With two novels and one short story collection published to overwhelming critical acclaim ("Monkeys takes your breath away," said ...
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Aug 07, 2007
For a long time, this feels like a romance novel: swooning and fawning women, silent and hunky men. Vomit, vomit, vomit. And then, just when the novel is about to end and you're so fed up with the number of times Ann Grant says that Harris Arden "affected her curiously", then, all of a sudden, right near the end, in the face of an awful tragedy, the characters become real, and then you wonder if it was worth suffering through everything else to see a tiny glimpse of the human conditi
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Apr 21, 2008
Amanda
rated it: 
"Evening" is the internal monologue of Ann Grant (or Katz,or Stackpole, or Lord depending on what part of her life she is reflecting upon), as she lies in bed, dying of cancer. Ann pours over her life, re-living it, telling herself the story of her most intimate and important moment(s). Her reflections are filled with deep pain, regret, and intensely burning passion.
Reading this book felt in some ways like finding out that there is no Santa Claus.
The idea of dying being More...
Reading this book felt in some ways like finding out that there is no Santa Claus.
The idea of dying being More...
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Dec 17, 2009
Ashley
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This is the best book I've read in awhile. I just finished last night, so I haven't had time to process all of it or to be able to say whether it'll be one of my favorites. It's pretty heavy - not a lot of pages, but a lot to think about. I can say now that it's been a really long time since I've read a novel that impacted me so deeply.
With her son and daughters gathered around, Ann Lord lies on her deathbed. The story itself takes place over the last few days of her life, but it More...
With her son and daughters gathered around, Ann Lord lies on her deathbed. The story itself takes place over the last few days of her life, but it More...
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May 15, 2008
Sandy
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Being a fan of some of Susan Minot's other work, I was kind of disappointed in this book. It started off really slowly, and I almost gave up on it entirely. I just could not get into it, I found parts of it seemed poorly written. I am not a fan of the pages of run on, mixed up thoughts that went on too long. The story of what happened years ago in Ann's life, while attending the wedding of her friend, is the only thing that kept the book going. The rest of it seemed thrown in at weird times
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Jul 15, 2008
Stacey
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One of my goodreads pals recently suggested that I should reign as Queen and Overlord of Bad Book Hell. This book would probably join me there. Or at least end up in purgatory.
To be fair, I listened to this on audiobook, and this is not written in a way that lends itself to being read aloud. I mean, there should be a law. It's all sort of a dying woman's thoughts, memories, and hallucinations. Not seeing it on the page, it was hard to tell what was what. I am not exactly certain that More...
To be fair, I listened to this on audiobook, and this is not written in a way that lends itself to being read aloud. I mean, there should be a law. It's all sort of a dying woman's thoughts, memories, and hallucinations. Not seeing it on the page, it was hard to tell what was what. I am not exactly certain that More...
May 04, 2008
Keonaona
rated it:
I've read Susan Minot in the past and while I find some aspects of her style irritating (no punctuation, run-on sentences, unclear narrator), I do find her compelling. I grew up in New England and while this is not the New England I could possibly ever have belonged to, I caught glimpses of it from time to time--afternoon drinks, sailing parties, and so on. When she relates the drive up to Maine I can in my mind's eye follow the way up Route 1; I know that summer heat in Cambridge; I've seen the
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Mar 16, 2008
I read Evening because I found the plot interesting and wanted to see it before the movie was released. I didn't quite beat the release date, but the book left me wanting more and didn't entirely meet my expectations. Just slightly more intellectual than a Harlequin romance, this book focuses on Ann Grant's unrequitted love and how it transformed her relationships moving forward in life. The reader encounters Ann on her death bed, and follows her she floats in between dream sequences, memorie
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Feb 04, 2010
Rebecca
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What I learned from this book is that women have an incredible capacity for resilience and emotion. I know that men do too, of course. But I think this book clearly addresses death and lost love from a woman's perspective. The beauty of this book lies in its style. Often written in flowing sentences, with no periods or commas to distinguish where thoughts begin or end, it truly captures the subconscious mind. The only thing I didn't care for were the brief periods where it explored another chara
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Aug 13, 2007
Karen
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Somehow my review was lost, so here we go again. I liked this book but it wasn't as good as I thought it would be or that I felt it could have been. I really would have liked to see some parts of the storyline more developed and know more about what really happened, some parts were quite ambiguous. The main character, Ann, is lying in her upstairs bedroom dying of cancer and remembering her life as her children move around downstairs, occassionally going in to see her. It was written in a st
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Aug 03, 2007
Anne
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Stunning. I sat down and consumed this book in one evening. I know the movie has been dragged over the coals (and I have yet to see it), but I found the book beautiful and moving. The story for those who have escaped seeing the trailer is about a woman (Ann) at the end of her life, who looks back and remembers the events over the course of her friend's wedding weekend which lead her to meet her life's true love, Harris Arden. However, life is complicated and she and Harris are not to be, and so
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Mar 25, 2009
Taylor
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I just re-read this book for the first time in years, and while it affects me in a much different way than it did when I was a teenager, damn, does it affect me. I see now that the writing, while beautiful, can be a little melodramatic, and that the central romance of the story is not really at all romantic--Harris is kind of a dick, and Ann is, in fact, a little cold, not to mention the fact that their brief affair is completely selfish. However, I also think that their flaws are the point.
