What I Remember Most
Cathy Lamb, 2014
Kensington Publishing
486 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780758295064
Summary
In a new novel rich in grace, warmth, and courage, acclaimed author Cathy Lamb tells of one woman's journey of reinvention in the wake of deep betrayall.
Grenadine Scotch Wild has only vague memories of the parents she last saw when she was six years old, but she's never forgotten their final, panicked words to her, "Run, Grenadine, run!" The mystery of their disappearance is just one more frayed strand in a life that has lately begun to unravel completely.
One year into her rocky marriage to Covey, a well known investor, he's arrested for fraud and embezzlement. Grenadine, now a successful collage artist and painter, is facing jail time despite her innocence.
With Covey refusing to exonerate her unless she comes back to him, Grenadine once again takes the advice given to her so long ago: she runs. This time, instead of ending up in various foster homes, Grenadine ends up living in her car, for weeks, in winter. Hiding out in a mountain town in central Oregon until the trial, she eventually finds work as a bartender and as assistant to a furniture-maker who is busy rebuilding his own life.
Still haunted by what happened to her parents, she moves into a lovely apartment above a red barn, makes true friends, and finally learns to laugh and love.
Far from everything she knew, Grenadine is granted a rare chance, as potentially liberating as it is terrifying—to face down her past, her fears, and live a life as beautiful and colorful as one of her paintings. . . (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Newport Beach, California, USA
• Raised—state of Oregon
• Education—B.A., University of Oregon
• Currently—lives in Portland, Oregon
In her words:
I was born in Newport Beach, California and spent my first ten years playing outside like a wild vagabond.
As a child, I mastered the art of skateboarding, catching butterflies in bottles, and riding my bike with no hands. When I was ten, my parents moved me, my two sisters, a brother, and two poorly behaved dogs to Oregon before I could fulfill my lifelong dream of becoming a surfer bum.
I then embarked on my notable academic career where I earned good grades now and then, spent a great deal of time daydreaming, ran wild with a number of friends, and landed on the newspaper staff in high school. When I saw my byline above an article about people making out in the hallways of the high school, I knew I had found my true calling.
After two years of partying at the University of Oregon, I settled down for the next three years and earned my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education, and became a fourth grade teacher. I became a teacher because I wanted to become a writer. It was difficult for me to become proper and conservative but I threw out my red cowboy boots and persevered. I had no choice. I had to eat and health insurance is expensive. I loved teaching, but I also loved the nights and summers where I could write and try to build a career filled with creativity and my strange imagination.
I met my husband on a blind date. A mutual friend who was an undercover vice cop busting drug dealers set us up. My husband jokes he was being arrested at the time. That is not true. Do not believe him. His sense of humor is treacherous. It was love at third sight. We’ve now been married a long time.
Teaching children about the Oregon Trail and multiplication facts amused me until I became so gigantically pregnant with twins I looked like a small cow and could barely walk. With a three year old at home, I decided it was time to make a graceful exit and waddle on out. I left school one day and never went back. I later landed in the hospital for over six weeks with pre term labor, but that is another (rather dull) story. I like to think my students missed me.
When I was no longer smothered in diapers and pacifiers, I took a turn onto the hazardous road of freelance writing and wrote over 200 articles on homes, home décor, people and fashion for a local newspaper. As I am not fashionable and can hardly stand to shop, it was an eye opener to find that some women actually do obsess about what to wear. I also learned it would probably be more relaxing to slam a hammer against one’s forehead than engage in a large and costly home remodeling project. I also tried to write romance books, which ended ingloriously for years.
I suffer from, “I Would Rather Play Than Work Disease” which prevents me from getting much work done unless I have a threatening deadline, which is often. I like to hang with family and friends, walk, eat chocolate, travel, go to Starbucks, and I am slightly obsessive, okay very obsessive, about the types of books I read. I also like to be left alone a lot so I can hear all the bizarre and troubled characters in my head talk to each other and then transfer that oddness to paper. The characters usually don’t start to talk until 10:00 at night, however, so I am often up ‘til 2:00 in the morning with them. That is my excuse for being cranky. Really, I was just born a little cranky.
I adore my children and husband, except when he refuses to take his dirty shoes off and walks on the carpet. I will ski because my kids insist, but I secretly don’t like it at all. Too cold and I fall all the time.
I am currently working on my next novel and I’m not sleeping much. (From the author's website.)
Follow Cathy on Facebook.
Book Reviews
Lamb is an awesome storyteller and moves seamlessly from the past to the present.
