The Clasp
Sloane Crosley, 2015
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
384 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780374124410
Summary
Part comedy of manners, part treasure hunt, the first novel from the writer whom David Sedaris calls "perfectly, relentlessly funny."
Kezia, Nathaniel, and Victor are reunited for the extravagant wedding of a college friend. Now at the tail end of their twenties, they arrive completely absorbed in their own lives—Kezia the second-in-command to a madwoman jewelry designer in Manhattan; Nathaniel the former literary cool kid, selling his wares in Hollywood; and the Eeyore-esque Victor, just fired from a middling search engine.
They soon slip back into old roles: Victor loves Kezia. Kezia loves Nathaniel. Nathaniel loves Nathaniel.
In the midst of all this semi-merriment, Victor passes out in the mother of the groom's bedroom. He wakes to her jovially slapping him across the face. Instead of a scolding, she offers Victor a story she's never even told her son, about a valuable necklace that disappeared during the Nazi occupation of France.
And so a madcap adventure is set into motion, one that leads Victor, Kezia, and Nathaniel from Miami to New York and L.A. to Paris and across France, until they converge at the estate of Guy de Maupassant, author of the classic short story "The Necklace."
Heartfelt, suspenseful, and told with Sloane Crosley's inimitable spark and wit, The Clasp is a story of friends struggling to fit together now that their lives haven't gone as planned, of how to separate the real from the fake.
Such a task might be possible when it comes to precious stones, but is far more difficult to pull off with humans. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—August 3, 1978
• Where—N/A
• Education—B.A., Connecticut College
• Currently—lives in New York City, New York
Sloane Crosley is an essay and fiction writer living in New York. She has worked as a publicist at the Vintage Books division of Random House and as an adjunct professor in Columbia University’s Master of Fine Arts program. She graduated from Connecticut College in 2000.
Career
Crosley's collection of essays, I Was Told There'd Be Cake, became a New York Times bestseller, a finalist for The Thurber Prize, one of Amazon.com's best books of the year and optioned for series by HBO.
Her second essay collection, How Did You Get This Number (2010) also became a New York Times bestseller, and her e-book, Up The Down Volcano (2011), became a #1 Amazon Kindle bestseller.
The Clasp (2015), Crosley's debut novel, received high marks from the New York Times, as well as from Vogue, Elle, Time, and People.
Crosley was a has also been a weekly columnist for The Independent in the UK and editor of The Best American Travel Writing 2011. Her essays have appeared in 2011's The Best American Nonrequired Reading and The Library of America's The 50 Funniest American Writers According to Andy Borowitz.
She was the founding columnist for the New York Times "Townies" Op-Ed series, a columnist for the New York Observer Diary, a columnist for the Village Voice, a contributing editor at BlackBook Magazine, and she continues to be a regular contributor to the New York Times, GQ, Elle and NPR.
Crosley has also written cover stories and features for Salon, Spin, Bon Appetit, Vogue, Esquire, Playboy, W Magazine and AFAR.
Other
Crosley is co-chair of The New York Public Library's Young Lions Committee and serves on the board of Housingworks Bookstore.
Crosley is also a model for eyeglass company Warby Parker. In 2012, she appeared on the TV series Gossip Girl as herself and she was a regular fixture on The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 1/3/2016.)
Book Reviews
[A] shrewd exploration of the modern-day late-quarter-life crisis, disguised as a caper…[Crosley's] signature wit is sharp as ever here. She is startlingly good at portraying comically awful characters who would seem cartoonish if they weren't also so recognizable…Crosley is an incisive observer of human nature in general and of a generation in particular—people circling the age of 30 who foster undue fondness for the retro culture of their youth…For all its humor, Crosley's prose is equally sharp in delineating her characters' despair…in this highly comic, highly affecting novel.
Julia Pierpont - New York Times Book Review
[The Clasp is] a love-triangle-comedy-of-manners told in Crosley’s signature irreverent style.