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Mar 21, 2009
Elizabeth
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I've been re-reading old favorites lately.
One of the most beautiful things about language is the deep sense of emotions that can be brought about by words strung together in a logical context. Sometimes, you read a book because of the emotions it causes. Often, for me, I reread books that have moved me emotionally; that have made me feel. This is such a book. Rather than a wonderfully technical book, well-plotted and adept, this is a book that evokes emotion, namely melancholy.
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One of the most beautiful things about language is the deep sense of emotions that can be brought about by words strung together in a logical context. Sometimes, you read a book because of the emotions it causes. Often, for me, I reread books that have moved me emotionally; that have made me feel. This is such a book. Rather than a wonderfully technical book, well-plotted and adept, this is a book that evokes emotion, namely melancholy.
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Dec 06, 2011
Logophile
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Ann Lord is lying in “the last room,” dying of cancer. As she slips into and out of lucidity, she remembers her life, her three marriages, the high and low points, and in particular one weekend and one very special relationship.
Susan Minot manages to More...
“She woke and thought of what was left. She had always believed in the accepted wisdom that what was important would endure and in the end survive and what mattered would last and be recognized and saved. But she saw now that was not true.”
Susan Minot manages to More...
Nov 15, 2011
“The Multiple Stories of Evening”
Susan Minot
“Evening”
Vintage Books .Random House, Inc. 1998.
Susan Minot’s “Evening” is a perfect representation of how time can be twisted in order to tell and develop a story. Although the present day of the book is the main character, Ann Lord, on her death bed, much of the story is told in the past tense. In fact, the story actually begins with a fictional conversation between Ann and what the reader can assume to be H More...
Oct 22, 2011
Kate
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"Evening", by Susan Minot, is a reverie of one Ann Grant Lord, as she lays on her deathbed in the semi-conscious state of a person approaching death. She calls for a man named Harris and her two daughters, Nina and Constance, wonder about this man who is so important to their mother, who has had multiple failed marriages with other men. As Ann draws closer to death, layer upon layer of her life peels away to reveal Harris, a young doctor with whom she had a single impassioned weekend d
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Oct 04, 2011
This novel is simply about the tragic life of Ann Lord at the age of 65. Susan Minot takes the reader to a time when the protagonist was younger and happier—in the present time she is terminally ill, diagnosed with cancer. Through the eyes of Ann, you see her younger self fall in love with the man of her dreams, Harris, during a weekend wedding. Harris is betrothed to another woman, and marries her dutifully. Heartbroken, Ann goes through life alone. She compares her many husbands to the man sh
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Oct 04, 2011
Alyssa
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"Evening" by Susan Minot. Vintage books 1999
It is not often that we are aware of the life altering instances as they occur, but in retrospect we see these opportunities as they really are. In the novel “Evening”, Susan Minot examines the defining moment in the life of the cancer stricken, bed-ridden sixty-five year old narrator Ann Grant forty years prior. With “Evening”, Minot creates a beautifully reminiscent masterpiece in which she paints a portrait of a complex individua More...
