Fifty Words for Rain
Asha Lemmie, 2020
Penguin Publishing
464 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781524746360
Summary
From debut author Asha Lemmie, a sweeping, heartrending coming-of-age novel about a young woman's quest for acceptance in post-World War II Japan.
Kyoto, Japan, 1948. "Do not question. Do not fight. Do not resist."
Such is eight-year-old Noriko "Nori" Kamiza’s first lesson.
—She will not question why her mother abandoned her with only these final words.
—She will not fight her confinement to the attic of her grandparents’ imperial estate.
—She will not resist the scalding chemical baths she receives daily to lighten her skin.
The child of a married Japanese aristocrat and her African American GI lover, Nori is an outsider from birth. Her grandparents take her in, only to conceal her, fearful of a stain on the royal pedigree that they are desperate to uphold in a changing Japan.
Obedient to a fault, Nori accepts her solitary life, despite her natural intellect and curiosity.
But when chance brings her older half-brother, Akira, to the estate that is his inheritance and destiny, Nori finds in him an unlikely ally with whom she forms a powerful bond—a bond their formidable grandparents cannot allow and that will irrevocably change the lives they were always meant to lead.
Because now that Nori has glimpsed a world in which perhaps there is a place for her after all, she is ready to fight to be a part of it—a battle that just might cost her everything.
Spanning decades and continents, Fifty Words for Rain is a dazzling epic about the ties that bind, the ties that give you strength, and what it means to be free. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1995
• Where—the State of Virginia, USA
• Rasied—the State of Maryland
• Education—B.A., Boston College
• Currently—lives in New York City, New York
Asha Lemmie is an American author, who, from the early age of two developed a passionate interest in reading. By the time she was five, she was writing her own stories. Attending school in Washington, D.C., Lemmie was fortunate to be exposed to a wide variety of cultural influences.
After graduating from Boston College with a degree in English literature and creative writing, Lemmie relocated to New York City, where she worked in book publishing. Fifty Words for Rain is her first novel. (Adapted from the publisher.)
Book Reviews
[An] epic, twisty debut…. [A] few bewildering narrative choices…, but Lemmie keeps the reader guessing and ends with a staggering gut punch. Sometimes bleak, sometimes hopeful,… [this] heartbreaking story of familial obligations packs an emotional wallop.
Publishers Weekly
[A gripping historical tale that will transport readers through myriad emotions…. Lemmie intimately draws the readers into every aspect of Noriko’s complex story,… bringing us to anger, tears, and small pockets of joy. A truly ambitious and remarkable debut.
Booklist
[T]he majority of the novel propels Nori toward a grand moment of defying her grandmother, but in the final pages Lemmie pulls her punch…. A bold historical portrait of a woman overcoming oppression marred by inconsistent character development.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. What do you think the title "Fifty Words for Rain" means? What role does nature play in Nori’s life?
2. For Nori, watching Akira play the violin is captivating, and she wants to be able to make people feel that way too. Why do you think music has such a strong effect on Nori? Aside from, bringing her and Akira closer, what does playing the violin mean to Nori?
3. Have you previously read a World War II novel set in Japan? How does setting a story outside Europe change the way you think about this period? What are some of the lasting effects from the war that you see in the book?
4. Discuss Akira and Nori’s relationship. Despite the vastly different ways they are treated, they form a very powerful bond. Why do you think they are able to be close? How does their relationship change the course of their lives?
5. There are many examples of female relationships in the book. Look at how Nori interacts with her mother, her grandmother, Alice, Kiyomi, and Miyuki. How do these women’s relationships reflect and resist Japanese culture in the 1950s?
6. What does Nori learn from reading her mother’s diaries? How do you think this influences her own trajectory?
7. How does Nori transform throughout the book? In one regard, she moves from not fighting her confinement to resisting other people’s control over her life. What inspired those changes within her? Are those changes reflected in the rest of society?
8. This is a book about family, love, duty, and isolation. Do you see any parallels between the views in the book and those of today, especially about our attitudes toward women and other marginalized people?
9. What do you think Nori’s Obaasama (grandmother), Yuko, means when she says "Many, and none" in response to Nori’s question about whether she has any regrets?
10. Do you agree with Nori’s decision about her future? When considering what to do in your own life, how do you balance your desire for happiness, purpose, and sense of responsibility, whether it be to your family, friends, or society?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
The Lying Life of Adults
Elena Ferrante, 2019 (2020, U.S.)
