B0042JSO2G EBOK

by Minot, Susan

  Let’s see our temperature her brain was boiling, she was supposed to choose between a kitchen and an ocean stop crying she can hear you what did they want? She wanted to be left alone but didn’t want them to go away, she didn’t want anyone to go away, a milk bottle with a red pleated top, they didn’t realize what was going on I’ll be back tomorrow Ann they were always going, they always went, they didn’t ever stay.

  She asked them why but they wouldn’t tell her.

  See you soon today was Friday tomorrow was Tuesday then it was Friday again I don’t think she can hear you very well what? a pill pushing her lips take this then it muddled her mind she only had her mind left I don’t think she recognizes me I don’t think

  They sat on a terrace with small coffee cups, he came out from behind a tree in the hot wind after rain a shutter was banging leave the table alone and come here the windows had been sited just right for the sunset, the kitchen should have been on the north side. When they moved in the downstairs was a ghastly green, she repainted right away, Abbott kept the linens neat. She redid the library, the sofa was reupholstered with the zippers inside out, the floor needed a rug, which room was she in? I’m right here. The cabinet latches were too high would anyone like another drink? She had to get rid of all that junk I better go one room kept turning into a closet I better go they should have left on the front light where have you been? the gardener cut down the lilac bush by mistake, she planted daffodils in clusters, the vases needed to be changed don’t forget before closing the house the curtains should be draped over sawhorses don’t forget paper put between the sheets, the fireplace ashes saved easy to put together, hard to take apart she couldn’t remember which house it was who would like some more? there was forsythia on the hall table in the spring, her mother kept the mail in a pile, her father leaned on the railing coming down the steps, she was dancing with him on flagstones his skin began to leak where’s Nora? There was nothing she could do about the stairs, they couldn’t be changed, she would have to live with them where are you? She heard them going by out in the hall whispering back tomorrow! The highboy cracked down the center Nora She opened the door to the hall in the middle of the night and was stopped by a sheer rock face what is she saying? She wants the nurse waves were washing down the stairs we’ll be back tomorrow Ann the twins in corduroy jackets matching when are you coming back? their shoulder blades like birds back tomorrow see you

  Down in the cellar they were slicing white pineapple and slabs of white whale meat Nora where’s Nora? They were cutting white flesh where was her heart? She used to have a madonna in gold leaf by her bed she said she’d never leave me she used to have a white halter dress she used to sing in the choir she trimmed the girls’ hair she had a rose garden Nora

  I’m right here

  This was not just a day trip, her parents were going on a pilgrimage

  We’ll say a prayer for you the smell of rose water, you clipped your finger in and made the sign of the cross I better go they said I better go ribbons marked the place in the rice pages have you forgotten? I’m right here don’t forget think of those less fortunate don’t forget, that’s nonsense, don’t forget, stop being absurd

  Let’s turn you over

  The thing is it only hurts when it hurts she said her prie-dieus I better go her mother taught her to make stew first brown the meat they had cake at tea she took a sunbath don’t be absurd they celebrated D-Day by taking a swim don’t be ridiculous she bought a red winter coat an evening dress from Bonwit Teller she tried on a darling bathing suit but they had no charge at Neal’s but the thing is it hurts all the time they went starlight coasting she had lunch with Lila at Schraffts’ he brought her a gardenia they talked about two things what they did was a secret that’s nonsense Frank was in the parlor shaking change in his pocket it had snowed the steps were deep and white after the party they went to bed at six they hit a snowbank on the way home and had to crawl in the window his cheek was hot he lifted her the way you looked made me want to kiss you her mouth turned into a sea anemone a hand was clamped over her mouth one day there will be no dawn they went to a double feature she forgot her wallet and scarf they walked home I don’t have any news the tar was warm through her tennis shoes the trees were black that’s alright you don’t have to say anything she might have had another life don’t be absurd another woman had her life he carried it off in his pocket it endures inside he said she was a tray of bones she was pregnant again where is inside? can we go there together? other people were living in her apartment a cyclone was coming her father went up to the church balcony without warning anyone about the storm it is all in the mind the baby was wrapped in a blanket then it began to unravel in the wind till all that was left was a little wooden stick there are no oceans in the mind she was the same age as her mother first there is the world then the mind comes after her soul was turning down so being there first is important after all there was no more stay like that always she was so small she says she’ll never leave me no more to say or do or think or be don’t be that way that’s nonsense he once touched her lips then what are you doing that was don’t stop that was don’t leave that was all don’t forget don’t be absurd don’t be that was stay like that always don’t forget me don’t be absurd I won’t don’t forget me I will always I will never I will always

  August 3 11-7

  11am Juice 1 tsp No reaction when spoken to Respiration labored 16 R/98.6 Unable to count pulse Very weak 11:45 Perspiring Gown changed Sponge bath Care to hips and back Pos changed 12:15 Called me by name Juice one sip 1:15 Morphine sulfate ½ cc as ordered Juice 1 tsp Moaning 2:00 Juice sip (spoon) Pos changed Back and hips rubbed 3:45 Juice sip Pos changed Care to hips and back 4:15 Morphine sulphate as ordered 5:15 Juice sip 6:00 Sponge bath Care to hips and back Hair combed Pos changed R/98.6 Resp 16 labored Pulse weak Has not voided Intake nil

  It could happen anytime. It could happen tonight.

