Evening

Susan Minot's "Evening" is like no other book I have every read. It is full of beautiful prose, lovely poetry. As I read about Ann's lost youth, I felt an overwhelming sadness of loss, and also a great emotional happiness, thinking about my own youth. I am guessing that those who gave the book low reviews are young. You must be "of a certain age" to connect with this book. I content you must be old enough to have grown children, to remember another simpler era of your youth, and to have fond and not-so-fond memories of special people who came into and out of your life. I'm close to 60 and found Ann's age (65) unnerving, as I thought of my own mortality. There are books that touch us because we are close to them, and some that we're not ready to read yet. For those who didn't like the book, wait a few years and try again.

Broadway and television actress, Emmy Award winner for her performance in the PBS series The Adams Chronicles, Kathryn Walker has a varied and busy career. Born in Philadelphia she made her debut in an off Broadway production in 1971. It didn't take long for her to reach Broadway in such stellar offerings as "Private Lives" and "Wild Honey." Her film roles are many, and she has often appeared on daytime television. This is an actress perfectly suited to give voice to Minot's superb story of love and loss. In the summer of 1954 Ann Grant traveled from New York City to coastal Maine to be a bridesmaid in a good friend's wedding. She was 25, and it was there that she met Harris Arden. She had heard his name mentioned, but she had expected someone older. He was young, handsome, and they fell in love, almost immediately, fully, and passionately. That was a weekend she would always remember because Harris was engaged to a girl in Chicago, and he would marry her. Ann, too, would marry, several times. In the present narrative it is years later, we hear: "In her sixty-five years Ann Lord had kept herself busy and was not particularly reflective but now forced to lie here day after day she found herself visited by certain reflections. Life would not hold any more surprises for her, she thought, all that was left was for her to get through this last thing." Ann is dying, at times lucid, at other times seemingly lost in delirium where she relives that weekend of long ago. An incredible writer, Susan Minot has fashioned a singular story of love and loss, life and death. To hear this author's exquisite prose is a rare treat, to hear it read by Kathryn Walker enriches the experience. - Gail Cooke

I had been admiring *Evening* for several months when I finally purchased it last week. Within pages, I was already taken in by this provocative tale of lost love and healing. Susan Minot will be an author I look for every time I hit the bookstores.In *Evening*, Ann Lord is close to the end of her life, bedridden with cancer and with all of her children surrounding her. The illness, leaving her in between consciousness and dreams, allows her to bring forth the memory of a single weekend that changed her life entirely. Ann attended the wedding of her bestfriend Lila and fell in love... with a man that could not be hers.More than just a love story, Ann shows us her life, her three husbands, her five children and her spirituality. Ann's journey is not a smooth one. It's reality, and it's something that we can all relate to. It's a wonderful novel that may change how you perceive the people in your life. And it's a novel to savor. Enjoy!

I read through the review's of other readers and just felt the need to comment. Some didn't "get" Susan Minot's style. It's not just a little bit like James Joyce,(no slouch)and it seemed very correct when trying to capture the thoughts and feelings of a woman in her final dance with life and death -- not to mention morphine. I had no trouble with it, although it required a bit of "letting go"....which I enjoyed. I do think that anyone who has closely witnessed a loved one endure the lonely passing of life to cancer, might be strongly affected, as I was, by this book. I saw that another reader was annoyed by the seemingly "perfect" life had by Ann. Perfect? Somehow that escaped me. Besides, the point was that it comes down to this...it ends for all of us. We are alone, truly, as we die. While others hover around us, what is left is only a reflection of the life we lived and the choices we made. No one really *knew* Ann,except Ann,although many people had loved her. She had regrets that haunted her,and lots of "what if's" to deal with as she "conversed" with Harris, the one it all boiled back down to. It tugged at my heart deeply, and I look forward to anything else Susan Minot might write.

I agree with the writer from Burnaby, B.C. As one who has sat by a bedside and watched a parent die, this book was incredibly evocative and realistic. I found myself crying several times from the memories that her writing stirred in me. I truly loved this book. It was among the best novels I have read in years. It was beautifully written; lyrical, poetic and expressive. Minot was able to bring back the feelings of lost love, and of that first moment when two eyes meet and electrically connect. Anyone who has loved and lost someone -- whether it be a parent, or an unrequited love -- will find truth in this novel. I truly understood and could relate to the main character (Ann Lord), and maybe that is why I loved this novel so much. I would highly recommend this book. I will keep this on my shelf, long after I have recycled the novels that have been recommended to me through "Oprah's Book Club."