Evening

Rating:
Summary: A story of unrequited love???
Review: My take on Evening was different from many of the other reviews I read. This, to me, was definitely not a beautiful romance about two people who were meant for each other but could not be together. Rather, to me this was a sad story of a woman who had a short, passionate affair (not love) with a loser and then perceived the rest of her life as anticlimatic (no pun intended). First of all, she was not in love with this guy. One weekend of sex is not love. Second of all, this guy was a loser. He was engaged to marry another woman. We don't know for sure if this was the first time he had cheated on her (although one time is enough to show poor character), but there are hints throughout the book that it was not (for example, various characters refer to him as a womanizer). Even if Maria had not been pregnant, it seems certain that he would not have left her, because this affair with Ann did not have the same meaning for him as it had for her. For her, it was a life altering experience, for him, a fling. He says, "He could not be certain about this new woman. After the brightness faded who know what would happen, he hardly know her." He was actually the more level headed, realistic one of the two- after all, they had good sex one weekend. Does that make a great love? Of course not. What I liked most about this book was that the author succeded in creating an interesting story out of quite unlikable characters. Ann, in her dying moments, cares more about one weekend forty years ago than spending time with her children? And yet as the reader you don't really dislike her, you more pity her and wish peace for her at death. Very complex characters, very interesting writing style, very satisfying story.

Rating:
Summary: Evening Stars
Review: Minot, in Evening, tells the story about life, not death. It is the story of Ann Lord's life in Anne's mind, as she loses and regains consciousness over the time she is dying. She sees her life before her...and through her dying eyes, the reader's mind is living her life. And we see that what might look like a lovely life -- three marriages, success, children - may hide secret desires and hold dark tragedy in the evening darkness. But it seems as though nothing in her life was so clear -- except for Harris Arden, the man always out of her reach. The story is very honest and gives the reader a vivid description of what could be a reality, as Ann is not an extraordinary human being, and at the same time her life is as extraordinary as any individual's. She remembers the highlights of her life. "Bits of things swam to her, but what made them come? Why, for instance, did she remember the terrace at Versailles where she'd visited only once, or a pair of green and white checkered gloves or a photo of city trees in the rain?" Humans attach meaning to things, and Ann seemed to only find meaning in Harris Arden and the pain of losing a child. Evening is a beautifully woven story that explores the brutal reality of human life and death; love and loss; never reaching the things you think you want most. We are touched by her realization that "everything passed, she would too. This perspective offered her an unexpected clarity she nearly enjoyed, but even with this new clarity the world offered no more explanation for itself than it ever had." Our world is so inexplicable and there are so many questions left unanswered. The only thing that remains the same is the sun rising and setting, as the evening stars fill the sky in an orderly fashion. The story of Ann's life is told so beautifully that it reminds me of a fallen star, so beautiful full of awe.

Rating:
Summary: For Anyone Who Has Loved and Lost
Review: In Evening, Minot offers a story that makes one think back and wonder about "the one who got away". She writes elegantly in a unique and enjoyable style that draws one into the story. So many things in the novel are left to one's imagination, due to the unreliable narrarator who is on pain medication (she is dying of cancer). The narrarators retrospective of her own life is haunting and dazzling. It is definately a powerful book and makes one cling to and examine life.

Rating:
Summary: Masterly
Review: A writing teacher recommended "Evening" to me. She said it was masterly. I ran out to buy it the next day.

Was it Masterly?
Yes.

Why?
I'll tell you.

Because I believe we all realy have one love...One true love...One love that will be etched in our hearts forever.
One love that we will remember, even on our death bed. At 65 we will recall our desires at 25.

As Ann Lord does in "Evening. A socialite, married three times, three children, a so-called full life, always the picture of health.......yet on her death bed who is she remembering?

Her first love, Harris.

She had only known him few days. Who cares.

"Do you know me?" She asks
"Yes." He answers. "I have always known you."

Ann drifts in and out of consciousness. Slips into the past and the present. There is no future. Her present life is white. White sheets, white walls, white nurses. But her past is colorful, green, with new beginnings. The past is worth remembering. Harris Arden is worth remembering.

"I haven't been sick a day in my life. I guess it was saved up for now." Ann says. "Pain is only born and produces nothing." The wheels are churning. The sharp black teeth are biting.

Morphine isn't enough. But the reviving of Harris Arden is. "So this is what love is for. So this is why arms were made. So this is why we have skin."

Susan Minot has taken the reader to the side of Ann's bed. And we sit there waiting. Listening. The doctor just told her she will not see the leaves change this year. Her kids hear her talking about some man they've never heard of.

"I'm going to have to go."
"Yes, I know."
I won't say good-bye."
"No, don't."
"Were you here all this time?"
"Yes."

Will the reader be?

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Rating:
Summary: A challenging book
Review: I have several reactions to this book. The first is that the prose is beautifully evocative and Susan Minot has constructed a beautiful book. I also had the feeling, voiced by several other reviewers at least, that thee is a odd sort of flatness to the story and to the life of Ann Lord, who appears on the surface to have had so much. I think, however, that this may be intentional. As she approaches death, the layers are stripped away, and all of the possessions and relationships that she has had are stripped away. Who can say what would be left as the center point of consciousness for any of us at that point?

For Ann Lord, the weekend of her best friend's wedding, all those years ago, and her weekend affair with Harris Arden become the focal point. As I read the flashbacks to that weekend, I had a sense both of deep sadness and simultaneously a great excitement and sense of possibility. Both existed in that time, and both are carried forward in memory. I think the sense of being so alive and having the heights and depths of love and emotion and death all in that short compressed time is part of why all that returns to Ann Lord as she waits to die.

Many reviewers have been extremely critical of Harris Arden and questioned why such a cad has the significance that he does for Ann and how that relationship may actually diminish her in some way. He is certainly not a sympathetic character, either in his interactions with Ann or in his treatment of his fiancee. I also can only guess whether that weekend was an anomaly for him or whther such relationships were common for him. If it was as distinct and seperate a time for him, a moment out of the normal round of his life, I can have some empathy for him. I am unsure of that.

Rating:
Summary: Mesmerizing and Beautifully Written Story
Review: Susan Minot writes a compelling story. Ann Lord is a woman at the end of her life. She is bedridden with cancer and through her pain and drug induced sleep we are allowed into her mind and her memories. Ann has had a full life with several husbands and five children. Throughout it all she feels that a piece of her is missing. Her heart was given to a man she met at a friend's wedding many years before. For Ann, he was her soul mate. She is devastated and broken hearted when the truth of his situation is revealed to her. She carries on with her life but is never the same. She is emotionally crippled for life. This is obvious in her other memories when she really doesn't come across as a truly loving mother or wife.

The stream of consciousness manner in which Ann's story is told is confusing at times but well worth the effort. The writing is beautiful and evokes much emotion in the reader. I found it almost heart wrenching to even read. I truly felt for this character. So many of us live with the memory of the one that got away...for Ann it was all consuming. In the end, we can only hope that she has found the peace that has evaded her all of her life.

A wonderful writer not to be overlooked.