Folly

by Susan Minot

Overview

An upper-class Boston woman struggles through a life constrained by duty in this “dazzling” historical novel by a prize-winning author (Chicago Tribune).

Born into an affluent New England family at the turn of the twentieth century, Lillian Eliot engages in the coming-of-age rituals traditional of her social status. But when she meets Walter Vail, a charming and spontaneous New Yorker, her world is opened to new possibilities. As the Great War erupts, Walter leaves for Europe and marries another woman, and Lillian marries Gilbert Finch, an innocuous bachelor within her social circle. As the years pass, Lillian acquiesces to a life devoid of passion until, one day, Walter returns. In the tradition of Edith Wharton and E.M. Forster, Susan Minot brings to vivid life the world of the early twentieth century and the story of a woman searching for love despite society’s constraints.
This ebook features a new illustrated biography of Susan Minot, including artwork by the author and rare documents and photos from her personal collection.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781453202906
Publisher:	Open Road Media
Publication date:	10/26/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	279
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Susan Minot is an award-winning novelist and short story writer. She is the author of Monkeys, Folly, Lust & Other Stories, Poems 4 A. M., Rapture, and Evening, which was adapted into the feature film of the same name, starring Meryl Streep.  Minot also wrote the screenplay of Bernardo Bertolucci’s Stealing Beauty. Her most recent book is Thirty Girls. Minot was born in Boston and currently lives with her daughter, dividing her time between New York City, where she teaches, and an island off the coast of Maine.

Susan Minot is an award-winning novelist and short story writer. She is the author of Monkeys, Folly, Lust & Other Stories, Poems 4 A. M., Rapture, and Evening, which was adapted into the feature film of the same name, starring Meryl Streep.  Minot also wrote the screenplay of Bernardo Bertolucci’s Stealing Beauty. Her most recent book is Thirty Girls. Minot was born in Boston and currently lives with her daughter, dividing her time between New York City, where she teaches, and an island off the coast of Maine.

Editorial Reviews

A coming-of-age story set in turn-of-the-century Boston from the author of Monkeys .

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Lillian Eliot is the product of Brahmin Boston, whose traditions and socially correct attitudes have been instilled in her. She has been cast in the mold. Yet at times she longs to break free, to be someone different. Lillian sees that her choice of a husband will determine her future, but she finds herself most comfortable with what is familiar and marries accordingly. Later in life she is again faced with the choice--to break free or stay. In making her choice, Lillian finally discovers herself. This is a book of the inner workings of the heart and the mind. In elegant, eloquent prose, Minot captures the essence and the impact of life's decisions. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/92.-- Joanna M. Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Coll. of Continuing Education Lib., Providence

Library Journal

Minot, author of Monkeys , is a writer of great charm, empathy, and awareness. Her second novel ushers us back to the eve of World War I. Lilian Eliot is a typical young Boston Brahmin, attending the appropriate parties and conforming to the proper social mores, but she wonders about the storms of longing that batter her mind and swell her heart. She marvels at the glossy veneer maintained by her straight-backed family and friends, certain that these storms, or something like them, rage behind their carefully composed faces as they do behind hers. While none of the men of her acquaintance arouse her interest, a stranger from New York about to go off to war instantly enchants her. Lilian pushes the very limits of propriety to be alone with Walter Vail, but he's a flirt, and their attraction recedes into nostalgic fantasy as Lilian waits stoically for another romantic awakening. Her eventual marriage to Gilbert Finch settles abruptly into an ossified routine, and Lilian soon loses her sense of herself, feeling dulled and padded. The story evolves into an exploration of the sacrifices and torments of passionless marriage. Minot's precise, poised prose is almost stately, recalling the fine art of Edith Wharton and Kate Chopin, but with a wholly original spin and keenness. She animates each scene effortlessly, perfectly rendering the mischief of squabbling and the fleetness of banter and gossip while expressing various modes of emotion with gentle, resonant eloquence.

Donna Seaman

Minot (Monkeys; Lust) is a curious writer: hardly a particle of her work is original, but she writes brilliantly in the tone, manner, and style of past writers—Fitzgerald, Hemingway, James, Cather, Woolf, even Marquand and Evan Connell—the flavor and energies of whose work she seems to have absorbed like blotting paper. This, her first novel, is the story of Lilian Eliot, daughter of upper-class Boston parents, who in 1917 is swept off her feet by a handsome young man about to depart for the war. He proves something of a cad, staying in Europe after 1918 to marry there, leaving the sensitive Lilian to make what she can of her privileged but emptiness-threatened life in Boston. Not until she's 26 and the Jazz Age has arrived does Lilian meet and marry one Gilbert Finch, a quiet young man of the proper class who also fought in Europe and now enjoys bird-watching. Gilbert will provide Lilian with three children, will recover from a nervous breakdown that's rivetingly and beautifully described, and over time will give his wife—as the 1920's end and the 1930's begin sifting through the hourglass—stability and order but not passion. The handsome young cad from 1917—Walter Vail—will reappear, giving Lilian occasion once and all to reckon up her life. Throughout, Minot offers exquisitely crafted narrative bouquets in these pages of tone-perfect and tireless garnerings from the subjects and spirit of the masters. Her eye for the acute detail is flawless, period flavor is impeccable, character is drawn with conciseness, and style is repeatedly lovely, with seldom a clumsy step. Expert, often poignantly moving prose about life in a past time and place.Rich with pleasures from start to end, so long as you don't mind their being mainly secondhand.

Kirkus Reviews