Discussion Questions
1. What was The Sisters Montclair about? What are some of the book’s themes?
2. How realistic were the characters of Stella and Alice? Did you like them? Hate them?
3. The relationship between Stella and Alice is central to the novel. Have you ever experienced a similar friendship with another woman, something perhaps unexpected because of your backgrounds and interests?
4. By falling in love with Brendan, Alice made a choice that had moral implications in the story. Would you have made the same decision? Why or why not?
5. When Professor Dillard asks Stella why she stays with Alice, Stella replies, “Because she’s wounded.” How does this statement relate to Stella’s abandonment by her own mother? How does it relate to the central themes of love, friendship, and support that develop between Stella and Alice?
6. How did the relationship between Alice and her sister, Laura, parallel Alice’s relationship with Stella?
7. Stella and Alice are products, not only of their class, but also of their generation. If Alice had been born into the freedoms afforded women of Stella’s generation, would her life have been different? In what ways? Are there clues in the novel about how Alice fantasized, as a young woman, about living her life?
8. Stella and Alice’s background are so completely different that each has difficulty clearly seeing the other. Alice’s elite upbringing makes her naive about Stella’s past, and Stella has a tendency to believe that money is a protection from tragedy. But does anyone ever truly have a perfect life? Have you ever known someone who seemed to “have it all,” only to discover later that they had suffered through some unimaginable tragedy?
9. The novel essentially takes place in two different time periods. How did the author handle this? Did you feel you were experiencing the time and place in which the book was set?
10. How was Laura’s tragic fate foreshadowed in the novel? Were you surprised by the ending, or expecting it?
11. Were you surprised at the end of the novel by Alice’s confession:
There’s all kinds of love. There’s the kind that comes over you like a sickness, and there’s the kind that comes on after years of shared struggle and companionship. And I can tell you, from my experience, it’s the second kind that lasts longest. The other eventually burns away like a fever. Leaving what—guilt, regret? Would I have been happier with Brendan Burke? I don’t think so. He wasn’t the man I thought he was. I got the life I needed with Bill Whittington, even if it didn’t seem like the one I wanted at the time.
12. Did your impression of Brendan Burke change over the course of the novel? Of Bill Whittington?
13. Did the story pull you in, or did you have to force yourself to finish it?
14. How did the book compare to other books by the author? Would you recommend this book to other readers?
(Questions issued by publisher.)