committedtomemory

Evening

By Susan Minot.

Wow. From the first page this book gripped me. Though why I can't figure out. Right from the beginning, I knew that the book was a bout the final days of a woman dying of cancer. Not too uplifting. Yet well written. The visions, somewhat MTVish as they swirled around in her mind with her consciousness waxing and waning were well done.

I found some of the characters hard to unravel. Though I suspect that was part of the literary method. Sometimes, characters were clearly painted. They came in and out of her visions, sometimes peripherally, sometimes in center stage. Through the whole thing Harris Arden. Also not a well developed character. Was he just a ladies man or did he really have feelings for Ann. You will never know because she would never know. You get the sense that his ghost is sitting with her in her final moments. Or is that just her desire to be back with him?

Minot did not take the easy way out. It would have been a beautiful thought for the main character to decide that if she were to let go, she would end up in heaven with the love of her life. But throughout there is this feeling that there is no hope, she has no way of making things go her way and she is resigned to it.

The party with all the people in her life who have died is also interesting. A very short vision. She sees Buddy (who died young) as middle-aged, graying and thick-in-the waist, her son is crying, her parents together and well dressed. Again, not your presupposed vision of meeting up with the people who have died before you. And holding onto each other's hips to do a conga line. Was it a vision mixed with memories or her real take on what she would see after death?

At times, I flashed back to scenes from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

posted by dsimom @ 8:34 AM