Monkeys

I've been on a Susan Minot kick, and so I just re-read this book for the first time in years.I still enjoyed every page. Minot takes readers inside a large family and puts us right in the middle of the action, or inaction. Although more like linked vingnettes than a novel, Monkeys made me think of a contemporary Cheaper by the Dozen meets the Kennedys. Her writing is flawless and the stories are so simple, so absolutely every-family, I couldn't help be be mesmerized all over again.

Take a break, read this book. Want your heart broken in a way that makes sense? A way you know is true, we all practice for? "Monkeys" will put a permanent pillow under your head. It becomes sweet.

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.

I could not put this book down once I started reading it! I found it to have truly human characters that were funny, poignant, and easy to fall in love with. I highly recommend it. Because it was originally written as several short stories, it is easy to read one chapter at a time. You will love it!

This book describes one woman's painful childhood in an upper class New England family. The book deals with difficult subjects (alcoholic father, death of mother) with an acute deftness and touches of unexpected humor. The first chapter is written from the child's point of view and starts with a "typical" family Sunday of church, ice-cream, and the beach. It ends with the children and mother hiding in a linen closet to play a prank on the father. The ending of the chapter is unexpected, but rings oh-so-true. "Monkeys" is brush-stroke writing at its best.