poetic, insightful, and filled with the type of sentences that make me ache with emotion.

Davidson uses the Vietnam War as the backdrop for the coming-of-age stories of Lulu and Rainey, two Floridians who are thrown together when Rainey’s mother leaves town. Experiencing life in a small lake community, the girls revel in spontaneous swims, barefoot exploration, and humid, slow summers. While they’re grappling with their own changing selves, they face the heaviness of the men around them leaving for war. With chapters devoted to a range of characters, the story covers every imaginable perspective. The setting is lush and vibrant, depicting the natural beauty of Florida and Vietnam with precision.

It’s impossible to put into words the effect this gorgeous novel had on me; it’s the exact kind of literary gem I’m always searching for.

[Elizabeth Graver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Karin Cecile Davidson has written a keenly-observed novel about the persistence of family ties and friendships, the press of history on private lives, and the tug of both home and away. At once delicate in its prose and bold in its vision, Sybelia Drive is a luminous debut.