Washington Post
Crosley has achieved a rare feat: a complex and clever work of homage that deepens the original by connecting it to contemporary life. The Clasp is a gentle, astute, funny, smart, and very entertaining book.
Julia Holme - New Republic
Crosley is best known for her comic essays, some of which were collected in I Was Told There’d Be Cake, but her gifts–keen observation, mordant humor, an affinity for the bittersweet–translate surprisingly seamlessly into fiction.
Lev Grossman - Time
Crosley, with her quirky cleverness, seems more in league with the doohickeys of the world than with the emeralds. She’s interested not so much in transcendent beauty as in the small gears that hold people together and sometimes force them apart; when the objects you cherish could easily turn out to be fake, what matters is not what you cling to but the fact that you cling to it.... Crosley’s stylishness as a writer never tips over into shtickiness or stifles her warmth—it only makes the flowering of genuine emotion more powerful .
Katy Waldman - Slate
A novel with more verve and imagination than much of the plot-light fare that typically gets the high-literary treatment, a story that shares at least some DNA with ambitious capers like Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch and Marisha Pessl’s Special Topics in Calamity Physics.
Vogue
Those who love Crosley's essays for the way they straddle the line between slapstick humor and essential truths will love her fiction too. Each sentence builds upon the last, toward one big wink: Isn't life weird? And isn't that great?
Elle
With mordant wit and an ear for millennial patois, Crosley dissects the pretensions of Los Angeles and New York, then sends her characters to France on a madcap adventure. It's fun to tag along.
People
[A] mix of smarts and sarcasm to commemorate some of life’s more mortifying moment.... Victor’s harebrained attempts at tracking the necklace down, culminating in a French chateau break-in with a mildly concerned Kezia and Nathaniel in hot pursuit, make not only for fun reading but hint at the surprisingly poignant extent of just how far old acquaintances will go to save one another’s hides.
Publishers Weekly
This is not Crosley's first book;.... But it is her first novel. While attending a college friend's splashy wedding, twentysomethings...learn about a valuable necklace that vanished in Nazi-occupied France, and they're off on a crazy chase that leads them to the estate of Guy de Maupassant, beloved for his classic short story "The Necklace."
Library Journal
Crosley is an innate storyteller and writes with her signature wit and flair.... The Clasp speaks to flaws in humanity and friendships in a charming and realistic way. This novel entertains even as it provokes internal examination of one’s own relationships.
BookPage
Crosley, of the smart, humorous essay collections I Was Told There'd Be Cake (2008) and How Did You Get This Number? (2010) writes her three-dimensional characters' thoughts and dialogue with a clever crispness her fans would hope for, and she further stuns with a mastery of her first novel's setting and frame: a lavish Florida wedding, a crotchety Parisian jewelry designer's offices, a drive through enchanting-and disturbing-provincial France.
Booklist
[A] quest to find a priceless necklace and regain an even rarer treasure: a genuine connection. [T]renchant.... [A]n interconnected circle of friends from college who, like beads on a broken necklace, have dispersed and rolled off on different paths.... [S]mart, sardonic, sometimes-zany, yet also sensitive.... A real gem.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
2. What first impressions did you get of Kezia, Victor, and Nathaniel as they gathered in Florida for the wedding? As the scenes shifted in points of view, who were you rooting for the most?
3. In chapter seven, Victor and Nathaniel’s English professor delivers her passionate rendering of "The Necklace." How would you have responded to her request for a one-word summary of the story? Do any of the characters in The Clasp share traits with Mathilde Loisel, the woman who loses the borrowed necklace in Maupassant’s story?
4. Johanna tells Victor that she doesn’t want Felix to know about the necklace because "he’s very sensitive about anything having to do with Nazi heritage" and because it might not still be where the soldier hid it. Do you think it’s that simple, or was Johanna up to something else when she decided to entrust a stranger with her secret?
5. What were your theories about the drawing? What results did you predict for the treasure hunt? Make a virtual visit to Chateau Miromesnil (www.chateaumiromesnil.com) and imagine what other hidden surprises such a place could hold.
