Don’t Be a Stranger

After Ivy Cooper begins a relationship with Ansel Fleming, a musician who is 20 years younger, it becomes clear that the two are seeking different outcomes. Ivy, a divorced single mother, waits for their moments of infrequent and intense sexual intimacy to happen. She becomes obsessed with Ansel, which starts to jeopardize her writing career and personal life, especially her coparenting of her young son Nick. Meanwhile Ansel’s musical career is soaring, despite his recent release from prison for a minor drug charge. Until the final section of the novel, this book seems largely indistinguishable from other stories of unrequited love. The final section, however, takes an aesthetic turn when Minot describes Ivy’s trajectory as a series of rooms, each designated with a specific color; for example, Ivy’s therapist’s office becomes the Brown Room. Ultimately, however, this stylistic turn doesn’t fully compensate for the rest of the book.