A Fall of Marigolds, by Susan Meissner

 

Characters
2011	1911
Taryn Kent – husband, died in 9/11 Kendal – daughter   Heirloom Yard Celine – owner   Mick Demetriou – florist, helped Taryn on 9/11   Rosalynn Stauer- owned scarf in 2011, asked Taryn to pick it up on 9/11 making her late Corrine – cousin	Clara Wood - nurse Father – doctor Mother Henrietta – sister   Dolly McLeod – friend   Edward Brim – died in Triangle Shirtwaist fire Savina Mayfield - finance   Andrew Gwynn - Ellis Island, scarlet fever Nigel – brother, tailor in New York Lily – wife, scarlet fever, died on ship   Dr. Ethan Randall – intern, Ellis Island   Chester Hartwell – private investigator   Eleanor – Rosalynn Stauer’s aunt, worked with Clara in Switzerland in 1911

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from paperback edition.

1.       Both Clara and Taryn felt they had caused the deaths of Kent and Edward by asking them to meet on the morning of the two tragedies.  Should they feel guilty?  How would you feel?  Did Mick and Ethan Randall offer good explanations about why they should not feel that way?  For example, Mick told Taryn that her “choices that terrible morning had been prompted by love.  What others had chosen had been prompted by hate” (page 329).

2.       Was Clara realistic in her feelings for Edward, given that she had never really had a conversation with him?  On page 132 she thought, “Eternity already knew us as a couple.”  Was it realistic that she felt grief for such a long time?

3.       Dolly knew Edward was engaged but couldn’t tell Clara just like Clara knew Lily was deceiving Andrew but couldn’t tell him.   What do you think they each should have done with the information they had?  What would you had done or advised the character to do?

4.       When Clara verbalized to Dolly that she regretted opening the trunk, Dolly replied, “You were meant to open that trunk, Clara…What if fate wanted you to open it…” (page 135).  Do you agree?  Does fate play a part here?

5.       Was Dr. Randall too forward when he was asking Clara about why she was on the island and had not left in 6 months?  He told her, “You’re keeping it [her grief] alive by staying here” (page 189).  Was it any of his business?

 

6.       The author wrote a lot about being in an “in-between place.” 

a.       Andrew – page 47 – Clara wanted to be “the angel-nurse who helped Andrew find his way out of his in-between place.”

b.       Clara – page 85 – the island had its “role as an in-between place where the fire did not exist.”

c.       Taryn – page 91 – after her picture was published in the magazine she thought, “I knew my flimsy truce with chance and destiny was gone. That in-between place had never really existed.”

d.       Are we currently all in an in-between place during this pandemic?

7.       There were many serious topics in this novel.  Did reading it give you any new insights or prompt you to think of something in a different way?

a.       Page 324: “Do you think everything happens for a reason?”

b.       Page 328: Taryn realizes she “had the power of choice…”

c.       Page 329: “I hadn’t understood the beauty of this freedom to love until I began to understand, at the very moment, that it was countered by the freedom to hate.”

d.       Description of grief in both Taryn and Clara.

8.       Given the pandemic we are currently experiencing, what did you think about the description of scarlet fever: “…the disease has no intent.  It doesn’t want anything.  It has no malevolent desire to kill.” (page 111) and “The disease is like a machine that does what it does but has no cognizance of self” (page 112).

9.       Did you like the ending?  Did it take you awhile to figure out who Eleanor was and how she fit into the story?

10.   Discuss your reading experience.  Was the novel what you expected or something different?  Would you recommend it to a friend?  Why or why not?

11.   Do you think this would be a good novel for someone to read who was in the midst of grief?  Why or why not?

****

First Semester Success, 2nd Edition, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available at amazon.com and wordassociation.com.

The Only Woman in the Room, by Marie Benedict

 

Hedwig Kiesler	Hedy Lamarr
Father – bank manager Mother   Friedrich Mandl   Starhemberg – Austrian Vice Chancellor, friend of Mandl Ferdinand – brother   Schuschnigg – Austrian Chancellor   Adolf Hitler   Mussolini   Ada – maid   Laura – new maid, resembles Hedy	Louis B. Mayer Margaret Mayer   Ilona Massey – Hungarian, roommate   Susie – dresser on movie sets   Jamesie – adopted orphan baby boy from Europe Nanny   George Antheil – composer Boski - wife

For discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from paperback edition.

