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Susan Minot.
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In the following excerpt, Maitland examines the weaknesses of Monkeys, noting that the novel lacks substance.
Perhaps I am getting old; surely when I started reviewing, ‘first novels’ me...
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In the following positive review, Rowlands commends the complexity of the protagonist in Folly.
Set in Boston before World War I, Susan Minot's new novel offers a haunting perspective, not only...
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In the following review, Rubin examines the structure of Folly, crediting the novel's protagonist for the work's “universal” relevance.
At a time when many novelists, like ...
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In the following essay, Thiebaux provides an overview of Minot's life and work, based on an interview with Minot upon the publication of Folly.
Understatement is the novelist's preferenc...
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In the following excerpt, Bell offers a mixed assessment of Folly, praising Minot's virtuosity, but finding fault with the novel's circumscribed milieu and idiom.
Somewhere in his journa...
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In the following excerpt, Davenport explores the narrative significance of historical context in Folly.
In 1850 Alessandro Manzoni published an essay called Del romanzo storico (it first appeared in E...
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In the following review, Duchêne compares Folly to Edith Wharton's novels of manners, highlighting similarities between their protagonists and tone.
Writing in 1925 about the craft of fi...
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In the following positive review, Wiegand attributes the success of Evening to Minot's attention to detail.
The characters in Susan Minot's achingly sad new novel, Evening, are like figu...
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In the following excerpt, Wood assesses the strengths and weaknesses of Evening, commenting that the prose in the novel is occasionally “just too casual.”
Scarcely anyone now turns to no...
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In the following positive review, Smith comments on the themes, characters, and moods in Monkeys.
Only the first story, not chapter really, is told by Sophie, one of the seven Vincent children [in Mon...
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In the following review, Fleming explores Minot's ruminations on death in Evening.
The narrating consciousness of Susan Minot's third novel [Evening] belongs to sixty-five-year-old Ann L...
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In the following mixed review, Moore praises the narrative significance of memory in Evening, but criticizes the novel's highly stylized prose.
[Evening] is a novel about the big issues: the po...
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In the following excerpt, Allen criticizes the sexual premise and Minot's “shoddy” writing in Rapture.
The novella form sneaks in and out of fashion. At its best—in the han...
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In the following review, Wilson examines the ultra-fictional qualities of Lust and Other Stories.
Among other things, Susan Minot's Lust and Other Stories reminds us that New York City is a fic...
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In the following review, Blais assesses the effectiveness of the minimalist style of Lust and Other Stories.
Three years ago, Susan Minot's short, beautiful first novel, Monkeys, established it...
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In the following mixed review, Eder praises Minot's skillful prose, but finds Lust and Other Stories repetitious, distant, and thematically limited.
For Susan Minot's young women, entrea...
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In the following excerpt, Wall explores Minot's motivations behind her minimalist techniques in Lust and Other Stories.
Susan Minot's volume [Lust and Other Stories] is a slim one, and s...
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In the following excerpt, French examines the theme and tone of Lust and Other Stories, praising the collection's subject matter, but questioning its sense of decorum.
It's virtually imp...
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In the following review, Solomon praises the characterization, narrative tension, and successful evocation of setting in Folly.
When Susan Minot's debut novel-in-vignettes, Monkeys, appeared si...
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In the following review, Eder offers a negative assessment of Folly, calling the novel underdeveloped and predictable.
In Monkeys, her splendid first novel, Susan Minot placed a large and troubled fam...
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Critical Review by Sara Maitland