6. What does The Clasp say about the nature of friendship? What has kept Victor, Nathaniel, and Kezia from achieving success in their careers as they approach age thirty? What do you predict for the next decade of their lives?
7. Johanna tells Victor that jewelry is "a blank canvas that gets filled by the person who wears it." Is there a piece of jewelry in your life that has special significance for you? Do you care whether jewelry is made from precious gems, or is all jewelry "real" in your eyes? Would you value fake jewelry inspired by fictional stories?
8. Discuss the idea of a clasp, which is meant to provide security. What does Claude teach Kezia about the practical aspects of his craft? What do all of the characters discover about weak links and ways of strengthening them?
9. If you had been Victor, would you have been able to hide the truth?
10. What took Nathaniel and Kezia so long to acknowledge their attraction to each other? What makes them simultaneously an unlikely couple and a great match? How are they different from Caroline and Felix, and Grey and Paul?
11. In the closing scene, on the flight home, have the characters been transformed, or are they simply able to be themselves at last?
12. As you read about the life of Guy de Maupassant, how did you react? Why don’t short stories have as much mainstream cultural impact as they did in the nineteenth century? Are writers like Nathaniel (pitching shows like The Pretenders to executives like Lauren) our modern-day Maupassants?
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)
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The Incarnations
Susan Barker, 2014
Touchstone
384 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781501106781
Summary
A Beijing taxi driver's past incarnations over one thousand years haunt him through searing letters sent by his mysterious soulmate.
"Who are you? you must be wondering. I am your soulmate, your old friend, and I have come back to this city of sixteen million in search of you."
So begins the first letter that falls into Wang’s lap as he flips down the visor in his taxi.
The letters that follow are filled with the stories of Wang’s previous lives—from escaping a marriage to a spirit bride, to being a slave on the run from Genghis Khan, to living as a fisherman during the Opium Wars, and being a teenager on the Red Guard during the cultural revolution—bound to his mysterious "soulmate," spanning one thousand years of betrayal and intrigue.
As the letters continue to appear seemingly out of thin air, Wang becomes convinced that someone is watching him—someone who claims to have known him for over one thousand years. And with each letter, Wang feels the watcher growing closer and closer…
Seamlessly weaving Chinese folklore, history, and literary classics, The Incarnations is a taut and gripping novel that sheds light on the cyclical nature of history as it hints that the past is never truly settled. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1978
• Raised—London, England, U.K.
• Education—B.A., Leeds University; Manchester University
• Currently—lives in the U.K.
Susan Barker is a British novelist, the daughter of an English father and Chinese-Malaysian mother. She grew up in East London, studied at Leeds University, and undertook the graduate writing program at Manchester University. She writes primarily about Asia, and spent several years living in Beijing while working on The Incarnations (2014). She now lives in the U.K.
Novels
♦ 2005 - Sayonara Bar, which Time called "a cocktail of astringent cultural observations, genres stirred and shaken, subplots served with a twist;
♦ 2008 - The Orientalist and the Ghost, longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize;
♦ 2014 - The Incarnations, a tale of a modern Beijing taxi driver who is pursued by his soulmate across a thousand years of Chinese history.
(Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 1/3/2016.)
Book Reviews
wildly ambitious…[Barker's] dazzling use of language and natural storytelling gifts shine from every paragraph. As with David Mitchell, whose books can similarly hopscotch through times and places, each episode stands alone as a terrific tale in itself. You can become so immersed in one story that you have to almost physically drag yourself away to commit to the next…Embedded in the large themes is an irresistible mystery…The truth is a satisfying surprise, and it makes us think differently about everything that has come before. There's a bonus, too—the answer to a different puzzle we didn't know existed. It brings the story full circle, in a way, and adds urgency to the notion that in order to live properly, you must understand where you come from.
