Rapture

The short novel Rapture by Susan Minot didn't take me too long to finish. And since it was a mood novel, it caught hold of my attention, and made me turn the pages fast.

A novel about only a few minutes during one day, when two lovers meet and get sexual, and to weave an entire novel around those few minutes, is a literary feat. The past of the two lovers, and theire other lovers are flash forwarded, and the movement is back and forth constantly, from the present into the past and back.

There is alternation of point of view, with the two lovers getting equal time and page space. And the variety of characters and details in that space is amazing. The whole picture emerges as one reads the book. One gets to know about the man's fiancee Vanessa and her father, about the woman's past, the man's past, their characters, especially the selfishness of the man, and the large heartedness of the woman.

Kind of monologue goes on as they are engaged in sex, and that reveals the entire story.