1.       When Hedy was married to Mandl, why was her mother so unconcerned about Hedy’s situation?  She always told Hedy, “A wife’s duty is to her husband” (page 159).  Did knowing that her mother had given up her career as a concert pianist to marry her father help you understand her opinion?

2.       In 1939, when her mother wrote Hedy a letter, did her explanation of why she had always been so hard on Hedy throughout her life seem plausible to you? She wrote, “I sought only to temper your father’s unmoderated adulation and indulgence of you…I did it out of love” (page 205 & 206).

3.       Did Hedy and her parents have a choice regarding marrying Mandl?

4.       Throughout the second half of the novel, Hedy is wracked by guilt that she did not tell anyone about Hitler or do anything to stop him.  Was that possible?  Should she have felt guilty?

5.       After Hedy and George had created their device, George kissed Hedy on the lips. Hedy felt this was a serious “breach of our friendship” (page 257).  Would another person who did not have her background have been as hurt? 

6.       In thinking about the incident above, Hedy came to understand that his behavior was a “behavior ingrained by society in most men” (page 259).  Does this justify his behavior?

 

7.       Were you surprised to learn that the U.S. military rejected Hedy and George’s superior invention only because it was developed by a woman?   How do you think the families of those killed by torpedoes during the war feel after reading this?  Given the times, was it possible for their invention to be adopted?

8.       Were you surprised to find out that Hedy and George’s invention was used in today’s cell phones?  Had you ever heard about her inventions? 

9.       What is the answer to the question about who Hedy Lamarr was on the last page?  Hedy wondered if she was “only a beautiful face and lissome body” or had she “taken the persona to which I’d been relegated and made myself into a weapon against the Third Reich after all” (page 293).

10.   What does the last sentence mean, “I had always been alone under my mask, the only woman in the room” (page 293)?

11.   The note on the copyright page says in part, “The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously.”  What responsibility does the writer of historical fiction have to the facts?  Does the reader have any responsibility?

a.       One example from Wikipedia – She did not adopt a German orphan. The child she adopted was actually her own with John Lorder who would become her third husband.  She lied to her current husband, Gene Markey, about the baby’s origin.

*****

First Semester Success, 2nd Edition, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available at amazon.com and wordassociation.com.

The Nest, by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

 

Characters
Plumb Family	Others
Francie and Leonard Sr. – parents   Leo Jr. Victoria – divorced wife Stephanie – girlfriend, Bea’s agent Lillian Plumb Palmer “Lila” – daughter   Beatrice “Bea” – writer Tuck – deceased   Melody Walter Nora and Louisa – 16 years old, daughters   Jack Walker   George Plumb – Leo’s brother, managed “The Nest”	Paul Underwood – former partner with Leo, owner “Paper Fibres”   Nathan Chowdhury – former partner with Leo   Tommy O’Toole - Stephanie’s tenant, wife died at Twin Towers on 9/11, Rodin sculpture   Simone – Nora’s school friend   Matilda Rodriquez – lost foot in Leo’s accident Vinnie – amputee, eventual husband   “The Glitterary Girls” Bea Celia Baxter – interested in art, not writing Lena Novak – successful author

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from the paperback edition.

1.       What did you think about Bea writing about Leo (“Archie”)?  Was this fair to Leo?  She also portrayed the mother as “distant and casually cruel” (page 46).  Was it fair to portray her family members so realistically?

2.       Discuss Francie and her relationship with her children.  Should she have consulted with the other three before using their money to help Leo?  When she thought about telling the other three what she had done, she thought “Nothing she did was good enough; what she did for one disappointed another.  She couldn’t win” (page 47).  Was she justified in these feelings?

3.       What did you think about Leo?   He had let his insurance lapse and had $2 million hidden that he did not tell his siblings about or offer to share with them.

4.       When Leo was telling Stephanie about the accident, he said that because Matilda was nineteen “she was old enough” (page 236).  Why did this statement have such an effect on Stephanie?  What did the statement tell Stephanie (and the reader) about Leo?

5.       Have you ever had an experience (or been the cause of one) like Bea had at the party where she overheard the two other Glitterary Girls talking about her?

