Summary | Author | Book Reviews | Discussion Questions
The Kindness of Strangers
Katrina Kittle, 2006
HarperCollins
400 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780060564780
In Brief
On a quiet street in the suburban Midwest, a popular, seemingly stable family keeps a terrible, dark secret behind closed doors—a secret that will have life—changing consequences for all who know them.
Sarah Laden, a young widow and mother of two, struggles to keep her own family together. After the death of her husband, her high school-aged son Nate has developed a rebellious streak, constantly falling in and out of trouble. Her kindhearted younger son Danny, though well-behaved, struggles to pass his remedial classes. All the while, Sarah must make ends meet by running a catering business out of her home.
When a shocking and unbelievable revelation rips apart the family of her closest friend, Sarah finds herself welcoming yet another young boy into her already tumultuous life.
Jordan, a quiet and reclusive elementary school classmate of Danny's, has survived a terrible tragedy, leaving him without a family. When Sarah becomes a foster mother to Jordan, a relationship develops that will force her to question the things of which she thought she was so sure. Yet Sarah is not the only one changed by this young boy. The Ladens will all face truths about themselves and each other—and discover the power to forgive and to heal.
Powerful and poignant, The Kindness of Strangers is a shocking look at how the tragedy of a single family in a small, suburban town can effect so many. Told from varying perspectives, The Kindness of Strangers shows that even after the gravest injuries, redemption is always possible. (From the publisher.)
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About the Author
• Birth—ca. 1968
• Where—Illinois, USA
• Raised—Dayton, Ohio,
• Education—B.A., B.S.,Ohio University, M.F.A., Spalding
University
• Currently—lives in Dayton, Ohio
Katrina Kittle is the author of Traveling Light and Two Truths and a Lie. She helped found the All Children's Theatre in Washington Township, Ohio, and teaches theatre and English to middle schoolers at the Miami Valley School in Dayton. Chapters from The Kindness of Strangers earned her an Ohio Arts Council grant. She lives in Dayton, Ohio. (From the publishers.)
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Katrina has lived in the Dayton, Ohio, area for most of her life. She grew up in a home where books were prized possessions, and original stories and poems were given as gifts. Her father is a voracious "chain reader" who encouraged her to read widely, and still greets her at the door with, "Did you bring me any books?" Her childhood was full of horses and books and hiking in the woods and camping with Girl Scouts and bossing the neighbor kids into huge theatrical productions.
Originally interested in dance and theater, Katrina studied at the North Carolina School of the Arts and Ohio University, first as a theater major, then accepting an invitation to join the Honors Tutorial Program in English. She had a double major in English and education, worked in the theater costume shop, rode on the university’s Equestrian Team, kept a Theater minor, and graduated in 1990 with a BA in English and a BS in Education, earning the honor of Outstanding Graduating Senior for both departments.
After graduating, Kittle taught high school Advanced Placement British Literature for five years, then spent several years freelancing as a children’s theater director and creative writing instructor. She has worked as a writer-in-residence and taught creative writing workshops for several elementary, middle, and high schools, universities, and organizations. She has taught students as young as third grade and has had an eighty-year-old student in her Fiction Intensive at The Antioch Writers’ Workshop.
During "the freelance years," Katrina also worked in case management support at the AIDS Foundation Miami Valley (now the AIDS Resource Center), cleaned houses (which she found "very Zen-like and perfect for the writing life: you get left alone with your hands busy doing mindless work while your brain can simmer story ideas"), and worked as a veterinary assistant.
Katrina then taught 6th- and 7th-grade English at the Miami Valley School in Dayton, where she directed a middle school play each year. If she were to remain teaching, she would wish to be nowhere else, but she is so grateful to be fulfilling a lifelong dream to write full-time.
She is the author of Traveling Light and Two Truths and a Lie. Her third novel, The Kindness of Strangers, was released in February of 2006. Early chapters from this third novel earned Katrina grants from the Ohio Arts Council and from the Montgomery County Arts and Cultural District. The Kindness of Strangers was selected as a Book Sense pick for February, and was the Fiction Book winner for the 2006 Great Lakes Book Awards.
Katrina runs and studies Latin dance. She's also on a cooking spree (when she's "cooking" figuratively on a new book, she's usually cooking a lot literally, too). In addition to her favorite pesto, she's especially fond of a recent espresso-chocolate cake she discovered in Nigella Lawson's fabulous cookbook, Feast. She is also dabbling in Indian cooking, and so far her friends are willing guinea pigs.
Katrina loves theater and tries to get her theater "fix" at least once a year, usually auditioning for something at the Dayton Theatre Guild.
Katrina loves to travel. Recent travel highlights include spending the night with a goat under her bed in Ghana; riding horseback through the hills of Sintra in Portugal; and floating on her back in the Mediterranean looking up at the cliff-cut city of Positano, Italy.
Katrina keeps Dayton, Ohio, as her home base, where she is the proud aunt of Amy and Nathan. (Also from the publisher.)
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Critics Say . . .
