SOURCE: Thiebaux, Marcelle. “Susan Minot: Understatement is the Novelist's Preference, in Her Writing as Well as in Her Conversation.” Publishers Weekly 239, no. 50 (16 November 1992): 42–43.

In the following essay, Thiebaux provides an overview of Minot's life and work, based on an interview with Minot upon the publication of Folly.

Understatement is the novelist's preference, in her writing as well as in her conversation

Susan Minot meets PW in a friend's apartment in Greenwich Village while her own newly purchased condo, directly overhead, is being renovated. “It's completely gutted,” she remarks cheerily, oblivious of the wild clatter outside the open windows—Sixth Avenue, too, is being ripped apart.

A seasoned interviewee who has been profiled in Mademoiselle, W, and New York magazine, Minot is relaxed and breezy. “They're not even always accurate,” she exclaims about the other interviews. “I should correct that little press kit. For one thing, Minot doesn't sound...