Pineapple Street, by Jenny Jackson

 

Characters

Stockton Family Chip and Tilda – parents Cord, Darley, and Georgiana – children Berta – housekeeper   Cord Sasha – wife Jake Mullin – Sasha’s high school boyfriend   Darley Malcolm Kim – husband, lost job Poppy and Hatcher – children Soon-Ja and Young-ho – Malcolm’s parents   Georgiana Brady – married, affair with Georgiana, project manager in same company, killed in plane crash Lena and Kristin – high school friends Curtis McCoy – relationship later in novel

 

NOTE: The page numbers are from the 2024 paperback edition.

1.      Discuss the Stockton family and the in-laws.  How easy would it be to become a member of the family by marriage?

2.      Were you surprised that Darley refused her inheritance and passed it to her children?  How would the children be able to deal with that amount of wealth if they had lived a more “normal” life?

3.      Mullin was very close to Sasha’s family, to the extent that it made Sasha uncomfortable.  Did you see a comparison to the way Sasha treated Mullin and the way the Stockton’s treated Sasha?   Was it fair to Sasha to expect her to see the comparison at first?

4.      Mullin told Sasha told her that he was drawn to her because of “how loved you were…You had friends, you had so much love surrounding you that it was easy for you to share it” (page 241).  How did this make Sasha feel? 

5.      Do you think Georgiana and Darley realized how hurtful it was to Sasha when they called her a Gold Digger?  Did they know they were being mean or think they were just being funny?

6.      How would you feel moving into someone else’s house and not being allowed to change anything to make it more your own?  Did you understand Chip, Tilda, and Cord’s point of view?

7.      Did you get any insight into the lives of the ultra-rich?  At one point the author wrote, “Darley had noticed something about people with money: they stuck together…it was because when they were together, they didn’t have to worry about the differences their money meant in their lives” (page 284).

8.      What did you think about Curtis McCoy and his discussion with Georgiana about money.  He said “there is a difference between stability and obscene wealth” and “Income equality is the most shameful issue of our time” (page 224).  Was this a bit too heavy for the rest of the book or did it fit in?

9.      After Brady’s death, Georgiana went into a downward spiral and then realized she “had been horrible” and “It was the money that made her so horrible.  It had made her coddled and spoiled and ruined” (pages 246 - 247).  Was she being too hard on herself?

10.  Could each of the stories stood on their own?  How did they interconnect?

11.  When Georgiana became aware of Curtis, he suddenly seemed to be everywhere.  The author said it was the “Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, whereby once you notice something new you saw it all over the place” (page 215).  Have you ever experienced this?

12.  Discuss your reading experience.  What did you expect as you started reading compared to as you got at least halfway through?  Were you surprised the book included very serious subjects?

13.  Did you like the way it ended?

14.  This book was chosen as a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, USA Today, Elle, Vogue, Goodreads and several others.  Do you agree?  Why or why not?