Moth

Over the past several weeks, we’ve been considering some different aspects of Susan Minot’s fine novel, Evening. Today, I’d like to call attention to the moth.

The moth appears on the cover of the 1999 edition that I’ve been reading. The only mention I’ve found of it in the text is on page 74:

I’ll never get out now she thought I’ll never get back down those stairs a moth batted against the ceiling against the ceiling against the ceiling.

(This passage occurs in a scene set in the book’s present wherein Ann is contemplating death. Again, we must note the importance in the text of punctuation ((or its absence)) and the use of italics and repetition. It gives the passage an intensely inner focus).

Since the image of a moth is on the cover, we have to assume it’s being highlighted for a reason.

Moths, best beloved, are often associated with “darkness, endings, and the unknown, but also with transformation, intuition, and the spirit realm. In different cultures, they can represent mortality, ancestors, and the cyclical nature of life, death, and renewal. They are also linked to the human soul, messengers from the spirit world, and wisdom.” Anyone who’s read The Teachings of Don Juan knows a lot about moths.

Whiny voice: Moths eat your sweaters too. That’s why you need moth balls.

Thank you, I’m not sure that’s relevant. It does seem entirely fitting that a moth would appear in a story about transitions and death. The sentence cited above also conveys a sense of a living creature struggling to escape a confining space, which is exactly Ann’s predicament.

Perhaps, this moth-thing also touches on the issue of marketing. One could believe that real authors are somehow above financial concerns but that is not the case. Authors like to earn money from their work. A conscious decision (probably the publisher’s) was made to accept the design of this edition of Evening, In addition to the white moth, we note the dark green background color to the photograph. The back cover provides a summation of the story, a version of it, at least:

July 1954. An island off the coast of Maine. Ann Grant—a 25 year old New York career girl—is a bridesmaid at her friend’s lavish wedding. Also present is a man named Harris Arden, a man whom Ann has never met…

 It continues and mentions that years later Ann is dying. Not to be snarky, but is this a fair description of the book we’ve been reading?

Nope.

This description attempts to put the book into a Romance genre, a woman’s book genre, and this “putting” seems to be an important aspect of how the book was marketed. I’m going to say it trivializes an exquisitely written story about life and death—not to say that Romance novels are trivial, but to say I don’t think Evening fits into a narrower genre. Let’s see:

“A romance novel is primarily defined by its central focus on the development and exploration of a romantic relationship between two individuals, with a happy, emotionally satisfying ending. The core elements include a love story, often involving challenges and obstacles, and a resolution that leaves the reader with a sense of hope and fulfillment.” 

‘Kay, Evening could be jammed into this, I just think it limits it too much. A simple objection is that Evening does not have a happy ending. I don’t think it’s necessarily tragic, but Ann does die, and all her particular memories are lost. If a reader was looking for a Romance novel and picked up Evening, I think they’d feel they’d been misled.

This makes me think of the ancient distinction between comedy and tragedy—a comedy is a story where the protagonist lives, a tragic story is one where the protagonist dies, essentially because of actions taken by this protagonist. Hence, our friend Dante’s master work is entitled, The Divine Comedy although it is not terribly funny. In this system, Evening would be a tragedy. I don’t know if it is, my friends. Every living creature dies, Ann dies (by implication) —is a natural process tragic? To me, tragedy seems like a sad and unfortunate event that could have been prevented.

‘Kay again. The clock on the clubhouse wall says it’s time to wrap up today’s philosophizing. Big news. I am going to take a vacation with Dena. The next post will be on May 16th, and it will focus on a new story, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis.

Till then.  

#SusanMinot #Evening #AlanBray