Europa Editions
324 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781609455910
Summary
Giovanna’s pretty face is changing, turning ugly, at least so her father thinks. Giovanna, he says, looks more like her Aunt Vittoria every day.
But can it be true? Is she really changing? Is she turning into her Aunt Vittoria, a woman she hardly knows but whom her mother and father clearly despise?
Surely there is a mirror somewhere in which she can see herself as she truly is.
Giovanna is searching for her reflection in two kindred cities that fear and detest one another: Naples of the heights, which assumes a mask of refinement, and Naples of the depths, a place of excess and vulgarity. She moves from one to the other in search of the truth, but neither city seems to offer answers or escape.
Named one of 2016’s most influential people by Time magazine and frequently touted as a future Nobel Prize-winner, Elena Ferrante has become one of the world’s most read and beloved writers.
With this new novel about the transition from childhood to adolescence to adulthood, Ferrante proves once again that she deserves her many accolades. In The Lying Life of Adults, readers will discover another gripping, highly addictive, and totally unforgettable Neapolitan story. (From the publisher.)
The Lying Life of Adults is set to become a Netflix series.
Author Bio
Elena Ferrante is the pen-name of an Italian novelist whose true identity is not publicly known. Though heralded as the most important Italian novelist of her generation, she has kept her identity secret since the publication of her first novel in 1992.
Works
Ferrante is the author of a half dozen novels, the most well-known of which is Days of Abandonment. Her four "Neapolitan Novels" revolve around two perceptive and intelligent girls from Naples who try to create lives for themselves within a violent and stultifying culture. The series consists of four novels: My Brilliant Friend (2012), The Story of a New Name (2013), Those Who Leave And Those Who Stay (2014), and The Story of the Lost Child (2015), which was nominated for the Strega Prize, an Italian literary award.
Two of Ferrante's novels have been turned into films by Italian filmmakers. Troubling Love became the 1995 feature film Nasty Love, and The Days of Abandonment became a 2005 film of the same title.
Her nonfiction book Fragments (2003) discussion her experiences as a writer.
Identity
In a January 21, 2013, article in The New Yorker, James Woods wrote that Ferrante has said, "books, once they are written, have no need of their authors." Perhaps that is one reason for her pen-name.
Speculation about Ferrante's identity is rife. In the same New Yorker article, Woods also wrote:
In the past twenty years or so, though, she has provided written answers to journalists’ questions, and a number of her letters have been collected and published. From them, we learn that she grew up in Naples, and has lived for periods outside Italy. She has a classics degree; she has referred to being a mother. One could also infer from her fiction and from her interviews that she is not now married. (“Over the years, I’ve moved often, in general unwillingly, out of necessity.… I’m no longer dependent on the movements of others, only on my own” is her encryption.) In addition to writing, “I study, I translate, I teach. (Author bio adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 9/11/2015.)
Book Reviews
[S]uspenseful and propulsive.… [It is] the story of the evolution of a young woman, so brash and sensibly secretive, allergic to banality, prone to fabrication but honest with herself about her desires. Ferrante leaves many threads dangling; we’re left to wonder at the… enigmatic, oddly heroic conclusion.
Parul Sehgal - New York Times
Yes, this book lives up to its author’s reputation, and then some. In focusing on Giovanna and her journey, The Lying Life of Adults achieves an energy and warmth sometimes missing in the narratives about Lila and Lenu in the Quartet.… Giovanna’s fate, containing elements both expected and unexpected, makes her one of this year’s most memorable heroines.
Bethanne Patrrick - Boston Globe
Ferrante… shows again how she is unbeatable at pulling you inside the mind of a teenage girl, making you see how everything that looks irrational from the outside—the moods, the silences, the jealousy, fears, tears and resentments—are utterly logical and reasonable…. The book does sag in the middle.… However, the pace picks up in the final third.… [and shows] that five years on Elena Ferrante can still deliver.
Tom Kington - Guardian (UK)
[T]he overwrought language of [Ferrante's] new book doesn’t illuminate the anguish that it seeks to plumb.... [T]he Lying Life has passages of electric dialogue and acute perception. But its crude hinting and telegraphing suggest an author who distrusts her reader’s discernment, and they made me wonder if Ferrante hadn’t drafted the story as a much younger writer, still honing her craft.
