The 19th Wife, by David Ebershoff

 

Wife #19: A Desert Mystery By Jordan Scott

The 19th Wife, by Ann Eliza Young Published 1875

BeckyLyn – mother and wife #19 Husband – murdered at computer Jordan Scott – son, expelled from group at age 14 “Queenie” (Elizabeth the Second) – daughter, Jordan’s sister   BeckyLyn’s sister wives: Sister Rita - #1 Sister Sherry Sister Kimberly – last wife, Sarah 5’s mother   Mr. Heber – BeckyLyn’s lawyer Maureen – secretary   Brother Hiram Alton – Queenie’s husband, police, investigated murder   Sarah 5 – waitress, escaped cult, married to Jordan’s dad (page 382)   Sister Karen – postmistress, conductor of underground railroad to help girls escape   Roland – Jordan’s friend Elektra – dog   Johnny Drury – expelled like Jordan   Ann Eliza Young House Kelly Dee – volunteer, master’s program BYU

Joseph Smith – prophet   Brigham Young – carpenter, replaced Smith as head of group Ann Eliza Young – wife #19, author of book Mary Ann Angell – wife #1 Amelia – favorite wife, got most of estate   Elizabeth Churchill Chauncey Webb Ann Eliza – daughter, married to Brigham Young 1868 (2nd husband), author of book Gilbert – Elizabeth’s son Lydia Taft – house girl, became 2nd wife Eleanor and Margaret Oaks- wives #3 and #4 Mrs. Cox – wife #5   James Dee – Ann Eliza’s first husband James and Lorenzo – sons with Dee   Boarders – helped with escape: Major James Burton Pond Judge and Mrs. Albert Hagan   Friends: Rev. and Mrs. Stratton – Methodist, helped with escape   Major Ford – promoter and manager

 

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from the paperback edition.

1.       How much does appearance factor in to how we think about people?  On page 61, Jordan wrote that Joseph “had a presence unlike most men, with eyes wide and blue, and the stature of a man who knows his place in history.”

2.       The Mormon church banned plural marriages in 1890. In Jordan’s family history, Ann Eliza was despised and referred to as “that woman” (page 131).  Her book, The 19^th Wife, was thought to be “Nothing but a pack of lies” (page 131).  Can the church simply ignore their history?  Is this fair to the men and woman who were forced into this practice?

3.       If only wife #1 would spend eternity with her husband (page 119), who would the successive wives spend eternity with?  Knowing that, why would anyone become a second wife?  Were there advantages?

4.       Why did Brigham Young send Chauncey and Gilbert on a Mission to England which cost them their livelihood and business?  Was he jealous of their financial success?

5.       When Elder Joseph Hovey came to Payson, his purpose was to get people to repent of their sins.  After a while, people started to invent sins to confess (page 174-175).  Why?

6.       In the story “A Desert Mystery”, were you surprised that BeckyLyn went back to Mesadale after she was released from prison?  Why do you think she did?

7.       In this story, what part did Sarah 5 play?    Before you read who the real killer was, what did you think had happened?

8.       Discuss your reading experience with this book.  What did you like or not like?  How difficult was it to follow along with the two story lines with close to the same title?

9.       Did you like the combination of the two stories?  Did they complement each other?  Could one or the other have stood on their own?

10.   In the Author’s Notes, the author stated that he wrote all of the sections that appeared to be non-fiction: Wikipedia entry, articles and letters from the LDS Archives, etc.   Also, the web address www.2wives.com is not real.   How did these additions add to or detract from your reading?

11.   How important was it for you to know what was real and what was fiction?

12.   This book was a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year and a finalist for the Utah Book Award as well as others.  In your opinion, did it deserve these honors?  Why or why not?

*****

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

Tangerine, by Edward Bloor

Characters
Lake Windsor Downs – the Seagulls	Tangerine Middle School – the War Eagles
Paul Fisher Erik – “Erik Fisher Football Dream” Caroline Fisher – mother Dad   Football – Lake Windsor Seagulls Coach Warner Antoine Thomas – quarterback Mike Costello – ball holder, killed by lightning Arthur Bauer – new ball holder Bryan Baylor - center   Soccer – Mr. Walski - coach Tommy Acoso Gino Deluca   Mr. Costello – lawyer, HoA president Jack Costello – Paul’s friend   Mr. Donnelly – house always struck by lightning Terry - son   Tina Turreton – Arthur’s girlfriend Paige – Arthur’s sister	Middle School soccer: Betty Bright – coach, former track and field star Tino Cruz Victor Guzman Hernando Maya Panethi Shandra Thomas – goaltender, Antoine’s sister Nina Dolly   Middle School: Dr. Grace Johnson – principal Theresa Cruz – Paul’s escort first day   Luis Cruz – Tino and Theresa’s brother, developed new, improved tangerine “Golden Dawn”
Civil Engineering Department Charley Burns – department head, retired in controversy Dad- became department head

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers from paperback edition.

