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Emily Dickenson wrote, "The heart selects her own society."
In her book, "Evening," Susan Minot explore the process by which the heart decides who and what is important in her story told from the point of view of Ann Lord, a sixty-five year-old woman stricken with cancer.
It understandable how, as Ann lays dying her thoughts to her fleeting time with Harris Arden a doctor she met at a friend's lavish wedding forty years earlier. Her liaison with Harris occured at a time in her life when she was young and when the very air around her was charged with romance and possibility, before she was knocked onto a life path that lead through a series of dissapointing marriages and tragedy.
For Ann, her time with Harris is something to be etched on a grecian urn, one perfect moment to keep for the rest of her life and sustain her through life's difficulties. For Ann, the liaison between herself and Harris relies on its brevity for its beauty. For Ann, Harris will always be dashing, someone who will never leave the toilet seat up or fail to take out the garbage, and he will never age for her.
With her spare language, Minot brings the reader to the breath and marrow of Ann. You can fully empathize with Ann's belief that Harris is the only real love of her life. As a reader, understanding that, to Harris, the relationship was merely one last fling before he marries his pregnant girlfriend makes Ann a more real and relatable character.
Did Ann have a great love for Harris? No, of course not. She hardly knew him. And even if there were no pregnant fiance, the odds would have been heavily against Ann and Harris would having a happy, "'til death do you part" marriage. The fact that Harris would cheat on his fiance tells us who he is. So maybe it's better for Ann to have the icon she made in Harris' image during that weekend with her on her darkening evening forty years later.
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Evening by Susan Minot
joanre101, October 29, 2006
Emily Dickenson wrote, "The heart selects her own society."In her book, "Evening," Susan Minot explore the process by which the heart decides who and what is important in her story told from the point of view of Ann Lord, a sixty-five year-old woman stricken with cancer.
It understandable how, as Ann lays dying her thoughts to her fleeting time with Harris Arden a doctor she met at a friend's lavish wedding forty years earlier. Her liaison with Harris occured at a time in her life when she was young and when the very air around her was charged with romance and possibility, before she was knocked onto a life path that lead through a series of dissapointing marriages and tragedy.
For Ann, her time with Harris is something to be etched on a grecian urn, one perfect moment to keep for the rest of her life and sustain her through life's difficulties. For Ann, the liaison between herself and Harris relies on its brevity for its beauty. For Ann, Harris will always be dashing, someone who will never leave the toilet seat up or fail to take out the garbage, and he will never age for her.
With her spare language, Minot brings the reader to the breath and marrow of Ann. You can fully empathize with Ann's belief that Harris is the only real love of her life. As a reader, understanding that, to Harris, the relationship was merely one last fling before he marries his pregnant girlfriend makes Ann a more real and relatable character.
Did Ann have a great love for Harris? No, of course not. She hardly knew him. And even if there were no pregnant fiance, the odds would have been heavily against Ann and Harris would having a happy, "'til death do you part" marriage. The fact that Harris would cheat on his fiance tells us who he is. So maybe it's better for Ann to have the icon she made in Harris' image during that weekend with her on her darkening evening forty years later.
(24 of 39 readers found this comment helpful)