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.