6.       How did “The Nest” dominate the family dynamics?  Why did they start to grow closer only after the money was gone?

7.       Discuss Melody, Jack and Bea.   How did the prospect of getting the money from ‘The Nest” affect each of their lives? 

8.       Why were the characters of Tommy O’Toole and Simone added to the story?  What did these two subplots add to the story?

9.       Was Jack like Leo?  In high school he always felt “like a lesser version of his older brother” (page 17) and had been called “Leo Lite.”  At the end of the novel he reflected that, if he had money hidden somewhere, he might have done what Leo did and disappear.

10.   When Stephanie was pregnant, she was surprised at how New Yorkers, who normally did not interact with each other, felt free to make comments about the baby and Stephanie’s life, including the name she was going to give the baby.  Is this a common reaction to a pregnant woman?  Were there any comments in particular that you related to?

11.   At the end of the novel, Leo edited Bea’s latest story about himself and changed the main character’s name back from “Marcus” back to “Archie.”  Was he giving Bea permission to publish the story?  Why would he do that?

12.   At the end of the story both Bea and Paul saw Leo at the pier when they were coming home from searching for him in the Caribbean.  Why did neither one tell the other or approach Leo?

*****

Firt Semester Success, 2nd Edition, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available at amazon.com and wordassociation.com.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, by Gail Honeyman

Characters

Eleanor Oliphant Mother Marianne – sister   Raymond Gibbons – IT Mother Sister   June Mullen – social worker   Marie Temple - therapist   Samuel Thom “Sammy” Laura – daughter Keith – son   Johnnie Lomond – singer   Co-workers: Bob – boss Janey, Loretta, Bernadette, Billy

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are for the paperback edition.

1.       Do you think Eleanor’s social worker, June Mullen, could or should have done more?

 

2.       Did you like the author’s design of giving hints about Eleanor’s story throughout the first 161 pages?  For example:

a.       Page 29: “It was hardly surprising that my mother had become institutionalized…”

b.       Page 40, after Sammy had fallen: “I started to dial 999, and then a memory punched me full in the face.  I couldn’t do it again…”

c.       Page 48, June Mullen asked Eleanor, “You’re still of the view that you don’t want to know anything else about the incident…”

d.       Page 135: “I had no one, and it was futile to wish it were otherwise. After all, it was not more than I deserved.”

e.       Page 148 when Laura was brushing out Eleanor’s hair in the salon: “A thought kept nudging me…me, brushing someone else’s hair?  Yes, someone smaller than me…”

 

3.       What did you think about Eleanor’s observation of fast food: “I wondered why humans would willingly queue at a counter to request processed food, then carry it to a table which was not even set, and then eat it from the paper?  Afterward, despite having paid for it, the customers themselves are responsible for clearing away the detritus. Very strange” (page 123).

4.       Discuss Eleanor’s progress through therapy with Marie Temple.  Would the same therapy have been successful earlier in her life?

 

5.       As Eleanor more and more entered the world, what did you think about her observations?  Which surprised you?  Which did you think are really true and insightful or totally wrong?  Some examples are:

a.       Page 125, regarding tattoos: “How marvelous to be able to read someone’s skin.

b.       Page 161: “I realized that such small gestures…could mean so much.”

c.       Page 144, after exchanging texts with Raymond: “I fear for our nations’ standard of literacy.”

d.       Page 193: “Being feminine apparently meant taking an eternity to do anything, and involved quite a bit of advanced planning.”

e.       Page 197: “It takes a long time to learn to live with loss, assuming you ever manage it.”

f.        Page 198: “I’d worked out that social success is often built on pretending just a little.”

g.       Page 266: “I realized what I felt…happy.  It was such a strange, unusual feeling – light, calm, as though I’d swallowed sunshine.”

h.       Page 307 (for us in this time of wearing masks): “Your voice changes when you’re smiling, it alters the sound somehow.”

 

6.       Discuss your reading experience.  Did you like the book?  Did you enjoy reading it?

 

7.       The story is going to be made into a movie.  Do you think the story will be easily adaptable to a movie format?

*****

First Semester Success, 2nd edition, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available at amazon.com and wordassociation.com.