New Yorker
Giovanna’s coming-of-age trials… buttress the gripping, plot-heavy tale. While this feels minor in comparison to Ferrante’s previous work, Giovanna is the kind of winning character readers wouldn’t mind seeing more of.
Publishers Weekly
[A] powerful coming-of-age story…. Ferrante’s ability to draw in her reader remains unparalleled.… The novel simmers with overt rage toward parental deception, teachers’ expectations and society’s impossible ideals of beauty and behavior.
BookPage
(Starred review) Fans of Ferrante’s first two Neopolitan novels, My Brilliant Friend (2012) and The Story of a New Name (2013), will especially revel in Giovanna’s confessional, perceptive, gut-wrenching, and often funny narration of what she calls her "arduous approach to the adult world."
Booklist
Ferrante’s legion of devoted readers will be encouraged by another equivocal ending, permitting the hope of further exploration of Giovanna’s journey in future volumes. A girl, a city, an inhospitable society: Ferrante’s formula works again!
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for THE LYING LIFE OF ADULTS, then take off on your own:
1. What would your reaction have been as a child to have heard a parent say you were "ugly"? What effect would such a remark have had on you?
2. For most of us going through adolescence, we view our families through a different lens than we did in childhood. How does Giovanna come to questions her family and the "lies" that were once accepted as truths?
3. (Follow-up to Question 2) How similar to Giovanna's was your own passage from childhood to young adulthood? Consider the ideals of love, marriage, faith, and sex. How did your own understanding of them change?
4. As in her other works, Ferrante focuses on class. Start by talking about the childhood household of Giovanna and her parents. How does it differ from the Naples in which her aunt Vittoria lives. What effect does this new environment have on Giovanna? Why is she intent on casting off her privileged upbringing?
5. How would you describe Vittoria? What is Giovanni's reaction to meeting Vittoria? How does the relationship change Giovanni? In what way do her familial alliances change?
6. Giovanni wonders, "What happened in the world of adults, in the heads of very reasonable people, in their bodies loaded with knowledge? What reduced them to the most untrustworthy animals, worse than reptiles?" How would you answer that question? How does Giovanni come to answer that question?
7. Giovanna's sexual experiences are dark? Why does she pursue young men to whom she has no attraction? What drives her?
8. What is the significance of the bracelet, symbolically?
9. What is the meaning of Ferrante's title for this novel?
10. At the end of The Lying Life of Adults, Giovanna and a friend promise each other to "become adults like no one else has before." What do they mean? Does the ending suggest the possibility of additional Giovanni novels?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
When We Were Vikings
Andrew David MacDonald, 2020
Gallery/Scout Press
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781982126773
Summary
For Zelda, a twenty-one-year-old Viking enthusiast who lives with her older brother, Gert, life is best lived with some basic rules:
1. A smile means "thank you for doing something small that I liked."
2. Fist bumps and dabs = respect.
3. Strange people are not appreciated in her home.
4. Tomatoes in the middle of the sandwich do not get the bread wet.
5. Sometimes the most important things don’t fit on lists.
But when Zelda finds out that Gert has resorted to some questionable—and dangerous—methods to make enough money to keep them afloat, Zelda decides to launch her own quest.
Her mission: to be legendary. It isn’t long before Zelda finds herself in a battle that tests the reach of her heroism, her love for her brother, and the depth of her Viking strength. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Andrew David MacDonald grew up in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He won a Western Magazine Award for Fiction, was shortlisted for the Canadian National Magazine Award for Fiction, and his work has been anthologized in four volumes of The Journey Prize Stories, collecting the year’s best Canadian stories from emerging writers.
MacDonald has an MFA from the Program for Poets and Writers at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Zelda is a marvel, a living, breathing three-dimensional character with a voice so distinctive she leaps off the page.… When We Were Vikings is the tale of Zelda’s quest for autonomy, and MacDonald charts her course admirably.
New York Times
Heartwarming and unforgettable.
People
In this engaging debut novel, MacDonald skillfully balances drama and violence with humor, highlighting how an unorthodox family unit is still a family.… With Zelda, he's created an unforgettable character, one whose distinctive voice is entertaining and inspiring.
