Susan Minot Critical Essay | Critical Review by Karen Sue Smith

Critical Review by Karen Sue Smith

SOURCE: Smith, Karen Sue. Review of Monkeys, by Susan Minot. Commonweal 113, no. 18 (24 October 1986): 572–73.

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 Monkeys]. But the eight other skillfully crafted episodes continue to exhibit a child's-eye view of thirteen years of family life. In lean prose, Susan Minot conveys the intimacies and estrangements that suffuse this world of family.

Events unfold naturally—against a New England setting, with a Harvard connection influencing style, tradition, and expectations—around the universal rhythms of birth, games, holidays, weddings, funerals, and daily dinner conversation.

Minot's first novel demonstrates a keen understanding of the perceptiveness of children who overhear and knowingly interpret parental actions and exchanges:

[Sherman] got up, all at once aware of himself, and scurried to his...
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