Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Apr 01, 2008

Jessica rated it:

So I guess Minot is kind of like Midge to Gaitskill's Barbie?

Or something...?

I wanted to like this book because Robert recommended it. While I always hope to like the things my friends and Booksters tell me to read, I suspect I was especially invested in dear Robert's tastes because he's probably the most encouraging reader I've ever (virtually) known, and that includes my mom.

Unfortunately I tried, and I didn't like it! Well, the first story, as many other Bo More...

13 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 27, 2008

Heather rated it:

The stories were all well done, good reads (as it were). I felt envious reading it, knowing it's something I'd enjoy writing. The only reason I'm not tagging it as "really liked it" was that it made me sad, but not in a way that makes me focus on the power of the book. The overall point of view was about "needy" women and "distant" men. That was pretty much the theme. It was a quick read, and, again, very well written and assembled.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 26, 2008

Valerie rated it:

I don't know what I expected when I started reading this book, but it wasn't for little pieces of my soul to be eaten away as I finished each story. Such a promising title: Lust. But this is not a book of happy frolicking lust... it's more like the soul-crushing lust of unfulfilled affairs, dead-end romances, and inexperienced fumblings mixed with peer- and self-pressure.

Gripping nonetheless, but soul-hardening.

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 15, 2011

Christina rated it:

Lust and Other Stories
By: Susan Minot
First Vintage Contemporaries Edition

Susan Minot gets down and dirty and reveals the truth behind the most complicated bond we will ever have, the relationship between man and woman. Whether it is the union of husband and wife, simple lovers, or a one-night stand, Minot explains it all. If you need a book to relate to, find yourself saying, “yes!” out loud while reading because you understand exactly what the characters are going thro More...

0 comments like

Nov 15, 2011

Chrissy added it

Chrissy Oropeza
Goodreads Long Review
November 15, 2011

Susan Minot compiled twelve of her fiction short stories into a book entitled Lust and Other Stories. These pieces are narrated by different women in different scenes of their lives, following the trend of romance. It is a powerful compilation that snapshots love and the trials and joys that accompany it. This novel brings to life the intimate moments that pinpoint women’t lives.
The book opens with one of Minot’s mo More...

0 comments like

Nov 15, 2011

Shayla rated it:

Compelling Collection

Lust and Other Stories by Susan Minot. Vintage Books, New York, 2000.

The first time I read Minot’s work was the opening story, “Lust,” which stood alone in a textbook of other short pieces of literature. Her ability to tap into the lonely side of lust immediately drew me into the narrative; and I was interested in reading more when I realized it was a part of a collection of stories. There is such truthfulness and humanity in her writing that I have to re More...

0 comments like

Oct 27, 2011

Christey rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Oct 04, 2011

Lauren rated it:

I read the first chapter of Lust and Other Stories in an anthology for my Creative Writing class, and decided to pick up the rest of the novel for an assigned book report. I'm sad to say that I'm a bit disappointed; where the first piece (Lust) had emotional impact and was exciting to read, the rest fell flat.

Reading the book feels a bit like a dream, the emotions are disconnected, the characters don't seem all the way there, and thoughts are disjointed. I found myself wishing for the More...

0 comments like

Oct 04, 2011

Eli rated it:

Lust and Other Stories by Susan Minot is a great collection of fictional short stories dealing with the issues of love and lust mixed with anxiety and disappointment. The characters that populate Minot's writing seem inevitably doomed to face the the realities of infatuation, love, and then separation; there aren't many particularly "happy" stories in this collection. Minot seems to channel her inner Emily Dickinson because of the cautionary nature of each tale and Minot's warnings a More...

0 comments like

Oct 04, 2011

Alyssa rated it:

“Lust and Other Stories”, by Susan Minot, was published by Houghton Mifflin and S Lawrence in 1989. The 147 pages contain 12 short restless stories about women who cannot find their emotional equivalent in a man. Minot explores the overbearing need for a woman to have constant reminders of love and attention, and what a women will do to achieve these notions.
The book rightfully begins with the short and quite crude story, “Lust”. A young girl, possibly in her early or mid-teens comments on More...

0 comments like

Apr 06, 2011

Tyler rated it:

Susan Minot's Lust and Other Stories is an intriguing novel which depicts the various social implications faced by women as a result of involvement in relationships –often sexual– with men, capturing the beneficial and negative aspects of relationships, while also highlighting the deeper issues women face when dating. Throughout the novel Minot seems effective in managing to display the importance these relationships and social conflicts have in how they often adversely affect the women portray More...

0 comments like

Apr 05, 2011

Brittini added it

Lust and Other Stories, Susan Minot, Washington Square Press/Pocket Books, New York, New York, 1989.

Susan Minot’s Lust and Other Stories is a collection of twelve shorts stories divided into three parts, much like the way a relationship is divided into three parts: the initial stage, the fighting stage, and the breaking up stage. Minot’s stories detail the complex and trivial relationships between young men and women and how difficult it is for the opposite sex to truly communicate wi More...

0 comments like

Apr 05, 2011

Kristen rated it:

Lust & other stories, Susan Minot 1989 Random House

Lust and other stories is a collection of short stories by Susan Minot, about the ambiguities of love and how lovers sometimes know what they want, but don’t know how to get it or how to keep it.
While I enjoyed the overall idea of the book, as I read each story the elements that worked and that didn’t work became clearer to me. It took me a couple of stories to understand her writing style. The first story in the book is Lu More...

0 comments like

Feb 16, 2011

Allie rated it:

Lust and other stories was written by Susan Minot and was published by Houghton Mifflin and S Lawrence in 1989. This book was released shortly after Minot’s best seller “Monkeys.” It contains 12 edgy, tense short stories that explore the lives of women who are not comfortable in their own skin and seek out the same relationship time and time again.
I normally do not read anything other than Fantasy, however when we were assigned this project I decided to try something different. Why not r More...

