My Brilliant Friend, by Elena Ferrante

 

Characters
Friends and families	Others
Lila Cerullo Rino – older brother, shoemaker Rino – Lila’s son in Prologue   Elena Greco   Stefano Carracci – runs family grocery store, married Lila Don Achille– father, murdered Alfonso – high school student with Elena Pinuccia - sister   Carmela Peluso Pasquale – brother, construction worker Alfredo – Father, blamed Don Achille for his failures, arrested for his murder   Enzo Scanno   Nino Sarratore – went to Ischia with family Donato – father, poet, affair with Melina, tried to seduce (assault) Elena Lidia – mother, tormented by Melina Marisa – sister, friend of Lila and Elena   Marcello and Michele Solara – brothers   Gino – high school student, son of pharmacist   Antonia Cappucio Melina – mother, considered a mad woman, in love with Donato Sarratore, waged war against his wife, Lidia, to win Donato Ada - sister	Maestra Oliviero – teacher, discovered that Lila knew things   Maestro Ferraro – teacher and librarian   The Blue Fairy – Lila’s story, given to Maestra Oliviero, never returned or commented on   Nella Incardo – Maestra Oliverio’s cousin who lived in Ischia

NOTE:  Since the characters are listed by family at the beginning of the book, I have listed them by the names of the children who were friends with Lila and Elena.  The page numbers are from the paperback edition.

1. In the Prologue, Lila told Elena about 30 years prior that she wanted to “disappear without leaving a trace” (page 20).   Why do you think she wanted to do that?
2. What was Lila’s allure to Elena even though she did not always like her? Why was she fascinated with her to the point of trying to imitate her?  After it was revealed that Lila could read and do math better than anyone in the room, Elena said, “I devoted myself to studying and to many things that were difficult, alien to me, just so I could keep pace with that terrible, dazzling girl” (page 47).
3. What did you think happened to Lila and Elena’s dolls after they were thrown down the grate into the cellar?  Why did Don Achille give them money?
4. From when she was six, Elena felt that her mother did not like her (page 44).  But when Elena did not pass the exam to move on to the next grade and her father refused to pay for any  private lessons, her mother encouraged her to study on her own and told her, “Nowhere is it written that you can’t do it” (page 105).  Were you surprised at her mother’s encouragement?  Why did she do so?
5. What were Lila’s episodes of “dissolving margins” (page 89)?
6. What was the importance of the shoes made by Lila and Rino and why did they cause such a family disturbance?  Why was their father so mad when he found out about them?
7. On page 190, Lila asked Elena, “Is there something wrong with me?...I make people do the wrong thing.”  Also, on page 143, Elena had the realization, “…it slowly became clear to not only me, who had been observing her since elementary school, but to everyone, that an essence not only seductive but dangerous emanated from Lila.”   How did people relate to Lila and were they correct in this assessment?
8. There were a few things I did not understand.  Did you??
1. On page 329 Lila wrote Elena that a copper pot on the wall of her kitchen had spontaneously exploded.
2. On page 231 Elena remembered that four years earlier Lila “had placed the blood that spurted from the neck of Don Achille when he was stabbed” on the copper pots.
9. Discuss Lila and Elena’s friendship.  Was it strong?  Why was it strong?
10. The blurb on the front of the 2015 edition from the New York Times Book Review is, “One of the great novelists of our time.”  Do you agree?

Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson

 

Characters
San Piedro Island – Residents	Court and Law Officials
Kabuo Miyamoto Hatsue – wife   Carl Heine Susan Marie – wife Carl Sr. – father, deceased Etta – mother   Ishmael Chambers – reporter, owned newspaper Arthur – father, started newspaper   Ole Jurgensen – bought land from Etta	Judge Llewellyn Fielding Alvin Hooks – prosecutor Nels Gudmundsson – defense attorney   Art Moran – sheriff Abel Martinson – deputy   Horace Whaley - coroner
March 29, 1942 – Japanese Internment, Kabuo and Hatsue’s families went to Manzanar Internment Camp

 

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from paperback edition.

