Susan Minot's novel, \Rapture,"" begins and ends rather abruptly. A couple lies in bed together in the middle of the day. Their bodies are attached and basking in the pleasures of the flesh. It is a moment of connection that has brought the two into each other's embrace.
That moment, however, is deceiving and only reveals an image. Behind the bodies of the couple are their thoughts and histories converging in the single instant that they've created. The events of their relationship have rolled into one another and are now mingling with each other in the single episode. Within the act of sex, they come to terms with the lives they've been trying to live.
The couple consists of Benjamin, a low-budget movie producer finally meeting with success and Kay, one of his assistants from a recent project. Benjamin is struggling with his on-again, off-again relationship with his former fianc??e Vanessa, while Kay tries to make sense out of the relationship she once had with Benjamin.
Vanessa figures in prominently as the woman who had Benjamin's promise of love right up until Kay walks into his office. Kay possesses the air of a fresh and interesting contact when Benjamin first meets her. It was the moment after the first meeting that starts to pull him away from Vanessa.
When Kay walks away from Benjamin's office, he was left short of a deep breath and could only bear it by allowing his eyes to follow her out. That moment erupts into a night of passion that put greater distance between Benjamin and Vanessa than they ever possessed in intimacy.
The novel jumps between the narratives of Kay and Benjamin going back and forth in the internal dialogue they don't dare express to each other. They feel the tension rise; their bodies shudder and let the moment come. The climax is exactly that, and ends with a blank page to follow the completion of their affair.
Above all, ""Rapture"" focuses its keen eye on the undertow of relationships that occupy men and women. Men are said to ""endure twenty years of misery rather than face ten minutes of discomfort,"" while Kay relates that she ""spent more time trying to forget [Benjamin] than she ever did actually being with him."" The book takes on the voices of both Benjamin and Kay with equal honestly and occasional bluntness. Minot says the things that even lovers are afraid to utter.
Moving from person to person, comes the movement from platonic to sexual attraction. The characters move between the two and easily blur the line when the plot bundles itself up. There is a comparison of platonic and sexual love and both seem to be more ambiguous because of it. While ""there is no poetry in the phrase 'on a friendly basis,'"" Kay remarks that ""She felt the absurdity of sex like a wink from a wise man standing in the corner.""
There is a multileveled exploration of sex contained within the slim novel. It is described sparingly in its simple physical essence before moving on to the event that turns two people into a couple. From there, it presents sex as something of an offering and even a service. The deepest revelation is its role as a remedy and even a cause of insurmountable loneliness.
The language is sometimes slight and it depends heavily on a single story expanded into two perspectives. This could very easily grow stagnant and even repetitive. However, Minot manages to keep the history of the couple separate from the stories of the individuals.
""Rapture"" is a brief and intriguing novel that explains more within its space than it would seem to show. It maintains a powerful undertow of seriousness while unapologetically revealing all that it can. Though trapped within a single encounter, the novel opens up the space within people even when they can't find it within each other.