RT Book Reviews
IF YOU COULD SEE WHAT I SEE: Lamb’s story is earnest, heartwarming and, at times, heartbreaking.
RT Book Reviews
THE FIRST DAY OF THE REST OF MY LIFE: The blending of three or more generations and the secrets they harbor keeps this story moving briskly, culminating in a satisfying ending that makes us believe that despite heartache and angst, there can be such a thing as happily ever after.
New York Journal of Books
SUCH A PRETTY FACE: Stevie’s a winning heroine
Publishers Weekly
HENRY’S SISTERS
An Indie Next List Notable Book.
A story of strength and reconciliation and change.
Sunday Oregonian
If you loved Terms of Endearment, the Ya Ya Sisterhood, and Steel Magnolias, you will love Henry’s Sisters. Cathy Lamb just keeps getting better and better.
Three Tomatoes Book Club
THE LAST TIME I WAS ME: Charming.
Publishers Weekly
JULIA’S CHOCOLATES: Julia's Chocolates is wise, tender, and very funny. In Julia Bennett, Cathy Lamb has created a deeply wonderful character, brave and true. I loved this beguiling novel about love, friendship and the enchantment of really good chocolate.
Luanne Rice, New York Times bestselling author
Discussion Questions
1. Which character did you most relate to and why? Was there any part of the book that made you laugh or cry? What was your favorite scene?
2. If you could spend the day with Grenadine, Kade, Rozlyn, the Hutchinsons, or Eudora, who would you choose and what would you do?
3. Grenadine says, about herself,
I’m a crack shot and can hit damn near anything…I’m a collage artist and painter…I used to have a little green house. I sold it. That was a huge mistake…I can smash beer cans on my forehead…I fight dirty. Someone comes at me, and my instinctive reaction is to smash and pulverize. It has gotten me into trouble…I have a temper, my anger perpetually on low seethe, and I have struggled with self esteem issues and flashbacks for as long as I can remember…I can wear four inch heels and designer clothes like wealthy women, make social chit chat, and pretend I’m exactly like them. I am not like them at all…
Write down, and then share, how you would describe yourself.
4. Grenadine speaks in the first person. However, there are also police and children’s services reports, memos, letters from a doctor, a teacher, and Grenadine, a report card, a court transcript, and third person passages from the point of view of Bucky. Did the structure work for you? Why?
5. Marley, a customer at The Spirited Owl said,
Women are so picky. If you don’t look like Brad Pitt or you’re not rich, they don’t want you.
I said,
No, they don’t want you, Marley, because you look like you have a baby in your stomach, you’re unshaven, you drink too much, and all you want to do is talk about yourself and whine in that whiny voice of yours. Would you be attracted to you? No? Then why would a woman be?
Why did the author give Grenadine a job at a bar? What do you think of her bar tending and communication abilities? If she gave you advice while you were drinking a margarita, what would she say to you?
6. What were the themes of the book?
7. Did the author portray Grenadine’s journey in foster care and the children’s services division workers accurately?
8. Why was Grenadine attracted to Kade? What did Kade have in common with her? Kade had spent time in jail because of gang related activities when he was younger. Would his record have stopped you from dating him?
9. From Bucky:
She never should have gotten away.
That was a mistake. He had not expected things to take so long. It had always bothered him.
He liked things neat. Planned. Perfect.
He wanted to see her again. Before.
He would do it! He would think of a way.
He pulled four strands of hair out of his head, then made a design on the table in front of him.
He giggled. He twitched in his chair.
He told himself a nursery rhyme. He changed the words to create a new rhyme. He sang it out loud. He wrote it in his rhyme book.
He giggled again, then he hurdled his rhyme book across the room, tilted his head back and screamed.
What element did Bucky bring to the story? Did it fit?
10. Grenadine deliberately shot two men who were attacking her in her car, then kept shooting to scare them off and disable their vehicle. She did not report the incident to police. What did both actions tell you about her?
11. What did you think of Covey? Was there any good in him?
12. How did Rozlyn live? How did she die? Did you learn anything from her about living or dying? Would it have been more realistic, or a better ending for you, if Rozlyn had lived? Why do you think the author chose for her to die?
13. Grenadine said,
I paint what’s in my head. I paint whatever I’m thinking about at the time. I’ll twist it up, spin it out, add color, add layers, add collage items, and I keep going until it feels done.
If you were to make a painting or collage that would tell the story of your life, what would it look like? What materials would you use? What would it say about you? Grab the artist in you and sketch it out….
(Questions courtesy of the author.)