1. Why did the author name the reporter Ishmael? Given that the name is so well known from Moby Dick, the author must have had a specific reason for choosing that name.
2. Was it possible for Ishmael and Hatsue to be together?
3. Did you understand the San Piedro Island citizens’ point of view regarding their Japanese neighbors after Pearl Harbor?
4. Discuss how Kabuo appeared to the jurors.  On page 155 the author described his face as having “been arranged by its wearer to suggest his war and the strength he’d mustered to face its consequences but which instead communicated haughtiness…”    Would it be possible for the jurors to separate his appearance from their verdict?
5. Kabuo “knew himself to be guilty of murder” (page 155) because of the four soldiers he killed in the war. He felt the judge and jurors should appreciate the fact that he “had forever sacrificed his tranquility in order that they might have theirs” (page 155).   Was this possible for the judge and jury to understand this? 
6. Was Etta fair to the Miyamotos?  When she sold the land, she gave them back the original amount they had paid her husband but not the profit she made.  Legally she could have kept the payments they made because they defaulted at the end.  
7. Kabuo helped Carl when his boat battery died and talked with him about buying the land.   What do you think Carl would have done if he had not died?
8. Kabuo’s training in kendo started when he was seven.  His father told him that if he studied this craft “more would be expected of him than the average person” (page 165).  Did this turn out to be true?
9. Arthur Chambers defended Japanese citizens in his newspaper and lost business because of it. He told Ishmael that “not every fact is just a fact…it’s all a kind of…balancing act.”  When Ishmael objected, Arthur replied “But which facts?  Which facts to we print, Ishmael?”  (page 188).  What did you think when you read this?
10. Why did Kubuo refuse to tell his lawyer what really happened on Carl’s boat?  Do you think he could have gotten a fair trial?  What do you think the verdict would have been if Ishmael had not come forth with the information about the storm?
11. Was it possible for Ishmael to be happy?  When he talked to his mother about his unhappiness she replied, “I can’t really understand you…you went numb, Ishmael.  And you stayed numb all these years” (page 347).  What advice would you have given him? 
12. What do you think happened to Ishmael after the story ended?

The Chaperone, Laura Moriarty

Characters
Cora Carlisle	Louise Brooks
Alan – husband Sons – Howard and Earle (twins)   Raymond Walker – Alan’s friend   Mary O’Dell – mother, gave Cora up for adoption   Viola Hammond – Cora’s friend who joined the KKK   Kaufmanns – Cora’s adoptive parents   New York Home for Friendless Girls   Joseph Schmidt – custodian, passed as Cora’s brother Greta - daughter   Children’s Aid Society – sent orphan children to the Midwest to be adopted	Myra – mother Leonard - father Siblings – June, Theo   Eddie Vincent – Sunday School teacher, molested Louise, mother knew and kept quiet   Denishaw Dance Ruth St. Dennis – “Miss Ruth” Ted Shawn – “Papa Shawn”   Floyd Smithers - luncheonette

      For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from the paperback edition.

1. When Cora was in school, why was the ring toss game, graces, so important to her acceptance?  How was Mother Kaufmann so wise to understand this and also to advise Cora just to show her skill and let the other girls come to her (page 81).
2. As you were reading the beginning of the novel, what did you anticipate would happen?   What surprised you as you read further?
3. Why was Myra so eager to send Louise to New York?
4. When Louise told Cora about the abuse when she was a child, Cora at first condemned Myra for keeping it a secret.  But Louise told Cora that she, Cora, would have been among the first to gossip.  Cora recognized that she was right and that to Louise, she was a “confused, hypocritical old biddy” (page 273).  Was Cora being too hard on herself?
5. As reported in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 8-8-2020: Daisy Coleman, 23, subject of movie Audrie and Daisy, was sexually assaulted at age 14 and committed suicide in August 2020.  She and her family suffered “hostile reactions to her allegations in Maryville, MO.”  Have people’s attitudes and reactions changed any since Louise was abused?  Why or why not?
6. This novel was published in 2012 and was set in 1922, but it addressed many of the issues we are facing today in addition to how we treat victims of sexual abuse.   Did you gain any new insights?
1. Spanish flu of 1918
2. Homosexuality
3. Judging past actions by current standards (pages 11-13)
4. Alcohol/Prohibition
7. Cora and Louise went to see Shuffle Along, a musical with an all-black cast.  Cora’s godson, 50 years later, asked if she remembered seeing Josephine Baker in the show.  To Cora, the show, enjoyed with a multiracial audience, changed her views of integration (pages 167-169).  Can just one show do that?  Was that realistic?
8. Prisoners of war and civilian detainees were housed at Fort Oglethorpe, GA from 1917 to 1920.  In the novel Joseph Schmidt was sent here when he refused to kneel and kiss the American flag (page 226) even though he loved America.  Why did he refuse to do that?
9. Why didn’t the living arrangement among Cora, Alan, Raymond and Joseph ever raise suspicions?
10. Would Cora have had the courage to refuse to sign Winifred’s petition to ban contraceptives in the drugstores without having first spent time with Louise?
11. Did you know that Louise Brooks, Denishaw Dance and Eddie Vincent were real or did you find this out after reading the Acknowledgements at the end of the book?  Whenever you discovered this, how did this knowledge change your reading experience?