It is not often that we are aware of the life altering instances as they occur, but in retrospect we see these opportunities as they really are. In the novel “Evening”, Susan Minot examines the defining moment in the life of the cancer stricken, bed-ridden sixty-five year old narrator Ann Grant forty years prior. With “Evening”, Minot creates a beautifully reminiscent masterpiece in which she paints a portrait of a complex individua More...
Aug 03, 2011
Julie
rated it: 
There were bright spots in this novel but Minot made it tough to find them. The first half of this book was grueling and I almost abandoned it several times. Between the lack of punctuation and the endless passages about the minutiae of Ann’s life, I was quite frustrated by this novel. Yes, I understood why she decided against punctuation-I just find it pretentious. I’ve seen other reviews of this book where reviewers comment on the great sadness of lost love. It makes me wonder if I read the sa
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Apr 10, 2011
Mc
rated it:
From that synesthetic description of the suitcase (“a smooth shellacked surface with yellow stitching underneath the glaze…Ann Lord could almost taste the surface of it at the back of her throat.”) and the initial car ride, dizzying with the thrill of sexual magnetism and New England summer, I knew I was in the hands of a writer masterful in her descriptions. So a disclaimer: I love sensual, emotionally charged descriptions. The poetic, carefully chosen images continue to haunt me months after t
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Mar 31, 2011
Sara
rated it:
I know what this book was trying to say. This idea that a woman manages to find her true self, which up until then had been obscured by the men in her life, on her deathbed is supposed to be liberating, but I think that this deeper meaning was forced and the self-realization came too late.
The romance between her and Harris is sordid instead of touching. That might have been intentional on the writer's part, but it's hard to say. It is depressing that Ann spent so much time thinking ab More...
The romance between her and Harris is sordid instead of touching. That might have been intentional on the writer's part, but it's hard to say. It is depressing that Ann spent so much time thinking ab More...
Feb 16, 2011
Evening
Susan Minot
Alfred A. Knopf
New York, 1998
An Enchanting Affair
In Susan Minot’s book, “Evening,” the author creates a hopeless but romantic character named Ann Lord. Ann is a 65-year-old woman, stricken with cancer, lying on her death bed. As she cannot do much while patiently waiting for her time, she becomes delirious and reminisces about her past, in particular about an enchanting love affair she had 40 years ago that has been engraved in her heart More...
Susan Minot
Alfred A. Knopf
New York, 1998
An Enchanting Affair
In Susan Minot’s book, “Evening,” the author creates a hopeless but romantic character named Ann Lord. Ann is a 65-year-old woman, stricken with cancer, lying on her death bed. As she cannot do much while patiently waiting for her time, she becomes delirious and reminisces about her past, in particular about an enchanting love affair she had 40 years ago that has been engraved in her heart More...
Feb 16, 2011
Jacqueline
rated it:
Evening by Susan Minot, New York 1998
Ann Lord is a 65 year old woman who was diagnosed with cancer and now lies on her death bed. The experience of being on the verge of death has led her to relive what she realizes were the greatest, as well as some of the worst, moments of her entire life. She is able to look back to when she was 25 years old and tell with vast vividness and forceful imagery the story of the wedding night she would never be able to forget.
The novel jum More...
Ann Lord is a 65 year old woman who was diagnosed with cancer and now lies on her death bed. The experience of being on the verge of death has led her to relive what she realizes were the greatest, as well as some of the worst, moments of her entire life. She is able to look back to when she was 25 years old and tell with vast vividness and forceful imagery the story of the wedding night she would never be able to forget.
The novel jum More...
Feb 15, 2011
Leslie
rated it:
"Evening" by Susan Minot
Vintage Books New York, 1998
This novel goes back and forth between the real time events of a cancer patient on her death bed, and a series of flashbacks of her life. The story opens up with a quote about enjoying time rather than trying to control it by William Faulkner. This quote’s theme is tied in throughout the story. Susan Minot does a great job of weaving in meaning and message in this story. Through the author’s flashbacks we learn impor More...
Vintage Books New York, 1998
This novel goes back and forth between the real time events of a cancer patient on her death bed, and a series of flashbacks of her life. The story opens up with a quote about enjoying time rather than trying to control it by William Faulkner. This quote’s theme is tied in throughout the story. Susan Minot does a great job of weaving in meaning and message in this story. Through the author’s flashbacks we learn impor More...
