Monkeys (Vintage Contemporaries)

Rating:
Summary: Gnawing, days after you read the last page.
Review: It's been nearly a decade since I read this book but I'll never forget its profound impact on me--even as an only child! Minot's voice is so truly crafted that you will experience this family through each of the characters. You feel as though you are inside the heads of the mother and the siblings. You feel a sense of forboding with the father's presence. It's almost haunting that is exactly what makes this such a memorable read.

Rating:
Summary: Dysfunction Junction, What's Your Function?
Review: This book will do it for you if you come from a large upper-middle class family. You need to approach it from a sibling stance. If you don't have a background to relate, then you will most likely not appreciate the beauty and pain Susan Minot put into this work. If you can understand, then you will love this book forever.

Rating:
Summary: NO SYMPATHY FOR THESE CHARACTERS...
Review: This is not a badly written 'novel', but I found that I didn't care a bit about any of these characters -- with the possible exception of the first couple of 'chapters' (and I put it that way because, to me, this really felt more like a collection of short stories -- and indeed, much of it has appeared in that form in various publications), when they were very young children.

Perhaps because of the way their parents lived and raised them, and the fact that they are so privileged financially, the children grow up to be spoiled and self-centered, with few redeeming qualities -- I know this may seem a bit judgemental, this being a work of fiction, but when I read a book, I try to identify or sympathize with at least one of the characters. Pretty much without exception, all of the children in this book turn out to be brats who never really grow up. There was a quote on the book's cover comparing Susan Minot's work to that of J. D. Salinger -- she's a talented writer, but this doesn't hold a candle to his work.

I much preferred THE TINY ONE, by Minot's sister Eliza -- her style was much warmer and gentler, and the characters she drew much more likable. I've read a lot of good comment's about Susan's writing, so I'm still curious to check out some of her other books -- but this one disappointed me.