  Yes well we thought that Thursday.

  You can’t tell. Nora said you can’t predict.

  Was Dr. Baker here this morning?

  Around noon he came.

  What did he say?

  That it could be anytime.

  Very helpful.

  Would it make a difference if we knew? I mean really.

  We could … I don’t know … plan. We could … we’d just know.

  It wouldn’t make a difference. We’d still be waiting. That’s all we can do. Be here and wait.

  I wouldn’t want to know myself, Nina said.

  I wonder if she’s finished up there, Teddy said.

  We can wait another minute.

  Is that the fountain on out there?

  No.

  Yes it is. Listen.

  Who turned it on?

  They all looked at each other. No one spoke.

  God, Constance said.

  It’s a nice sound, Margie said.

  They listened to the water running in the dark.

  August 4 7-3

  7am Patient in same weakened state a.m. care turned and position changed Bed changed R/99.6 Pulse very weak Resp 16 labored 8:00 Patient moaning Appears very uncomfortable Morphine sulfate 15 mg IM Skin clammy to touch 8:15 Dr Baker in Condition remains same Void of intake 9:00 Son T.S. phoned Turned and positioned Skin care oral care X2 0 pulse Resp 14-16 labored breathing Unresponsive 10:00 Moaning unconsciously Both pupils constricted Backward arching of neck and shoulders noted Legs appear rigid Oral care 11:00 Position changed Turned Skin care oral care Moaning 12 Noon Turned 0 void Still moaning Morphine sulfate 15 mg IM for pain Congestion noted 0 pulse Resp very labored 1 pm Turned over Resp 10-12 1:10 0 response 0 pulse Body convulsions Vomitus expelled from oral cavity Dr Baker notified Daughters present Son present in room 1:30 Dr. Baker in to verify expiration.

  N. Brown, LPN

  I’m going to have to go.

  Yes, I know.

  Her mouth was parted and her breath rattled in her throat. After a silence she said, Will you come back.
/>
  Of course!

  Tomorrow? You’ll come back tomorrow?

  I’ll do my best. But it may have to be the day after.

  He waited a moment or two then said very softly, Are you asleep? Little angel?

  No, I’m not asleep.

  I will try to come tomorrow. But it’s complicated. It’s been lovely to see you, he said.

  Yes, she said. So lovely. My father used to call me angel, she murmured.

  I won’t say good-bye.

  No, she said. Don’t.

  He did not come the next day, he did not come the day after. He did not come again.

  READING GROUP GUIDE

  1. Minot gives the novel an epigraph from William Faulkner: “I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you might forget it now and then for a moment and not spend all your breath trying to conquer it.” How does this quotation relate to Evening? Does Ann try to “conquer” time?

  2. Minot renders Ann’s thoughts in what might be called stream-of-consciousness. Which things does Ann remember most distinctly? Which does she remember least distinctly? Which does she repress? What does the relative weight she allows each memory tell us about the emotional shape of her life?

  3. Outsiders see Ann rather differently than she sees herself. Her daughter Constance, for instance, says that “her big thing” is “her stuff”; “That’s what she cared about, her house and her pictures and all her things” [p. 129]. Her daughters imply that she doesn’t laugh much [p. 32]. The doctor’s wife says Ann is “just like other women, maybe a little more stylish if you had to say something, but like other women” [p. 12]. What, if anything, does this elderly Ann have in common with the young, passionate Ann she still feels herself to be? What does this dichotomy imply about the differences between our inner selves and the outer person our friends and family see?

  4. What might have attracted Ann to each of her three husbands? How did she come to view each of them as the years went by? How does the language in which Ann recalls her marriages differ from the language in which she recalls Harris, and what does this difference in language tell us about her feelings?

  5. Ann wishes that she “might have been able to read the spirit within herself and would not have spent her life as if she were only halfway in it” [p. 137], then goes on to reflect that “her life had not been long enough for her to know the whole of herself, it had not been long enough or wide” [ibid]. In what ways has it not been wide enough? Does the fault for this lie with the cruelty of fate, or with Ann herself? If fault lies with Ann, what might she have done to make things different?

  6. How would you describe each of Ann’s children? How has each been molded and shaped by his or her relationship with her? How does each of them behave toward her? Has the essential sadness of Ann’s life rubbed off on them?

