Montpelier Tomorrow
MaryLee MacDonald, 2014
All Things That Matter Press
307 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780990715818
Summary
After the deaths of her parents, Colleen Gallagher, a kindergarten teacher with three grown kids, is finally free to help out during the birth of her daughter’s second child. She’s at her daughter’s house when her son-in-law returns from the doctor with news that he has Lou Gehrig’s disease. Colleen, widowed when her own children were young, fears that fate is about to strike another blow at her family.
The sick man’s hapless father and ditzy, shopaholic mother provide comic relief by spoiling the grandchildren. Believing there’s no real hope, they urge him to go on a respirator, the only way to permanently "save his life." When the sick man gathers his family for a surprise announcement, Colleen is stunned to learn that he wants to give the respirator a try.
He leaves it to his wife to make the final decision. Colleen’s daughter thinks she has months before her husband can’t breathe on his own, but the sick man is worse off than anyone realizes. When he tries to lure his wife into a Jacuzzi for a romantic evening, the combined effects of hot water and a full stomach stop his breathing. Only then does Colleen’s daughter decide she can’t endorse the respirator plan.
Her husband holds the respirator decision against her and begins to play the dying-man card, thus beginning a series of "lasts." To fulfill his wish to go somewhere snowy for his last Christmas, Colleen arranges a trip to Vermont, where she anticipates a reunion with a handsome young carpenter, her almost-lover and long-time friend. Colleen secretly has the hots for him, but in Vermont, it’s Colleen’s daughter who attracts his attention. A relationship develops between them, and Colleen’s daughter leans on this new man for support.
The powerful cocktail of love, duty, obligation, exhaustion, and frustration make it hard for Colleen to remember why she’d ever left her life in Illinois. The grandkids keep her awake. The dying man isn’t noble. Her daughter resents her presence. She’s going broke, but feels compelled to stay. After a blow-up between the two women, an uneasy truce is soon broken. Colleen admits defeat and announces her intention to leave. She can’t save her daughter or her daughter’s marriage. She must save herself.
While Colleen's daughter and family depart for Disney World, a getaway paid for by the sick man’s parents, Colleen is left to finish her daughter’s "to do" list. A phone call summons Colleen to the hospital, but it is not the "dying man" who’s in danger.
Author Bio
• Birth—September 26, 1945
• Raised—Redwood City, California, USA
• Education—B.A., Stanford University; M.A., San Francisco State University
• Currently—lives in Tempe, Arizona
In her words:
You’ve taken the "Ice Bucket Challenge." Now read about a family trying to deal with the seismic shock of an ALS diagnosis. This book is brand new.
As readers will surely guess, this novel had its beginnings in my own experience. I had just returned to writing when my son-in-law was diagnosed with ALS. I found myself immersed in an almost daily battle against Fate. How to relieve the stress on my daughter so that she could be a good mother to her kids? How to care for a man who became increasingly hard to deal with? How to get enough sleep, for heaven’s sakes. The one tiny sword I had to fight this battle was my writing. I used it to center myself. I hoped that making art would allow me to gain control over a tragedy unfolding before my eyes.
What you should know about me is that I’m not a beginning writer, nor a young one. I’ve racked up many prizes in literary magazines, including the Barry Hannah Prize, the ALR Fiction Prize, the Matt Clark Prize, the Ron Rash Award, and most recently, the Jeanne Leiby Award. A collection of my short stories will be published in 2015. I would love to participate with any book group that wants to read this novel and discuss it. (From the author.)
Visit the author's webpage...and her blog.
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Book Reviews
An engaging and heartfelt novel about the intricate relationships among family dealing with disease and disability. Characters are vivid, relatable, and all too imperfectly human. An emotional read.
Jewell Parker Rhodes, author of Douglass’ Women and Ninth Ward
Each time I have reread this fine novel, I have felt rewarded by the connection it offers to the central character, Colleen. She is that kind of character for which the large scale of the novel is made: her external and internal dilemmas have many dimensions; her relationships with other characters are shaped by complex past and present plot tensions; her viewpoint is transformative, that is, it presents the world as she alone perceives it. I can think of no single page in which her voice is not an irreplaceable gift to the reader.
Kevin McIlvoy, author of The Fifth Station, Little Peg, and Hyssop
In her novel Montpelier Tomorrow, Marylee MacDonald illuminates a seemingly dark, hopeless story with light, humor, and compassion. In the aftermath of her son-in-law's devastating diagnosis, Colleen Gallagher becomes increasingly driven to save her daughter and grandchildren even as she struggles to forge a life of her own. Montpelier Tomorrow is at once an engrossing account of the impossible choices faced by caregivers in the United States and a moving portrait of one close-knit, memorable family.
Katherine Shonk, author of The Red Passport and Happy Now?
Discussion Questions
1. In most novels there’s a clear heroine or hero working to defeat an enemy. In Montpelier Tomorrow do you think that Sandy is the villain or that Tony is? Sandy and Colleen have quite a lot of conflict, and that conflict escalates as the novel progresses. Do you think Sandy considers her mom an antagonist or an ally? How about Tony: Who are his allies? Who helps him in his dark night of the soul?
2. What do you think about an unseen villain being the antagonist, namely ALS itself? Given Colleen’s background, could Fate be considered the antagonist?
3. Do you think some families or individuals have a disproportionate share of bad things happen to them? What did you think about Sandy’s remark about feeling like bad luck magnet?
4. Imagine that each of the main characters is carrying baggage from the past. What is in Sandy’s suitcase? What baggage is Lillian carrying? Does Tony have baggage, or is ALS burden enough?
5. What did you think the chapters in Chicago reveal about Colleen’s character? When you were reading the novel were you glad for a break about then?
6. Did you like Esmeralda? Did Colleen have an easier time being with her than being with Sandy?
7. What were Colleen’s unmet needs? These might be physical or psychological. By the end of the book what was her greatest unmet need?
8. Do you think it’s easy for mothers and daughters to know each other on a deep level, or are there traps or patterns that families revert to when they’re together?
9. Guilt is a big player in the novel. Can you talk a little about Sandy’s guilt in not being able to spend more time with her children? What about Colleen’s guilt that she didn’t invite Esmeralda to live with her?
10. The climactic event of the novel is precipitated by Sandy’s decision to come back on the train from Disney World. In what way has the book prepared you to believe that her decision was almost inevitable? Could she have left Tony with his parents and not been plagued by guilt?
11. Were there places where you understood that the children were being hurt by Tony’s illness? Can you think of scenes where Josh revealed his worries?
12. In a sense readers are the bystanders to this drama, much like the friends from Tony’s and Sandy’s neighborhood and like Colleen’s teacher-friends. How much do you think Sandy’s and Tony’s neighbors really understood what was going on inside that house? If you’d received an email with the "to do" list, would you have signed up for the early morning shift or found reasons not to?
13. At the end of the book, Colleen and Charles discuss the idea of heroism: who is and who is not behaving heroically. How do you think Colleen feels about herself at the end of the book?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)