All Stories Are Love Stories
Elizabeth Percer, 2016
HarperCollins
368 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062275950
Summary
In this thoughtful, mesmerizing tale, a group of survivors are thrown together in the aftermath of two major earthquakes that strike San Francisco within an hour of each other—an achingly beautiful and lyrical novel about the power of nature, the resilience of the human spirit, and the enduring strength of love.
On Valentine’s Day, two major earthquakes strike San Francisco within the same hour, devastating the city and its primary entry points, sparking fires throughout, and leaving its residents without power, gas, or water.
Among the disparate survivors whose fates will become intertwined are Max, a man who began the day with birthday celebrations tinged with regret; Vashti, a young woman who has already buried three of the people she loved most... but cannot forgot Max, the one man who got away; and Gene, a Stanford geologist who knows far too much about the terrifying earthquakes that have damaged this beautiful city and irrevocably changed the course of their lives.
As day turns to night and fires burn across the city, Max and Vashti—trapped beneath the rubble of the collapsed Nob Hill Masonic Auditorium—must confront each other and face the truth about their past, while Gene embarks on a frantic search through the realization of his worst nightmares to find his way back to his ailing lover and their home. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1974
• Where—Brookline, Massachusetts, USA
• Education—B.A., Wellesley College; Ph.D., Stanford University
• Currently—lives in Redwood Shores, California
Elizabeth Percer is an American novelist and poet. She has been nominated three times for the Pushcart Prize and has twice been honored by the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Foundation.
Her second novel, All Stories Are Love Stories, was published in 2016; her first, An Uncommon Education, came out in 2012. Ultrasound, a collection of poems was released in 2013.
Percer received a BA in English from Wellesley and a PhD in arts education from Stanford University, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship for the National Writing Project at UC Berkeley. She lives in California with her husband and three children. (Adapted from the publisher.)
Book Reviews
[A]n unconventional love letter to San Francisco.... [The city’s] unique architecture, diverse neighborhoods, and colorful residents are vividly brought to life. The intertwined love stories in this remarkably drawn setting will keep readers absorbed until the final, tear-jerking moments.
Publishers Weekly
Percer imagine[s] a society suddenly upended. When two huge earthquakes hit San Francisco, Vashti finds herself trapped under the flattened Nob Hill Masonic Auditorium with Max, the man she couldn't have.
Library Journal
[T]the focus remains on character, in particular reassessment, repentance, forgiveness, and realignment. This intelligently written tale falls between genres, neither heart-racing disaster drama nor wrenching emotional excavation.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also, consider these LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for All Stories Are Love Stories:
1. Consider the significance of the date of the earth quake—a seismic event taking place on Valentine's Day.
2. What does the statement mean that San Francisco is "the best city America ever had the accidental luck to create." In what way is it "accidental luck"?
3. Talk about the title? Are all stories love stories? What does this novel have to say about the nature of love? What roles do redemption and forgiveness play in love?
4. What do we learn about the previous relationship between Max and Vashti? What happened 14 years ago, what has happened since, and what happens while the two are trapped during the quake? Do you sympathize with one more than the other?
5. How much to blame is Gene for failing to predict the quake?
6. What roles do families play in these love stories? How does family affect the relationships between Max and Vashti and between Gene and Franklin?
7. Was the novel's ending predictable? Are you satisfied with the way it ended?
8. Reviewers also see Percer's novel as a love story about San Francisco itself. Would you agree? Does All Stories Are Love Stories make you long for a trip to the city? Of if you live in the Bay Area, do the descriptions resonate with your own feelings about the city?
(Questions by LitLovers Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)