Tumbleweeds (Meacham) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
1. The quote at the beginning of the book by Sir John Suckling says, “Our sins, like our shadows when day is in its glory, scarce appear. Toward evening, how great and monstrous they appear.” At the end, are Cathy and John able to overcome the shadows from the beginning of their lives? Or have the shadows changed them into people they would never have become otherwise?

2. At difficult moments in the novel, one of the recurring events is Cathy’s struggle with selective mutism. How does this develop from her parents’ deaths to Trey’s death? If she had been able to call the police, would the ending have been different? Would John have stayed at Harbison House?

3. Although being set in the early 1880s, there is a lot of open discussion concerning sex and birth control, even across generations, such as between Cathy and Emma. How might Cathy have been viewed differently by her readers if the book had been published during this time? Are we, as readers, able to sympathize more with Cathy because we live in an age where birth control is widely used?

4. On page 125 at the Harbison House, Trey tells John, “It’s not in me, Tiger. That’s why I need you. That’s why you’re my man. You keep me on the straight and narrow.” Discuss whether this is actually true—did Trey’s life disintegrate because he no longer had John’s presence, or did John begin to lack faith in his friend, mwhich then led to their estrangement?

5. When Cathy is in the hospital, just after Will’s birth, she says, “You are about to meet your daddy, John Will.” Rather than Trey, however, John walks into the room. How did John’s life in the priesthood mold him into a father for Will? Did you feel relief when Trey finally divulged his secret to John?

6. While working at Pelican Bay State Prison, John becomes good friends with Dr. Laura Rhinelander. Is this friendship refreshing for each of them, or does it serve to keep them tied to their pasts? What do you think each of them is looking for in the other?

7. One of the things that Deke Tyson struggles with, when he uncovers the evidence for Donny’s death, is the fine line between the truth and what is right. In the black-and-white world of justice, he should implicate both Trey and Father John in the act, but John has proven himself a good and loving man. Have you ever had a similar situation in which silence is better than the truth? What do you believe Deke should have done and why?

8. Warren Buffett once said, “It takes twenty years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” How was Cathy’s reputation hurt by her pregnancy? Did she ever completely lose the respect of the town? Keep in mind not only her struggles to find a job but also her transformation of Bennie’s and the aftermath of Trey’s death.

9. When John arrives at Bennie’s to first tell Cathy that Trey is back in town, “He sensed a gathering of shadows—those long, reckoning shades cast by old sins that time cannot disperse.” What are the sins that Cathy, Trey, and John committed when they were younger? What “reckoning” do those sins force  each of them to come to?

10. For those who have read Leila Meacham’s previous novel, Roses, what parallels do you see and what lesson can you draw? Is pride truly a more powerful force than love? Can it take a lifetime to realize young mistakes, or is redemption possible before the end?

11. At the end of Chapter 10, Emma considers the trio’s friendship: “She worried only that Trey’s unswerving trust in Cathy and John made him vulnerable to disappointment—and her granddaughter and John open to its consequences. All human beings were subject to falling below others’ expectations, and Trey was of the particular bent that, once betrayed, there would be no rescuing of the ties that once bound.” Did Cathy and John ever truly betray him? Did he, in turn, betray them by keeping his silence?

12. Was Trey right to leave without explanation? Would Cathy and John have been able to marry, and would he have been able to move past his love for Catherine Ann? Who, ultimately, did his choice hurt the most?

13. How did the title of the novel apply as a symbol of the main characters?

14. John calls him the victim of his own nature. Do you agree and if so, explain in what ways. How did John and Cathy save Trey from himself?

15. How was Cathy’s and John’s love for Trey unique from all others? And how was that a factor in Trey “never able to make it happen again?”
(Questions issued by publisher.)

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