Publishers Weekly
To give structure to her life, Zelda follows rules and makes lists, but she discovers that life can be chaotic and complicated.… In this well-written and compelling novel, MacDonald conveys Zelda's particular challenges and succeeds in bringing her to life. —Jacqueline Snider, Toronto
Library Journal
MacDonald's first novel is a truly original story filled with love, tragedy, heartache, and triumph, and his heroine is sure to inspire readers to be legendary themselves.
Booklist
In this engaging debut novel, MacDonald skillfully balances drama and violence with humor, highlighting how an unorthodox family unit is still a family…. With Zelda, he's created an unforgettable character, one whose distinctive voice is entertaining and inspiring.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. On page 13, Zelda says, "Deeds and actions are what will make a person great and legendary." Do you think Zelda’s deeds and actions throughout the book have given her legendary status? What about Gert’s or AK47’s? Discuss with your group.
2. In the beginning of the book, Zelda tells a woman, "Hurting children causes emotional unstability as adults." Discuss Zelda’s and Gert’s childhood. Do you think they were able to overcome the instability of their own childhoods and form meaningful relationships with others? Why or why not? Do you think it is possible for people to come out of a traumatic childhood unharmed?
3. Zelda frequently repeats wisdom she has learned from others, such as "we do not lie to people in our tribe." Share with your group something you learned from Zelda or your favorite Zelda quote. Have you applied any of Zelda’s wisdom to your own life?
4. Zelda often refers to the famous Viking skeleton that was recently discovered to be a woman and not a man. She also finds out that this Viking woman was a high-ranking warrior. How does this change Zelda’s outlook on life? What does this mean for her? Discuss her reaction in the context of gender representation in pop culture.
5. Gert can be categorized as both a villain and a hero. Discuss with the group his role as both archetypes. Do you think Gert is a good brother? Why or why not? Did you ever empathize with him? Why or why not? Discuss how the same actions can cause someone to be seen as a villain by some but as a hero by others.
6. One of Zelda’s driving forces throughout the novel is to be taken seriously and be seen as an adult. Where does Zelda’s need to be seen as a grown-up lead her, and how does this drive impact her life? How does Zelda defy others’ expectations of her?
7. Kepple’s Guide to the Vikings is an important tool for Zelda as she navigates the world. Discuss the value of books and libraries in your life. Was there a book such as Kepple’s Guide in your life that changed the way you viewed the world?
8. AK47 tells Zelda that "the world is too complicated to have rules for everything.
And when it comes to things like love and sex—you need to kind of figure them out on your own." Why do you think Zelda struggles when she doesn’t have a set of rules to follow?
9. Dr. Kepple tells Zelda that "sometimes life finds us, and when it does we have to rise to the occasion and have courage." How does Zelda demonstrate this at different points throughout the novel?
10. Zelda says she forgot Toucan was a villain when he was dying. How does Toucan’s death affect Zelda, AK47, and Gert?
11. In terms of Zelda’s Viking moral code, does Zelda’s killing of Toucan make her a villain or a hero? What do you think would have happened if Zelda never confronted him?
12. Dr. Kepple also says that "we make lists, rules, and try to order things, trying to control them, when actually the most important parts of life, the parts really worth cherishing, are the things that we don’t expect." Do you agree or disagree? Discuss with the group your most cherished moments and whether or not they were moments you expected.
13. On page 138, AK47 tells Zelda, "I love him, I do. And I want things to work. But it’s not so simple." Discuss the romantic relationship between Gert and AK47 versus between Zelda and Marxy.
14. By the end of the novel, Zelda has displayed constant bravery and heroism in the face of challenges and obstacles. Discuss with your group whether you know of anyone with a disability who has triumphed in a similar way, and how society at large can better help people like Zelda flourish.
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
The Night Swim
Megan Goldin, 2020
St. Martin's Press
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781250219688
Summary
A true crime podcast host covering a controversial trial finds herself drawn deep into a small town’s dark past and a brutal crime that took place there years before.
Ever since her true-crime podcast became an overnight sensation and set an innocent man free, Rachel Krall has become a household name—and the last hope for people seeking justice.
But she’s used to being recognized for her voice, not her face. Which makes it all the more unsettling when she finds a note on her car windshield, addressed to her, begging for help.
The new season of Rachel's podcast has brought her to a small town being torn apart by a devastating rape trial. A local golden boy, a swimmer destined for Olympic greatness, has been accused of raping the beloved granddaughter of the police chief.