1.       When Mike was killed by the lightning, Paul’s mother tried to get the football practice times changed to a safer time in the day.  But Coach Warner saw moving the practice time as destroying the team.  He said that, for some boys like Antoine, football was the only way to get to college.  Caroline saw the practice as putting kids in harm’s way while Coach Warner saw it as preparing them for an actual game.  Who was right?

2.       When the sinkhole gave way and the portable classrooms started to fall into the hole, Paul did not run away.  Instead, without thinking, he ran toward the hole and helped pull students out.  Later he thought, “I’m still afraid of Erik.  I’m afraid of Arthur now, too.  But today I wasn’t a coward, and that counts for something” (page 86).  How did this experience change Paul? 

3.       As you were reading, what did you think happened to Paul’s eyes?

4.       When Paul was asking to transfer to Tangerine without his IEP, he also said, “Dad, I don’t mind if you never pay any attention to me for the rest of my life” (page 94).  His dad was very surprised at this.  Should he have been more aware of Paul and not so wrapped up in Erik’s career?

5.       Why did Paul fit in better at Tangerine than at Lake Windsor?

6.       On Monday, November 20, Paul had his project group from Tangerine over to his house to complete their project.  Erik came home and was taunting the group and eventually hit Tino.  When Erik walked away, he looked at Paul and Paul saw an expression, “more like sorrow.  Or fear” (page 206).  Paul also thought he saw his father at the patio door, but he just walked away.  What emotions do you think Erik was feeling?  Why do you think the father did not intervene?

7.       After Mike’s tragic death, why did the kids start to make fun of it and call Mike “Mohawk Man?”

8.       Was it right for the TV station to replay the tape of “Erik Fisher Flying Placekicker” over and over?  Did the station have a responsibility to be fair to a teenager?  Was it fair to Erik for the coach to not tell him about the change in the play?

9.       After it was discovered that Erik and Arthur had stolen from all of the houses being fumigated, Erik’s parents offered to return or repay all of the victims in exchange for them not pressing charges.  Was this a good thing to do?  Would you have done the same?

10.   After the police left the Fisher house, Caroline’s parents arrived for their visit.  Upon hearing the story, her mother said, “You’re paying now for what you didn’t do back then” (page 287).  When Caroline and Dad replied that Erik didn’t need a doctor, Caroline’s dad said, “The kid needed to know which end was up, that’s all. First off, he needed to get his backside whipped for hurting Paul” (page 287).  Was that “all” Erik needed?

11.   What did you think about Paul’s parents?  His mother seemed very involved in the community and schools, but did not go to Paul’s soccer games.  His father at the end, “seemed more like those friends who had abandoned Erik, who now regretted ever getting involved with him in the first place” (page 300).

12.   In Paul’s second journal entry for Tuesday, December 5 (page 302), he wrote about Luis and what he meant to the people who knew him and then tried to write the same about Erik.  He ended with the question, “Why did they look up to him?”   Why do you think people looked up to Erik?  What do you think his parents thought as they were reading what he wrote?

13.   What do you think Paul and his father talked about on their way to Paul’s new school at the end of the book?

14.   Do you think a teenager would think about this book differently than an adult?  If so, how?

*****

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

Ordinary Grace, by William Kent Krueger

 

Characters

Nathan and Ruth Drum Frank – narrator Ariel Jake   Grandfather and Liz (second wife)   Gus – served with Nathan during the war   Brandt Family: Emil – Ruth’s former fiancé, blinded in war, musician Lise – sister, deaf Axel and Julia - Emil and Lise’s brother and wife Karl – son, Ariel’s boyfriend   Police: Doyle Blake Gregor – county sheriff   Danny O’Keefe – friend of Frank’s Warren Redstone – Indian sitting with “Skipper’s” body when Frank found them, had Bobby Cole’s glasses   Morris Engdahl – bully   Mrs.  Klement – alto in choir, came to Nathan for marital counseling Peter – son, Frank’s age Travis – husband, abusive   Avis and Edna Sweeney – neighbors, Frank spied on Edna’s laundry on line, came to Nathan for marital counseling   Bobby Cole – first death “Skipper” – itinerant, second death

 

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from the paperback edition.