0 comments like

Jun 10, 2010

Jonathan rated it:

“Lust” is too told in a 1st person perspective. Minot utilizes the literary element of flashbacks and figurative language to convey the theme of trust, and to show that relationships are complex. One instance of figurative language used in the story is when the protagonist is revealed as curling up like a shrimp: “After sex, you curl up like a shrimp, something deep inside you ruined…” (Minot 253). This illustrates to us the societal expectations of woman, that woman have an obligation to have s More...

0 comments like

Aug 30, 2009

Adrian rated it:

It took forever to find a copy of this. I searched far and wide for quite a long time before finally finding it on ebay. It was an epic quest, and like most epic quests, the fulfilment turned out to be rather disappointing. The title story is brilliant, one of the best stories written in the second half of the twentieth century in my opinion, and the most visceral and effective version of "I was a teenaged slut" I've ever read. I suppose this story in itself justifies the purchase, More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Dec 15, 2007

Shannon rated it:

I don't really understand the popularity of this collection unless it's indicative of the tendency to mistake vague, incomplete renderings for depth. There are some real, brilliant moments, but it mostly suffers from the common theme that argues that bona fide emotional connections between lovers are only possible after the relationship has failed... gives credence to the idea that most writers are failed lovers.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 15, 2011

Rishelle rated it:

Lust and Other Stories by Susan Minot published by Vintage Books in New York in 1989 is fiction book of short stories about experiences with men told from a woman narrative’s perspective. This book provides insight into the mind of a woman who is not only a victim men who are emotionally unavailable but a victim of putting herself in a cycle of loveless relationships. In “The Man Who Would Not Go Away”: “...the first feeling of love is always serene, and happy. It rejoices. Life has More...

0 comments like

Jan 30, 2009

Chris rated it:

A very inconsistent book. The title story is fantastic, and there were two or three others that were quite good. Minot can be understated and spare, and this largely works in her favor. Other times she explains her metaphors as if you're too much of an idiot to get it on your own (a pet peeve of mine) and populates her stories with characters who are impossible to give a shit about, no matter how hard you try. But the stories that are good make this book, on the whole, worth it.

0 comments like

Jul 15, 2008

Steven rated it:

Very New York City, very 1980's, and stylistically seems quite dated now. Most of these stories are about women who are entering into, meandering within, or exiting relationships. Seventy-five percent of the book is inane dialog; attempts to portray the banality of dating. The final paragraphs usually sum up the banality in a attempt to validate the rest of the story. For the most part the strategy was boring, although I can appreciate the intent behind them. The title story "Lust," wh More...

0 comments like

Jan 20, 2009

Steve rated it:

Despite its promising title, Lust is fairly dry and brittle. The characters are fragile, the eros bloodless, and the sensibility of rich Easterners comes across as dull and vapid. This is intentional, and Minot's prose works like a scalpel in cutting these characters, but I prefer richer works where emotions and sex spill from the page.

0 comments like

Jul 20, 2009

Alexis rated it:

I really love Minot's style. She writes in a very sparse, spare tone and tells stories about instances where women realize that they are not happy in their relationships. It's basically a collection of vignettes about the turning points of relationships. Almost Carver-esque, in some ways.

0 comments like

Mar 06, 2010

ThienVinh rated it:

These short stories are written in a sparse manner, with the scope being very personal and insightful. Each story involves a woman and her relations with a man, or men. While these collective stories could appear to be portraying women as vulnerable beings in their involvement with men who are distant and/or lame, I think it provides poignant accounts of the harshness of love, found in a city like New York. All the stories leave you with a hint of sadness. I suppose I "really liked" More...

0 comments like

Jul 06, 2011

victoria rated it:

I have to say that I wasn't as impressed with this one as I'd hoped I would be. While the writing is extremely sharp, clean and good I do feel it lacks something. You may very well enjoy it, but try as I did, I just could not find much real enjoyment in the writing or much titilation from it either. Erotica, for me, must have a rather ethreal and ungrounded well...a rather unhinged quality if you will. My problem with this is not that it is bad, it isn't. It is that it is too grounded for my tas More...

0 comments like

Nov 29, 2008

Jane rated it:

Episodes: each episode is its individual story, yet connects fluidly, almost as if watching a sitcom with its finale at the end. Stylistically it resembles journal entries—raw, short, to the point. The mood is similar to Nathan Hill’s The Reception in that the tone becomes bitter and more powerful as you read along. The episodes are over a course of time and presents slices of a woman’s love life. There are hints, but never absolute leads on when a particular episode takes place. The writi More...

0 comments like

Jun 17, 2010

Win rated it:

"Lust" and "The Knot" were my favorites. Overall, it's a sad book but poignant in its sadness.

0 comments like

Dec 17, 2008

Mairead rated it:

the second story just knocked the wind out of me.

0 comments like

Mar 07, 2009

Rachel rated it:

I've only read "Lust," so far.

0 comments like

Dec 13, 2010

lisa rated it:

Best Sunday afternoon in memory. . . .

0 comments like

Oct 11, 2008

Stacy rated it:

I enjoyed these stories; I did. I am a fan of a spare prose style, which Minot employs for the most part, but I am pretty bored with love and break-up stories, even ones as original as these. After my piece in the workshop last semester, several people recommended this book to me, and I can see why. The title story in particular was lovely, and perhaps worthy of further study, but for the most part these stories, while readable and poetic, and sometimes movingly melancholy, failed to inspire me More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

reviews