Master caterer Sarah Laden is barely holding her life together as a widow with two difficult sons—recalcitrant teen Nate and troubled fifth-grader Danny—when the unthinkable happens. Her best friend and neighbor, Courtney Kendrick, is arrested in a child sex abuse scandal. Courtney's husband has vanished; their 11-year-old son, Jordan, is in the hospital recovering from a suicide attempt; and across the street Nate is finding, in Jordan's backpack, evidence of unthinkable abuse. Kittle (Traveling Light; Two Truths and a Lie) crafts a disturbing but compelling story line, as Sarah, Nate and Jordan uncover and come to terms with the horror in alternating chapters. Sarah, for instance, is shocked to learn that she dropped off food for the Kendricks' sex parties; Jordan must decide whether or not he wants to continue a relationship with his mother—who insists she's innocent—if and when she gets acquitted. Kittle's research sits awkwardly in expository dialogue—"One in four girls and one in six boys are sexually abused before their eighteenth birthdays," intones the detective who will later become Sarah's love interest—but it doesn't slow the momentum. Though the movement is toward healing, there are bumpy roads ahead for everybody in this melodramatic but gripping read.
Publishers Weekly
In this slice of contemporary life, Kittle (Traveling Light) introduces Sarah Laden, the recently widowed mother of two challenging sons. While trying to reassemble their lives following her husband's death, Sarah operates a catering business in Ohio, handling many of the small-town functions. Then, unexpectedly, the family is thrown into the maelstrom surrounding an unspeakable crime against a child. Kittle zeroes in on the Ladens' incremental realization that their relationships with this child represent his best chance of repairing his damaged life. Their unselfishness is at the heart of this most memorable, compelling novel of survival. Kittle's careful character development and depiction of a loving family situation, along with the variety of statistics offered, help make this tale hard to put down. Although it is a grim, disturbing study of abuse, the conversational style and vividly drawn characters render it a moving portrait of how we heal. Recommended for all public libraries. —Andrea Tarr, Corona P.L., CA
Library Journal
A struggling family responds to the discovery of child sexual abuse very close to home. A middle-class household in small-town USA is transformed into a hellhole as Kittle (Two Truths and a Lie, 2001, etc.) depicts a child in peril. Thanks to the author's exceptionally fluent narrative skill, a novel which at times has the flavor of a public information account of abuse and its aftermath becomes utterly compelling. Jordan is the nerdy, withdrawn, 11-year-old son of glamorous, respected Mark and Courtney Kendrick. One morning, Courtney's best friend Sarah Laden discovers Jordan ill and alone and rushes him to the hospital. Jordan, whose sickness is a suicide-attempt overdose, is discovered to have been not only abused for years but also infected with gonorrhea, for which Courtney, a doctor, has been treating him with stolen drugs. A search of Jordan's home uncovers masses of evidence incriminating Mark but nothing directly implicating Courtney, whom recently widowed Sarah now struggles to recast as a monster. Jordan's own heartbreaking story encompasses fear, fury and loyalty; a sympathetic police officer, doubling as Sarah's love interest, offers useful background information. There are no surprises and a little too much sweet resolution, but Kittle unfurls her tale with absolute devotion.
Kirkus Reviews
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Book Club Discussion Questions
1. Why was Sarah so reluctant to give up her "friendship" with Courtney? What is she holding on to when she refuses to believe in Courtney's guilt? What does this say about Sarah?
2. Jordan's relationship with his mother is complicated. His relationship with his father is more black and white. Which relationship is the more harmful one to Jordan's long-term health? Why?
3. In addition to parent-child relationships, what other relationships of dependence merge in the novel? How do the Kendricks prey on the weakness and vulnerability of others, both children and adults?
4. Consider the relationship between Danny and Jordan. In many ways it is the most difficult, but at the same time it could be argued that it is the most redeeming. Discuss the complexity and evolution of this relationship.
5. Jordan demonstrates a rare psychological sophistication when he rejects Danny in order to protect him from the Kendricks. In what other ways does Jordan behave in more mature ways than this age might predict?
6. Nate, Sarah, Danny, and Jordan all feel guilt at some point, yet those who are genuinely guilty do not seem abashed by their deeds. Examine these various manifestations of guilt; are they justified?
7. What role do domestic pets play in the novel? Why does Jordan take the rabbit to his closet? In what ways does Sarah's interaction with the robin suggest what is to come in the novel?
8. The chick is a powerful symbol in Sarah's first chapter. How does it follow through? What other instances of birds or flight play a significant role in the text?
9. What is the role of food in the novel? How does it create family? How does Sarah's talent as a caterer and cook shape her relationships with others? How does the metaphor of feeding and nourishment extend to the entire novel?
10. Each character in this novel has experienced a loss that has changed them. How does loss connect the various characters in the book to each other?
11. If Sarah's husband were alive, would circumstances be significantly altered? Why or why not?
12. Sarah's perceptions of Nate's behavior has been clouded by his earlier troubles. What allows her to go beyond this perception and to trust him again? What does it take to restore trust between parents and children?
13. The author chooses to begin and end the book in the future. How does this choice influence your reading of the book?
14. Why does the novel begin in Danny's voice rather than Jordan's or Sarah's?
15. The novel has four narratives: Danny, Sarah, Nate, and Jordan. What effect does this have on how the story is told? How does this narrative strategy reveal information about the characters?
(Questions from the publishers.)