1.       Was it realistic to expect Ruth to make the transition from her expectation of being the wife of a successful lawyer to being a minister’s wife?

2.       Given that Nathan was a minister, God and faith were featured prominently in the book. Do you agree with that statement?   Do you think a Christian would read the book differently than a non-Christian?

3.       Frank thought that Jake “often took the measure of a situation and of people much more accurately than others might have” (page 200).  Why was that?

4.       Why did Jake’s stuttering go away after he said an “ordinary grace” at Ariel’s funeral luncheon?

5.       Why do you think Lise and Jake had such a special relationship and could communicate with each other?

6.       Was Frank responsible for helping to solve things or did he cause more trouble by always ease dropping and spying on people?

7.       Was Frank and/or Doyle partially responsible for Karl’s death because they shared private information between Karl and Nathan?

8.       Was Officer Doyle one of the few evil characters in the book?  Consider that he told others about the confidential conversation between Nathan and Karl and also blew up the frog with the firecracker in front of Frank.

9.       What did you think about Gus?  Did you like his character?  How important was his friendship to Nathan?  Were you surprised he played such an important part in the story?

10.   As you read, what were your thoughts and suspicions about Ruth, Emil and Ariel?  How was Nathan able to be so accepting of Ruth going to stay with Emil after Ariel’s death?

11.   The story was written from Frank’s perspective, 40 years later.  Regarding Engdahl, Frank thought, “Now, forty years later, I realize that what I saw was a kid not all that much older than me…blind and lost…I probably should have felt for him something other than I did which was hatred” (page 10).  Would it have been possible for Frank to see Engdahl differently at his young age? 

12.   On page 306, Frank said what he has learned from studying history is that there is, “no such thing as a true event…accounts of what happened depend upon the perspectives from which the event is viewed.”  How do you think some of the other characters would have told this story?

13.   Did you like the way the story ended?

*****

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

Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri

 

A Temporary Matter
Shoba – rented her own apartment, did not tell Shukumar   Shukumar – working from home, held deceased baby, never told Shoba	Why did the darkness make such a difference in their relationship?   Do you think they stayed together?
When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine
Mr. Pirzada – wife and 7 daughters in Dacca which was invaded by Pakistan   Lilia Parents	What did the author want the reader to take away from this story?
Interpreter of Maladies
Mr. and Mrs. Das Children – Tina, Bobby, Ronny   Mr. Kapasi – tour guide, interpreter at doctor’s office	Why did Mrs. Das confide in Mr.  Kapasi?
The Real Durwan
Boori Ma – unofficial durwan of apartment building   Mr. and Mrs. Dalal – Mr. Dalal promoted, bought things for building   Mr. Chatterjee   Mrs. Misra	Why did the tenants blame Boori Ma for the damage done to the building?
Sexy
Laxmi – Indian   Miranda – American, Dev – affair with Miranda, married   Laxmi’s cousin – husband ran off with woman he met on airplane Rohin - son	Was Miranda’s behavior with Rohin appropriate?   Why did Miranda end her affair with Dev?
Mrs. Sen’s
Mother Eliot   Mr. Sen – professor Mrs. Sen – babysat Eliot in her home	Do you think Mrs. Sen will ever find happiness in America?   Would you have felt comfortable leaving your child with Mrs. Sen?
This Blessed House
Tanima “Twinkle” Sanjeev	Why was Twinkle so connected with the Christian items left in the house?
The Treatment of Bibi Haldar
Bibi Halder – coached by neighborhood women on how to be more feminine Son   Halder cousin – owner of cosmetics shop, blamed Bibi for daughter’s illness Wife Daughter	Why did Bibi’s cousin blame her for the daughter’s illness?   What do you think happened to Bibi that she was cured at the end of the story?
The Third and Final Continent
Narrator Mala – wife Son   Mrs. Craft - landlady Helen - daughter	This was the only story that tells the reader what happens in the end.  Is this a good story for the last one?  Did you find it satisfying?

 

For Discussion:

1.       In the Forward to the 20^th anniversary edition of the book, the reviewer wrote of the stories in the book, “their cohabitation makes perfect sense” (page xi).  Was there a theme or connection among all of the stories?

2.       What was your reading experience with short stories compared to novels?

3.       Did your feel connected with the characters or did you want to have them developed more fully?

4.       Did any of the stories help you to think differently or give you a greater understanding of someone living in a different country than where they were born?

5.       Why did this book win the Pulitzer Prize in 2000?

*****

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

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.