The Things That Keep Us Here
Carla Buckley, 2010
Random House
432 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780440246046
Summary
How far would you go to protect your family?
Ann Brooks never thought she’d have to answer that question. Then she found her limits tested by a crisis no one could prevent. Now, as her neighborhood descends into panic, she must make tough choices to protect everyone she loves from a threat she cannot even see.
In this chillingly urgent novel, Carla Buckley confronts us with the terrifying decisions we are forced to make when ordinary life changes overnight.
A year ago, Ann and Peter Brooks were just another unhappily married couple trying–and failing–to keep their relationship together while they raised two young daughters. Now the world around them is about to be shaken as Peter, a university researcher, comes to a startling realization: A virulent pandemic has made the terrible leap across the ocean to America’s heartland.
And it is killing fifty out of every hundred people it touches.
As their town goes into lockdown, Peter is forced to return home–with his beautiful graduate assistant. But the Brookses’ safe suburban world is no longer the refuge it once was. Food grows scarce, and neighbor turns against neighbor in grocery stores and at gas pumps. And then a winter storm strikes, and the community is left huddling in the dark.
Trapped inside the house she once called home, Ann Brooks must make life-or-death decisions in an environment where opening a door to a neighbor could threaten all the things she holds dear.
Carla Buckley’s poignant debut raises important questions to which there are no easy answers, in an emotionally riveting tale of one family facing unimaginable stress. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Washinton, D.C., USA
• Education—B.A., Oberlin College; M.B.A., University of Pennsylvania
• Currently—lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Carla Buckley is the author of The Good Goodbye (2016), The Deepest Secret (2014), Invisible (2012), and The Things That Keep Us Here (2010), which was nominated for a Thriller Award as a best first novel and the Ohioana Book Award for fiction.
She is a graduate of Oberlin College and the Wharton School of Business. Before turning to fiction, Buckley worked as an assistant press secretary for a U.S. senator, an analyst with the Smithsonian Institution, and a technical writer for a defense contractor.
She now lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with her husband and three children. She is almost always at work on her next novel. (Adapted from the publisher.)
Book Reviews
The third-person narration squanders the tensions among [the characters], resulting in flat and unsurprising epiphanies. Although Buckley raises important questions about trust, loyalty and forgiveness, the narrative flaws detract from the overall effect.
Publishers Weekly
Medical thriller meets domestic drama in this timely debut.... With crisp writing and taut pacing, Buckley spins a convincing apocalyptic vision that's both frightening and claustrophobic, although she handles the human drama less adroitly.... Verdict: Despite structural flaws, this vivid depiction of suburban America gone bad is riveting. —Jeanne Bogino, New Lebanon Lib., NY
Library Journal
Buckley pulls many punches, downplaying in particular the chaos that could ensue following a total infrastructure collapse, and sets up the novel's surprise final twists by deliberately misleading the reader. Mawkish prose and blatantly contrived plot developments make this a disappointing debut.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
(Author Carla Buckley has issued a "spoiler warning" with regards to these questions. You may wish to read through them AFTER finishing the novel.)
1. With the onset of the pandemic why do you think some people's behavior changed for the better and others for the worst? How do you think you would act in a similar situation?
2. In the story Ann chooses to not take her best friend's baby because of the flu, thereby condemning him to an almost certain death. Peter intervenes and takes the baby. What do you think that you would do in a similar situation? Does Peter's behavior reflect a faith?
3. Ann concluded that Peter and Shazia were in love and having a baby. Are there other instances in the book where taking the situation at face value led to wrong assumptions?
4. Carla Buckley portrayed almost all of the other characters in the book in the worst possible light. Did she do this to contrast Peter's behavior or do you think that people would behave this way in a dire situation?
5. Is the character of Ann written as strong or selfish?
6. Peter tried by example to draw his neighbors together in the spirit of helping each other through the crisis by voluntarily picking up the garbage for the street and taking it to the dump. Do you think they all would have survived longer if they had combined resources and helped each other, putting aside their fears? How do you think you and your neighbors would react in a crisis like this?
7. In the story, Ann demonstrates a willingness to do anything for her children. Identify the moral choices she made in doing so. Do you agree with her choices?
8. The book illustrates that when a disaster hits, people don't always have time to prepare. Are you prepared for a disaster of this magnitude? Why or why not?
9. At the end of the book, Kate indicates a reluctance to commit to Frank. Did you anticipate this? Why or why not?
10. How do you think the death of her infant son affected Ann's reaction when her neighbors brought their baby to her doorstep as they were dying?
11. How does the death of William shape both characters and plot development in the novel?
12. Even while we understand Ann's fears when Jacob is placed on her doorstep, how do you think you would act under the same circumstances? How would you draw the line around family in a true pandemic? Would you turn your back on your infected best friend and her possibly infected infant? Is it better to stay isolated as a family in a pandemic emergency or is it better to band together with other neighbors and why?
13. Which hardships that the characters had to endure would be the most difficult for you? Why?
15. How did Barney affect the storyline? Why do you think the author included him in as many scenes as she did?
(Questions from the author's website.)
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