The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt

 

Characters

Theodore Decker Audrey – mother Larry – father Xandra – Larry’s girlfriend in Las Vegas   Welty Blackwell Pippa - niece James Hobart – Hobie Aunt Margaret Blackwell Pierce – Pippa’s aunt, took her to Texas   Barbour family: Parents Andy – Theo’s classmate and friend Platt – older brother Kitsey and Toddy – younger siblings   Tom Cable – Theo’s friend from school, got into trouble with Theo – reason Theo and mother went to museum that day   Boris – school friend in Las Vegas, meets again as an adult in New York Gyuri - driver   Lucius Reve – customer/collector   Mr. Bracegirdle - lawyer

 

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from the hardback edition.

1.       When Theodore left Las Vegas, Xandra told him he was more like his father than he knew (page 370).  Did you see any resemblance at that point in the novel?

 

2.       If you have experienced deep grief, what did you think about the author’s description of Theo’s feelings, particularly pages 86 – 87 where she wrote of Theo and his mother, “I missed her so much I wanted to die: a hard, physical longing, like a craving for air underwater.”  If you have not experienced this type of grief, did the description help you understand the experience?

 

3.       After four or five days of Theo staying home at the Barbours, Mrs. Barbour told him to go back to school and said, “…keeping busy is the only thing in the world that’ll make you feel better” (page 89).  Was this good advice?

 

4.       At the school, Theo worked with a social worker, the school counselor and a psychiatrist as well as concerning teachers.  Was there any way they could have helped him that they did not do?

5.       Even though he knew his father’s death was not his fault, Theo felt, “on a bone-deep, irrational, completely unshakable level I also knew that it was” (page 393).  Why did he feel this way?

 

6.       Likewise, Kitsey felt guilty over Andy and her father’s death because she was the better sailor and did not go to help her father.  Should she feel guilty?

 

7.       Why did Kitsey become engaged to Theo even though it seemed she was in love with Tom Cable?  Why were the Barbours so tolerant of Theo, thinking the marriage was still going to happen after he traveled the world for close to a year at the end of the novel buying back to art forgeries he sold?

 

8.       Hobie felt that Welty knew what he was doing when he gave Theo the ring (and painting which Hobie did not know about).  Why did Welty give those things to Theo after the explosion?

 

9.       Given that Hobie was making such good reproductions, was he totally blameless in the scheme Theo was running selling them as authentic?

 

10.   Given the time we are living in where so many businesses are in danger of closing, did you understand Hobie feelings about patronizing businesses to help them stay solvent?  Pippa texted Theo, “he only goes places where he feels sorry for the owners!  Because he is scared they will go out of business and then he will feel guilty” (page 396).

 

11.   Theo and Boris’ drug use was a theme throughout the novel. Do you think their addiction was accurately described?  Did you feel any empathy for either of them?

 

12.   What part did Lucius Reeve play in the story?  How did he make the connection between Theo and The Goldfinch (page 484)?  Was his motivation to get the painting or just recover the money Theo cheated him for? 

 

13.   After reading about Hobie’s work, do you have a different view of your furniture?  For example, he explained to Theo about the damage done by years of hairspray and drawers “crammed too full with junk” (page 417).

 

14.   Hobie and Theo felt that rooms and objects had their own souls, “emanations left by time” (page 506).  Did this idea make you think about your home and possessions differently?

 

15.   On page 762 Theo comes to the realization that he and Pippa could never have survived together because they had both been through the same trauma.  Did you agree?

 

16.   On page 763 Theo reveals that he is the author of this story, hoping that Pippa will eventually read it.  How do you think she will feel if she does?

 

17.   At the end of the novel, Theo wondered what Fabritius, when he chose to paint the goldfinch chained to the perch, “was trying to tell us by his choice of tiny subject” (page 765).  What message do you think the artist was trying to show?

 

18.   Did the last five pages (“life is catastrophe” [page 767], “We can’t escape who we are” [770], “fate is cruel but maybe not random” [page 771]) give you a hopeful or negative feeling?   Why did the author end the novel that way?

 

19.   Could this book have been shorter and still be as good?  What would you eliminate?

 

20.   This novel won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2014.   The main criteria are that the book must be written by an American citizen and somehow deals with American life.    Was this book deserving of the honor?  Why or why not?

