The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 11 December 1999
by Susan Minot
This is one heartbreaking, tragic and compelling book. Through the memories of Ann Grant, Ann Katz, Ann Stackpole, and Ann Lord (all the same woman), as she lay dying of cancer, Minot explores the intricate mystery of memory and the painful enigma of death. Ann Lord won't see the leaves turn this year. Upon her bed of pain and memory, one weekend comes rising out of the past. Forty years ago, when she was still Ann Grant, and on an island in Maine, she met and fell in love with a man. Their intense relationship unfolds in a weekend of happiness and tragedy. Interwoven with this story are other memories of Ann's life, her husbands and children, births and deaths. In the end, though, there is a transcendence to that youthful love, and it colors all of her last days. This book is beautifully and intricately woven. Extremely sad, yet a deeply vivid acknowledgement of the wondrous power of memory.