  7. How has Paul’s death affected Ann, Teddy, and the other children? Has it made them closer, or estranged them from one another? How, and at what times, is Ann compelled to remember Paul?

  8. What sort of a person is Harris, really? What do you deduce about him and about his feelings, principles, and desires from his behavior, from what others say about him, and from the short section written from his point of view [p. 232-233]?

  9. In one of Ann’s imaginary discussions with Harris, he says that she might have become a little “hard” [page 224]. Does this seem a fair assessment, judging from what you know of the older Ann? If so, how does this hardness manifest itself and why has she become hard?

  10. How does Minot thematically link Buddy’s fate with the fate of Ann and Harris’s romance? In what ways is this particular weekend the turning point in Ann’s life, and how has Buddy’s fate intensified this process of change?

  11. Does Ann ever feel responsible for what happened to Buddy? Does Harris? Does a sense of responsibility for this tragedy, or a lack of one, have any specific effect on Ann’s future life?

  12. Ann conducts a number of imagined conversations with Harris in which the two meet again, for the first time in forty years. What sort of person is this elderly, imaginary Harris? Is he the sort of character you can imagine the young Harris growing into? How do you think the real sixty-five-year-old Harris might remember Ann?

  13. If Ann and Harris had married, what sort of a life might they have had? Would they have been happy together? Might Ann have been unhappy and unfulfilled even with Harris?

  SUSAN MINOT

  Susan Minot’s first novel, Monkeys, was published in a dozen countries and received the Prix Femina Étranger in France. She is the author of Lust & Other Stories, Folly, Poems 4 A.M., and Rapture, and wrote the screenplay for Bernardo Bertolucci’s Stealing Beauty, and she co-wrote with Michael Cunningham the screenplay for the film adaptation of Evening.

  Books by Susan Minot

  Monkeys

  Lust & Other Stories

  Folly Poems 4 A.M.

  Rapture

  Evening

  BOOKS BY SUSAN MINOT

  EVENING

  During a summer weekend on the coast of Maine, twenty-five-year-old Ann Grant fell in love. Forty years later—after three marriages and five children—she finds herself in the dim claustrophobia of illness. As she careens in and out of delirium, the memory of that weekend returns to her with intense clarity. Here, in a singular time of complete surrender, Ann discovers the highest point of her life. Superbly written and miraculously uplifting, Evening is a stirring exploration of love’s transcendence and of its failure to transcend.

  Fiction/Literature/978-0-375-70026-2

  LUST AND OTHER STORIES

  In this sublime collection of short stories, Minot focuses her observant eye and lyrical voice on the delicate emotional negotiations of young New Yorkers. Deceptively simple, these stories uncover small moments that yield larger truths—about the ways in which women and men come together and come apart again, about the disappointments and hopes of lovers who know what they want but don’t always know how to keep it. With a flair for the telling detail, Minot offers us a poignant meditation on the nature of desire and loss.

  Fiction/Literature/978-0-375-70925-8

  MONKEYS

  This luminous story of family life has become a modern classic. The Vincents are a large and awkward New England family. Augustus Paine drinks too much; his wife, Rosie, a high-spirited Catholic, holds the family together, towing her seven “monkeys” to church, to boat races, and picnics in Maine. Susan Minot writes with delicacy and a tremendous gift for the details that decorate domestic life, and when tragedy strikes, she beautifully mines the children’s tenderness for each other, and their aching guardianship of what they have.

  Fiction/Literature/978-0-375-70836-7

  RAPTURE

  The setting is a New York apartment where two long-estranged lovers try to resuscitate their passion. Kay is old enough to be skeptical about men—this man in particular—but still alert to the possibility of true love. Benjamin is a filmmaker with an appealing waywardness and a conveniently disappearing fiancée. As the two lie entwined in bed, Susan Minot ushers readers across an entire landscape of memory and sensation to reveal the infinite nuances of sex: its power to exalt and deceive, to connect two separate selves or make them fully aware of their solitude. Honest and unflinching, the result is a hypnotic reading experience.

  Fiction/978-0-375-72788-7

  VINTAGE CONTEMPORARIES

  Available at your local bookstore, or visit

  www.randomhouse.com

  FIRST VINTAGE CONTEMPORARIES EDITION, SEPTEMBER 1999

  Copyright © 1998 by Susan Minot

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, in 1998.

  Vintage Books, Vintage Contemporaries, and colophon are trademarks of
Random House, Inc.

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the Knopf edition as follows:

  Minot, Susan

  Evening / Susan Minot.—1st American ed.

  p. cm.

  eISBN: 978-0-307-75878-1

  I. Title.

  PS3563.I4755E84 1998

  813.54—dc21 98-15437

  www.vintagebooks.com

  v3.0