The New Woman (A Staggerford Novel)
Jon Hassler, 2005
Penguin Group USA
224 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780452287648
Summary
Since 1977, Jon Hassler's "Staggerford" series has entranced readers with its funny and charming depiction of life in small-town America. The New Woman is his last visit to this Minnesota hamlet
At the age of eighty-eight, Agatha McGee has grudgingly moved out of her house on River Street and into the Sunset Senior Apartments. She's not happy about giving up her independence, and Sunset Senior's arts and crafts activities and weekly excursions to the Blue Sky Casino are hardly a consolation.
Meanwhile two of her close friends pass away, her nephew Frederick is drifting into depression, and a kidnapped little girl has suddenly appeared on her doorstep. With characteristic poise and dignity, Agatha takes on her problems and finds that the bonds of friendship and family are still the key to happiness at any age. Affectionate and life-affirming, The New Woman is another delightful trip to a town with a soul as real as rural America itself. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—March 30, 1933
• Where—Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
• Death—March 20, 2008
• Education—B.A., St. John's University; M.A., University of
North Dakota
Jon Hassler was an American writer and teacher known for his novels about small-town life in Minnesota. He held the positions of Regents Professor Emeritus and Writer-in-Residence at St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota.
Hassler was born in Minneapolis, Minn., but spent his formative years in the small Minnesota towns of Staples and Plainview, where he graduated from high school. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in English from St. John's University in 1955. While teaching English at three different Minnesota high schools, he received his Master of Arts degree in English from the University of North Dakota in 1960. He continued to teach at the high school level until 1965, when he began his collegiate teaching career: first at Bemidji State University, then Brainerd Community College (now called Central Lakes College), and finally at Saint John's, where he became the Writer-in-Residence in 1980.
During his high-school teaching years, Hassler married and fathered three children. His first marriage lasted 25 years. He had two more marriages; the last was to Gretchen Kresl Hassler.
Much of Hassler's fiction involves characters struggling with transitions in their lives or searching for a central purpose. Many of his major characters are Catholic (or lapsed Catholics), and his novels frequently explore the role that small town life plays in shaping, or limiting, human potential.
Readers of Hassler's novels eventually will notice a number of recurring characters: for instance, Miles Pruitt (the protagonist in "Staggerford", who is referred to in A Green Journey, The Love Hunter, and The New Woman); Agatha McGee (in Staggerford, A Green Journey, Dear James, The Staggerford Flood, and The New Woman); Larry Quinn (in The Love Hunter and Rookery Blues); and Frank Healy (in North of Hope and The New Woman).)
In 1994, Hassler was diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy, a disease similar to Parkinson's. It caused vision and speech problems, as well as difficulty walking, but he was able to continue writing. He was reported to have finished a novel just days before his death.
The Jon Hassler Theater in Plainview, Minnesota, is named for him. (From Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
John Hassler's Staggerfrod, Minnesota, is somewhere north of Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon, and isn't far from Sinclair Lewis's Gopher Prairie.... His novels have a quiet legion of devoted readers.
Chicago Tribune
Fans of Jan Karon's "Mitford" series will enjoy Hassler's books. If your heart needs lifting, read The New Woman.
Detroit Free Press
The lively cast includes many we've met before in the "Staggerford" novels—Agatha's National Enquirer-loving friend Lillian Kite, amiable Father Healy, Agatha's depressive grand-nephew Frederick and the menacing murderess Corrine Bingham, just released from a mental hospital. Some of these people have cause to grieve; some cause grief. Some get into trouble. And some die. Indeed, sorrow, trouble and mortality are ever-present. Yet this is also one of Hassler's funniest novels.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
In the latest installment of Hassler's series set in the bucolic town of Staggerford, he turns his attention to the quirky residents of Sunset Senior Apartments and the tragicomic exploits of retired schoolteacher Agatha McGee. Staid and prim, Agatha is insulted by the idea of a retirement center even at the age of 87, but a severe ice storm shows her how helpless she's become, and she warms to the idea of trading independence for "neighbors in the next apartment who would come to her aid." However, she soon finds that Sunset Senior's wacky inhabitants are going to put an end to her orderly existence. After Agatha's brooch goes missing, her friend Lillian hatches a plan to hide the residents' most prized belongings in a shoebox. But the plan goes awry when Lillian dies and the box, which could contain a winning lottery ticket, is accidentally buried with the casket. The story chronicles a funeral, an exhumation, a lover spurned and a bumbled kidnapping, as Agatha finds that old age doesn't put an end to misadventure. Hassler's storytelling shines when he injects misbehavior, misanthropy and the malcontent with warmth and good-natured humor. His love of this town is palpable, making for an enjoyable read full of sweet characters and moments.
Publishers Weekly
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 get a discussion started for The New Woman:
1. Why does Agatha fear at first that moving into the Sunset Senior Apartments might not be such a good idea. Are those concerns typical of many her age?
2. Eventually, Agatha settles in and reaches out. In what way is she able to change lives? Do those who are older have special qualities unique to them, qualities that enable them to help those who are younger? Do our communities value the elderly to the extent that we should?
3. How would you describe Agatha? Is she right to be repulsed by John Beezer's manners, Edna's courseness, or the general pervasion of incivility? Are her standards fair? Is she too rigid, old-fashioned, or superior? Or is she correct in her assessments?
4. Were you surprised by the outcome of the diamond brooch? Losing or misplacing items seems to be a motif running throughout the novel. What larger issue might this represent?
5. Which episodes do you find particularly humorous in Hassler's book—the MX Box, digging up Lillian's coffin...others?
6. Talk about the characters in The New Woman? Aside from Agatha, whom do you find most interesting, funny or likeable? Do you find Hassler's portrayals realistic? Do you see yourself...or others you know...in his characters?
7. Overall, how does Jon Hassler treat small-town life? Does he make fun of the people? Does he celebrate their values? Is he nostalgic—does he overly romanticize small-town life in the MidWest?
8. If you've read other novels in the "Staggerford" series, how does this one compare? Are the characters which reappear here consistent with their appearances elsewhere in the series? If you haven't read other installments, does this book inspire you to do so?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)