Under pressure to make Season 3 a success, Rachel throws herself into her investigation—but the mysterious letters keep coming.
Someone is following her, and she won’t stop until Rachel finds out what happened to her sister twenty-five years ago. Officially, Jenny Stills tragically drowned, but the letters insist she was murdered—and when Rachel starts asking questions, nobody in town wants to answer.
The past and present start to collide as Rachel uncovers startling connections between the two cases—and a revelation that will change the course of the trial and the lives of everyone involved.
Electrifying and propulsive, The Night Swim asks: What is the price of a reputation? Can a small town ever right the wrongs of its past? And what really happened to Jenny? (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Megan Goldin is the author of The Escape Room (2018) and The Night Swim (2020). Prior to becoming an author, Goldin worked as a correspondent for Reuters and other media outlets where she covered war, peace, international terrorism and financial meltdowns in the Middle East and Asia.
Goldin is now based in Melbourne, Australia, where she raises three sons and is a foster mum to Labrador puppies learning to be guide dogs. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
(Starred review) [an]outstanding thriller…. Goldin casts a searing light on small-town politics and how bias can affect the way people view rape victims and their alleged assailants.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review) Goldin’s prose is inviting, at times electrifying, and always sensitive in dealing with hot-button issues…. [W]ell done.
Booklist
A podcast investigator covering her first present-tense criminal trial is thrown for a loop by a radical new development in a much older case…. Not as intense as Goldin’s blistering debut, The Escape Room (2018), but a remarkably strong contender for second place.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for THE NIGHT SWIM … then take off on your own:
1. As Rachel covers the Scott Blair/Kelly Moore rape trial, amidst the "he-said/she-said testimony, she finds herself increasingly sympathetic toward Kelly? Why does her objectivity, which she has promised her listeners, begin to dissolve?
2. Talk about the way rape trials play out in courtrooms—and in the public arena. Consider, especially, the process of victim shaming. Given that consensuality is often used as a defense, how can accusations of rape be prosecuted fairly? Is "fair" even possible? To what degree, if any, have things changed with the #MeToo movement?
3. How does The Night Swim portray small towns, especially towns with disturbing secrets and long memories?
4. What role does reputation play in ascertaining ugly truths? And how is reputation connected with money and influence? In other words, talk about the role of class—the haves and the have-nots.
5. Were you surprised at the manner in which the two cases intersected? Did you find their resolution satisfactory?
6. Rachel rescues a bird at the end of the novel. What might her act signify, symbolically?
7. Of the three perspectives in The Night Swim—Hannah, Rachel, and the podcast transcripts—did you find one more engaging over the others? Or did you find all three equally compelling?
8. Make this into a movie? Who plays what roles?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
The Weekend
Charlotte Wood, 2019 (U.S., 2020)
Penguin Publishing
272 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780593086452
Summary
Three women in their seventies reunite for one last, life-changing weekend in the beach house of their late friend.
Four older women have a lifelong friendship of the best kind: loving, practical, frank, and steadfast. But when Sylvie dies, the ground shifts dangerously for the remaining three.
They are Jude, a once-famous restaurateur; Wendy, an acclaimed public intellectual; and Adele, a renowned actress now mostly out of work.
Struggling to recall exactly why they've remained close all these years, the grieving women gather at Sylvie's old beach house—not for festivities this time, but to clean it out before it is sold.
Can they survive together without her?
Without Sylvie to maintain the group's delicate equilibrium, frustrations build and painful memories press in. Fraying tempers, an elderly dog, unwelcome guests and too much wine collide in a storm that brings long-buried hurts to the surface—and threatens to sweep away their friendship for good.
The Weekend explores growing old and growing up, and what happens when we're forced to uncover the lies we tell ourselves.
Sharply observed and excruciatingly funny, this is a jewel of a book: a celebration of tenderness and friendship from an award-winning writer. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1965
• Where—Cooma, New South Wales, Australia
• Education—B.A., Charles Sturt University; M.A., University of Technology Sydney; Ph.D., University of New South Wales
• Awards—(see below)
• Currently—lives in Sydney, Australia
Charlotte Wood is an Australian writer and the author of six novels. She was born in Cooma, New South Wales, and received her B.A. from Charles Sturt University. She went on to earn a Masters in Creative Writing from University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and a Ph.D. from the University of New South Wales. Woods currently lives in Sydney, Australia.