**Note from  Arden 8-22-2020:  After several months of not meeting, my groups are happy to be back together - outside at a pavilion, wearing masks, and social  distancing.  We plan to meet outside as long as the weather is nice, and then continue for the rest of the year online.  Stay safe and happy reading!!

 

Reading Through the 2020 Pandemic

I have talked with many avid readers during the past several months about how their reading has changed or not during these difficult times of social isolation and worry, and their responses are amazingly varied:

• Reading only cozy mysteries
• Having trouble reading at all
• Having trouble getting books since the libraries were closed
• Obsessively reading anything to escape
• Rereading childhood favorites
• Rereading favorite adult series
• Reading unread books on their shelves
• Missing book groups and conversations about the books

For a while I was not interested in fiction and looked at the nonfiction books on my shelves.  I had The Bully Pulpit by Doris Kearns Goodwin about Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and the New Age of Journalism; the second book in the Edmund Morris trilogy about TR, Theodore Rex; and Mornings on Horseback, by David McCullough (also about TR).  So, this started a month of Teddy Roosevelt, and all I had to buy was The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and Colonel Roosevelt to complete Morris’ trilogy!

My book groups are resuming this month, August, after not having met since February.  We did one online discussion for those uncomfortable gathering outdoors, and that went well.  We are meeting in a pavilion in one of the local parks - social distancing, wearing masks, and having individually wrapped snacks.  Last night the weather was beautiful for the first pavilion meeting and everyone was absolutely delighted to talk about books with friends.  We are going to do the same in September, and then see what happens.  We are looking for some creative ways to connect with books besides an online meeting.  Maybe I will continue to do the discussion guides and share via email.  We could have email chats or people could meet in small groups in their neighborhoods.

I would love to hear any ideas you have about how to stay connected with books and reading friends during these difficult times!

Happy reading!!

The Secrets We Kept, by Lara Prescott

NOTE: My book groups are not able to meet this month, March 2020, due to COVID-19.  We have plans to read and discuss Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak as a natural follow-up to this book.  Enjoy!

East

West

Olga Vsevolodovna Ivinskaya (Olya) – incarcerated 3 years, after that became Pasternak’s business emissary Ira – daughter Mitya – son Mother Boris Pasternak (Borya) 1958 – Awarded the Nobel Prize, forced to turn it down 1989 – Re-awarded Nobel Prize Zinaida - wife Lubyanka: Anatoli Sergeyevich Semionov – Olga’s guard Giangiacomo Feltrinelli – Italian publisher Sergio D’Angelo – Italian literary agent

Irina Drozdova Mother – seamstress Father – arrested, died in Gulag The Typists: Betty – former OSS Virginia – former OSS Gail Carter – engineering degree, black Kathy Norma Kelly – married Teddy, wrote spy novel Soviet Russian Division (SR):        Walter Anderson – oversaw typing pool, former OSS        Frank Wisner -founded agency’s clandestine ops,        Sally Forrester – The Swallow, became Lenore Miller in 1958 after dismissed from SR        Teddy Helm – trainer, went to England to get book in original Russian        Henry Rennet – ruined Sally’s reputation, Sally had him killed

For Discussion:

Note: Page numbers are from the hardback edition.