Oct 12, 2010
Lauren
rated it:
I’m still not sure of my evaluation of Susan Minot’s Evenin- it was at times confusing and the characters were two-dimensional at times. It had a very deep and emotional meaning- death is always intimidating and something hard to write about since none living have experienced it- and yes, the writing was incredible. Susan Minot painted picture after picture with mere words, I was inside the book. Despite this, the character’s stereotypical attitudes leave the reader unattached at times with feel
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Oct 12, 2010
Sejal
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An “Evening” Well Spent
Author: SUSAN MINOT
Publisher: VINTAGE BOOKS, RANDOM HOUSE
Year: 1998
When Susan Minot’s “Evening” first hit bookstores, we were all thinking the same thing: great, another romance novel written from the perspective of a reminiscent old woman. Thankfully, Minot’s unique spin on romance and life itself has saved us from this romance novel déjà vu. “Evening” proves to Minot’s fans that she still has the ability to make romance fiction nov More...
Author: SUSAN MINOT
Publisher: VINTAGE BOOKS, RANDOM HOUSE
Year: 1998
When Susan Minot’s “Evening” first hit bookstores, we were all thinking the same thing: great, another romance novel written from the perspective of a reminiscent old woman. Thankfully, Minot’s unique spin on romance and life itself has saved us from this romance novel déjà vu. “Evening” proves to Minot’s fans that she still has the ability to make romance fiction nov More...
May 26, 2010
Carli
rated it:
I saw the film when it came out three years ago. It was okay. The only reason I picked up this novel was because it was there.
I cannot imagine what the filmmakers thought they'd be able to do with this story. With the film a bit fuzzy in my mind, I think they were just able to present the most superficial aspects of it. The novel is rich with internal musings that could never be portrayed in a conventional film.
I found the exploration of the meaning of life by a woman d More...
I cannot imagine what the filmmakers thought they'd be able to do with this story. With the film a bit fuzzy in my mind, I think they were just able to present the most superficial aspects of it. The novel is rich with internal musings that could never be portrayed in a conventional film.
I found the exploration of the meaning of life by a woman d More...
Aug 21, 2011
EAK
rated it:
I'd read one of Susan Minot's short story collections a long time ago and liked her writing, so when I found this in the Half-Priced Books bargain bin, I thought I'd give it a try. I also realized that I had seen the movie version of this book, starring Claire Danes. I've seen a lot of mediocre movies, thanks to Claire Danes, but what can I say? I'll always love Angela Chase. Anyway, now that I finished the book, I need to re-rent the movie because I don't remember it, other than Claire Danes pl
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Jan 13, 2011
Alisa
rated it:
I read this book to a few of my residents at the nursing home I work at.. they said I have a wonderful speaking voice. I didnt know what this was about until a few of them said they had seen the movie and wanted to know if the book was better. Had I known it was about a woman dying of cancer.. I prob. wouldnt have read it to nursing home residents.. but.. it taught me to investigate books before giving a yes!
This was a beautiful and very deep book. It wasnt long but when flashing ba More...
This was a beautiful and very deep book. It wasnt long but when flashing ba More...
Mar 15, 2010
Vonaire
rated it:
Hmmm..... I had so many problems with this book, I don't even know where to start.
First of all: the manner in which it was written. Her thoughts kept jumping from past, to present, and back again. It's not that I had a problem with that, it's the fact that she eschewed the basic rules of grammar that was beat into us back in elementary school...so there was no clear indicator of change in time period. Call me crazy, but I like quotation marks, and commas, and periods - you know, ba More...
First of all: the manner in which it was written. Her thoughts kept jumping from past, to present, and back again. It's not that I had a problem with that, it's the fact that she eschewed the basic rules of grammar that was beat into us back in elementary school...so there was no clear indicator of change in time period. Call me crazy, but I like quotation marks, and commas, and periods - you know, ba More...
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Feb 02, 2008
Parker
rated it:
this was a disappointing book. I expected greatness seeing all the praise on the cover, but it's written in this dreamlike state that seemed faux deep. But all the sudden after a terrible tragedy the last 40 or so pages are heartbreaking. The story of the wedding is the most interesting and the characters of ann's children are poorly developed and underwritten. some of the writing is beautiful but i didn't see the greatness
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