**

Educated, by Tara Westover

 

Westover Family

Others

Gene Westover – father Faye Westover – mother, herbalist, midwife Tony – oldest, drove trucks Tyler – PhD, wife Stefanie Shawn – wife Emily, son Peter Luke – learning disability Audrey Richard – PhD in chemistry Tara – youngest   Grandma-down-the-hill – paternal grandmother   Grandma and Grandpa-over-in-town – maternal grandparents   Aunt Angie – Faye’s sister Aunt Debbie – Faye’s sister, helped Tara get passport

Judy - midwife   Charles – Tara’s first friend from outside world   Church Bishop at BYU   Nick (real name) – boyfriend, broke up with him after Shawn and Emily’s wedding   Roommates 2nd semester BYU: Robin – helpful to Tara Jenni   Dr. Kerry – professor of Jewish history at BYU, helped Tara get into Cambridge   Dr. Jonathan Steinberg – research advisor at Cambridge

 

For Discussion:

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

1. Why did Tara’s parents continually take Shawn’s side and not believe what Tara was telling them about his actions?  Did they really understand what he was doing to both Audrey and then Tara?
2. What was different about Tara that she was able to get away but Audrey was not?
3. Shawn often referred to Tara as “Our N*****” (page 179).   After she had taken an American history course and understood the derogatory meaning of this term, she asked Shawn not to call her that any more.   She wrote, “The word and the way Shawn said it hadn’t changed, only my ears were different” (pages 180-181).  What did this mean in Tara’s education?  Do you think Shawn knew the history of the word? 
4. How was Shawn able to have so much power over Tara?  On page 199 she wrote, “He had defined me to myself, and there’s no greater power than that.”
5. What did you think about Shawn?  In the book, the first signs of his aggression were on page 100 when he baited the younger boys at Tara’s rehearsals, then tormented Sadie (page 109).  This escalated to full blown physical abuse of Tara, yet at one point he protected Tara from the Shear (page 140) and was the only one to stand up to the father (page 142).
6. One turning point was when Shawn had the motor cycle accident and Tara made the decision to take him to the hospital instead of home to be cared for by their mother.  She felt that after that night her father wanted her to leave.  Her reaction was to think that, “…I am not a good daughter.  I am a traitor…I am not sorry; merely ashamed” (page 147-8).  Why did she feel this way?
7. When Tara was still living at home and after Tyler left, she put his desk in her room and read all the books in the house she could not understand.  She wrote, “The skill I learned was a crucial one, the patience to read things I could not yet understand” (page 62).  How was this crucial later?  Would you have the same patience?
8. What did you think about Tara’s experiences when she went to college?  How was she able to persevere and succeed despite all the emotional changes she experienced including panic attacks (chapter 37)?
9. When meeting with her advisor at Cambridge, Dr. Steinberg, she wrote, “I could tolerate any form of cruelty better than kindness.  Praise was poison to me” (page 240).  Why did Tara have difficulty accepting praise about her writing?
10. Discuss the role of counseling in her success.  Would it have worked earlier in her journey?
11. Nick was Tara’s boyfriend at BYU and she broke up with him a week after Shawn and Emily’s wedding without any explanation (page 227).   She wrote, “But the peak refused to give me up…The remembered world was somehow more vivid than the physical world I inhabited, and I phased between them” (page 226).  Why couldn’t she talk with Nick?  He was one of the few people identified by his real name.  How do you think he felt reading this book?
12. Given the success of Faye’s business selling Miracle Salve and other essential oils, did you understand their thinking that every bad thing was leading up to this financial success?  (page 231)
13. As time progressed, Faye got stronger.  But at the end of the book she refused to see Tara unless she would also see her father.  Why?
14. What would Faye have been if she had married someone else?
15. Discuss the role of mental illness in the story.  At one point, after Tara had been living away from the family for quite a while, Faye referred to Gene’s bipolar and “the damage his bipolar has caused to our family” (page 271).  Also, Shawn was obviously mentally ill.  On page 121 Tara wrote, “…I understood the truth of it: that Shawn hated himself far more than I ever could.”   Was there anything that could have been done for both Gene and Shawn?
16. Articles on the internet referring to interviews by her family members deny some of these events.  Who can we believe?

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?