1.       The author wrote that many people involve in intelligence came to work at the Agency because, for one reason, they missed “the power that came from being a keeper of secrets” (page 59).   Can you understand this?  How do you feel when you are entrusted with a secret?

2.       Discuss the character of Irina.  Why did she have trouble fitting into the typing pool?  Irina wondered if her “feeling of being a constant outsider, of being more comfortable alone” was picked up by the group (page 117).

3.       Were you surprised that Irina liked her new role as a carrier as much as she did?  She thought that “For the first time in my life, I felt as if I had a greater purpose, not just a job” (page 116).   Could you do that type of work?

4.       What did you think about the subplot of the relationship between Sally and Irina?  Did it add to the novel?  Did you like the ending?

5.       At the end of the novel, Norma published a book about a “female agent provocateur who took down a double” and the Agency “distanc[ed] itself from novel’s content” (page 343).  Do you think this was a true story about Sally?  If so, how did Norma know this information?  Would Teddy have told her the story?

6.       Discuss the character of Henry:

a.       In Chapter 15, why did Henry attack Sally?  Did the people in the Agency really not care about her?

b.       Who were the people at Sara’s Dry Cleaning in Washington, DC?  What happened to Henry after Sally gave them his name?

c.       Was he really a double agent?

7.       Discuss the novel, Dr. Zhivago:

a.       When Sally finally read the book in 1958, she thought that it was not a weapon, but a love story (page 302). 

b.       The Agency thought is was a weapon.  They valued it because of the “critiques of the October Revolution and its so-called subversive nature” (page 131).

c.       What do you think after reading The Secrets We Kept?

8.       Discuss the power of books in general:

a.       The Agency saw “books as weapons” and thought that “literature could change the course of history” (page 130).  Do you agree?

b.       Have you read any books you thought could have changed the world?  That changed you?

9.       How did you like the organization of the book?  Did it take you a while to determine that chapters were narrated by different people?  Did you like the way the author crossed our previous identities and added new ones?

10.   Did this book influence you to want to read Dr. Zhivago?  (I hope so!!!)

Hillbilly Elegy, by J. D. Vance

NOTE: My book groups are not able to meet this month, March 2020, due to COVID-19.   Hopefully you can make good use of this time in social isolation to read!

People

J. D. Vance – author Usha – wife Lindsey – sister, husband Kevin, son Kameron Mamaw and Papaw – Jim Vance and Bonnie Blanton Children – Jimmy, Bev (author’s mother), Lori (“Aunt Wee,” husband Dan) Bev’s husbands: Dan Bowman – 2nd (J.D.’s father) Bob Hamel – 3rd (adopted J. D.) Ken – 4th

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from the paperback edition.

1.       This book was a combination of memoir and sociology textbook.  Discuss the following ideas or observations presented:

a.       “Social class in America isn’t just about money” (page 63).  The relationships Bev had with her husbands was often the norm in their social class.

b.       When working as a store cashier, the author observed that, “The more harried a customer, the more they purchased precooked or frozen food, the more likely they were to be poor.” (page 138).

c.       Emotional poverty (page 143) – unable to deal with difficulties in life without complete melt down

d.       Similarities between the black and the hillbilly experiences (page 144)

e.       Irrational behaviors such as excessive spending beyond money limits, homes a “chaotic mess,” don’t encourage education, don’t provide an environment conducive to learning, make choice not to work when should be seeking a job, never model responsibility, and poor eating and exercise habits (pages 146-148).

f.        The effect of “group belief” on the success of individuals.  The author wrote, “If you believe that hard work pays off, then you work hard; if you think it’s hard to get ahead even when you try, then why try at all?” (page 193).

g.       Social capital – economic value in people and institutions in people’s lives (page 214).

h.       When J. D. and Yale friends when out to eat and left a mess at the table, only J. D. and another student (also poor) stayed behind to clean up instead of leaving it for someone else (page 203).  Why?