The author's novels include The Weekend (2019), The Natural Way of Things (2015), Animal People (2011), The Children (2007), The Submerged Cathedral (2004), and Pieces of a Girl (1999).
Her nonfiction works include The Writer's Room (2016), a collection of interviews with Australian writers, as well as Love & Hunger (2012), a collection of personal reflections on cooking. Woods also edited an anthology of writing about siblings, Brothers & Sisters (2009).
Recognition
2014 - Chair of Arts Practice, Literature, at the Australia Council for the Arts
2016 - Stella Prize, Indie Book Awards Novel of the Year and Book of the Year (for The Natural Way of Things)
2016 - Writer in Residence Fellowship, University of Sydney's Charles Perkins Centre. (Wood brought together award-winning novelists and world-leading researchers to discuss complex topics of aging.)
Book Reviews
Wood has several surprises up her sleeve; her characters have loved often, lived large and taken plenty of risks, which makes for quick, Liane Moriarty-esque reading. She also has an eye for the little moments that link us, sometimes past the point of reason, to people whose histories we share.
New York Times
[A] dark, smart comedy of manners…. For a reader in or facing the demographic of Wood’s three friends, The Weekend is both fascinating and chilling. Not just the question of superannuated friendships, but also past-prime careers, aging bodies, senior finances and calcifying personality traits are all fairly coldly examined here.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Old age is a state of mutiny rather than stasis in this glorious, forthright tale of female friendship.… What gives the book its glorious, refreshing, forthright spine is that each woman is still adamantly (often disastrously) alive, and still less afraid of death than irrelevance.
Guardian (UK)
The Weekend captivated me from the excellent opening chapter…. The three main characters—Jude, Adele and Wendy—are superbly drawn.… [T]his wise, funny novel will help you understand yourself—and it may scare the s*** out of anyone brave enough to confront the truths within its masterful pages.
Independent (UK)
Wood finds a beautiful balance between her three women…. The gaps between how a character sees themselves and how their friends see them are astutely drawn, both painfully comic and frequently heartbreaking.… Wood is to be praised for taking female friendship seriously and for being caustically honest.
Observer (UK)
A darkly funny, truthful novel…. There is endless pleasure to be found in the candour and compassion Wood brings to bear on femininity and female friendship.
Metro (UK)
A lovely, insightful exploration of aging, regrets and rebirth.
People
If you've ever thought to yourself, I wish there were a beach read kind of like the movie Book Club, but more emotionally complex—look no further.
Entertainment Weekly
Capture summer (even if you can't leave your house) with a tender read dripping in easy nostalgia.
Marie Claire
Three 70-something women spend Christmas together and find new tensions in their long friendship. With the lightest of touches, this big-hearted, insightful read tackles friendship, ambition, ageing and death.
Good Housekeeping
[S]harp…. Wood explores myriad possibilities of success, failure, philosophy, psychic ailments, and forms of melancholy that a 70-something woman might experience.… Baby boomers and Wood’s fans will best appreciate this astringent story.
Publishers Weekly
The novel displays wit, insight, and some astute social commentary, especially on the topic of age, but offers little in the way of engagement or surprises.…. A neatly observed, tightly circumscribed journey into predictable territory.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points for THE WEEKEND … then take off on your own:
1. Start off your discussion by considering the number of books, nonfiction and fiction, that you've read on aging. How many can you think of? Among those works, how is aging dealt with—as an unavoidable "condition," as a preoccupation with dying, as a static no-man's land between living and dying, as comedy, as tragedy, or as a natural state of life in which individuals remain capable of desire and drive, complex emotions, and deep insight?
2. (Follow-up to Question 1) How does Charlotte Wood treat aging in The Weekend?
3. Of the three women—Jude, Wendy, and Adele—who is your favorite and least favorite, and why? Talk about their long relationships with one another, as well as their long-held grievances toward each other.
4. How does Wendy's dog, Finn, represent the state of old-age? While watching him through the kitchen window, Jude considers him "pitiful."
5. Part of the pain of aging is the difference between how you see yourself and how others see you. Does that feel familiar to you personally? How does this gap in perception affect the three women in The Weekend?
6. If you are in your mid-50s, say, or older, how do you view aging? How do you view yourself and your life as opposed to when you were in your 20s, 30s or 40s? What has changed?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)