SUSAN MINOT

October 11, 2001 (Thursday) With Kate Walbert 4:00 Informal Seminar, HU 354 8:00 p.m.Joint Reading Recital Hall, PAC UAlbany, Uptown Campus

SUSAN MINOT first achieved major critical acclaim in 1986 with the publication of Monkeys which depicts the troubles and strife of a large, well-to-do family of seven siblings living in the Boston suburbs. A. R. Gurney, writing in The New York Times Book Review, compared Minot's talent to that of J. D. Salinger. The novel appeared in several languages and received France's prestigious Prix Femina Etranger.

"one of the youngest and move impressive new arrivals on the literary scene." - Anne Tyler in The New Republic

After her sudden fame, Minot retreated to a secluded house in Tuscany where she began writing Lust and Other Stories (1989), and accumulated details that would later inform the script of Bernard Bertolucci's film, Stealing Beauty (1996) which will be presented as part of our Classic Film Series on Wednesday, October 10. Set in the beautify Tuscan hills, the film follows the experiences of a young girl (played by Liv Tyler) as she searches for love and the answers to family riddles. Minot will provide film commentary immediately following the screening.

Minot's 1998 novel Evening presents an old woman on her deathbed as she remembers the romantic encounters and major incidents of her life.

"In spare and lovely language, Susan Minot has set forth a real life in all its particularity and splendor and pain. This is the task of the novelist, and in Evening Minot has succeeded admirably." - Roxana Robinson in The New York Times Book Review

Susan Minot will read from her soon-to-be published novel, Rapture, and her first poetry collection Poems at 4 A.M. She divides her time between New York City and an island in Maine.

"Evening vindicates the wildest assertions any of us have made about Susan Minot's talent. It's a wonderful, truthful, heartbreaking book." - Tom McGuane

"Susan Minot's Evening is her best work yet--assured, supple, exhilarating in its nerve and cool momentum." - Joan Didion

"Susan Minot's new novel is a brilliant lyric performance. The heroine, nearing death, relives the most electric scenes of her life. She is a great diva singing a last aria of her first burst of love. Marriages and children followed, but that ecstasy is her final consuming spell." - John Casey