2.       The author felt that to change young people’s lives, one thing that needs to be addressed is the importance of what happens in the home (page 245).  How can public policy address that issue?

3.       How were the author, Lindsey and Aunt Lori able to break the chain of violent marriages?

4.       The author identified only a few people who made a difference in his success (Mamaw and Yale Professor Amy Chua, for example).   Who encouraged you in your life or made a difference in your life’s path?

5.       Did reading this book give you any insights into people or society that you had not considered before?  If so, what?

The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II, by Denise Kiernan

Women at Oak Ridge	Men
Celia Szapka – secretary Toni Peters – secretary Jane Greer – statistician Kattie Strickland – janitor - African American – came with husband and left children behind Virginia Spivey – chemist Colleen Rowan – pipe inspector Dorothy Jones – calutron cubical operator Helen Hall – calutron cubical operator Rosemary Maiers – nurse	GG – General Leslie Groves – head of Manhattan Project James Edward “Ed” Wescott – photographer – documented Oak Ridge project Ebb Cabe – HP-12
Other Women	Names and Codes
Ida Noddach – German geochemist – suggested fission years before discovered Lise Meitner – Austrian physicist – escaped Nazi Germany – part of team that discovered fission Leona Woods – American physicist M. H.K.Ferguson – widow of H.K. Ferguson Co. founder – built S-50 plant Joan Hinton – American physicist – worked with Enrico Fermi Elizabeth Graves – American physicist – worked on neuron reflector surrounding the Gadget	The Gadget Tubealloy CEW – Clinton Engineering Works

For discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from paperback edition of the book.

1. From a reader’s perspective, how did you like the sections alternating between the story of the girls and the science developments?
2. Would you have considered going off to a new job and location with such little information?  Why do you think the girls were so trusting and willing to go?
3. The author wrote that The Project, “liked high school girls…feeling young women were easy to instruct.  They did what they were told.  They weren’t overly curious.”   This was contrasted with the idea that, “Educated young women and men, people who had gone to college and learned just enough to think that they might ‘know’ something, gave you problems.” (page 69)  Do you agree that it was the college education or something else that made some people more inquisitive?
4. Consider the censorship and how little was known about the settlement at Oak Ridge.  Was it justified?  Would it be possible today?
5. On page 5 the author wrote, “Complaining was not in fashion in 1943.”  What happened since then that complaining is one of our main activities?
6. Discuss the discrimination against women and also against African Americans.
1. Women:

                                                               i.      Only men could be “Head of Household” and therefore get a house. (page 86)

                                                             ii.      Women stayed in dorms with “Dorm Mothers” where they could be closely monitored. (page 94).

2. African Americans:

                                                               i.      Black women stayed in a special part of the hutments surrounded with barbed wire and with a guard at the entrance.  Men did not.  (page 90)

                                                             ii.      Homes were not provided for blacks because they, “didn’t want the nice houses…” and they “felt more comfortable in the huts, that was what was familiar to them…” (page 91)

                                                           iii.      Men and women lived separately and spouses were not allowed to visit. (page 92)

                                                           iv.      Discuss the experiments done on Ebb Cabe (HP-12) without his knowledge. 

7. Discuss the changes that the addition of women made to Oak Ridge:
1. “Whether intended or not, CEW was a social experiment of sorts.” (page 97)
2. “Women added a social dimension to this military installation that had not yet been taken fully into account.” (page 97)
3. “Women were powerful. And oh so necessary.” (page 97)
4. “Women infused the job site with life, their permanence effortlessly defying all attempts to control and plan and shape every aspect of day-to-day existence at Oak Ridge.” (page 98)
8. How do you think people were able to cope in such a restricted environment where you were afraid to say anything about your work to anyone?  On page 96 the author wrote that it was suspected that there were many psychiatric problems among the residents.
9. Do you like Spam? 
10. On page xviii in the character list it said that the real name of Mrs. H. K. Ferguson would be revealed later.  Did you ever find it?
11. How would you feel to find out you had been a part of developing such a destructive weapon?  Did the good overcome the negative?