Sarah Lyall - New York Times
[A]stonishing, amazing…. The book's clever central contrivance involves a series of mysterious letters that are left in Wang's taxicab…it's the small sagas of Chinese history contained in the letters, together with Barker's vivid descriptions of today's China, that set this book apart as a work of considerable, if unnerving, importance. Were I a teacher of Chinese history, I would argue that Barker's novel brilliantly illuminates some of the defining episodes in the nation's long, long story at least as vividly as any of the textbooks available in our school…The letters offer up five such episodes, running from the Tang dynasty to the modern era. Each is a tightly wound, intensely wrought, fantastically exciting novella, detailing the minutiae of imagined lives in the richly perfumed gardens of China's near endless past.
Simon Winchester - New York Times Book Review
[Barker] has smartly structured this intricate tale, and its mystery pulls us forward.... The novel gains in power and polish as it progresses.... Close to the end, I found myself stalling—prolonging suspense.
Boston Globe
Barker makes Wang and his city as vividly real—and disturbing—as any of the other versions of China. . . . One of the novel’s many structural pleasures is watching Barker slowly reveal the connections between Wang’s seemingly simple life and the other lives the letter writer reveals.
Columbus Dispatch
A dazzling tapestry of epic scope.... [An] ambitious, enthralling tale, a deft melding of past and present, myth and reality, longing and torment.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Highly successful as art and craft… The Incarnations uses its unique premise to combine a series of short stories based in history with a realistic account of a difficult modern life, for much more than the sum of the parts.
Albany Times Union
(Starred review.) [A] page-turning reincarnation fantasy. In modern-day Beijing, Driver Wang receives anonymous letters from a source claiming to have known him in five previous lifetimes.... Driving the narrative is the suspense over the identity of Wang’s stalker and whether the stories are indeed true. A very memorable read.
Publishers Weekly
[E]ngrossing.... Barker's writing is fluid, and the plotlines and characterizations found in her historical tales, while dark and sinister, are nonetheless intriguing. Misunderstandings abound throughout the novel to unravel the past that collides intensely with the present, ultimately leading to a disquieting finale. —Shirley Quan, Orange Cty. P.L., Santa Ana, CA
Library Journal
Daring.... The novel’s shifts from the distant past to the present are seamless, and the bittersweet twist at the book’s finale will have readers searching back through the novel for clues to the ending.... Skillfully combines history, the supernatural and the everyday in a novel that suggests that the past is never really past, while providing a cracking good read.
BookPage
(Starred review.) Moving between Wang's many pasts...Barker's historical tour de force is simultaneously sweeping and precise. It would be easy for the novel to teeter into overwrought melodrama; instead, Barker's psychologically nuanced characters and sharp wit turn the bleakness and the gore into something seriously moving.... A deeply human masterpiece.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Consider Wang’s relationship with Yida. How have social and cultural constraints affected their union? For example, early on we learn that Yida, like many Chinese parents, had wanted a boy but Wang "had shamed her into keeping the baby" (their daughter, Echo; page 13). Are there other examples of how social norms or constraints have affected their relationship dynamic?
2. The chapters telling the stories of Wang’s past incarnations are written in the first person ("I") and the second person ("you"). How did this style affect your experience reading the story? Why do you think the author chose to frame these sections from this narrative perspective?
3. Wang initially views the histories as "folktales" (page 75). Do you think he eventually comes to believe that these stories are true representations of his past lives? Why or why not? Find moments in the text that support your answer.
4. Betrayal is a recurring theme throughout the novel. Is there any significance to who betrays whom as the two characters’ lives proceed together over hundreds of years? Do you think that their actions in one life affect the next life? Or does each life stand apart? Refer to passages in the text to support your answers.
5. Consider the notion of madness in the novel. Which characters are seen as mad, and why? How does this classification affect those characters in Chinese society—both in the present and in the past?
6. In the fourth letter, the writer declares, "We must rebel against fate. . . . Fate must be outwitted. It must no longer stand in our way" (page 117). What role does fate play in the story? Do you think the characters succeed in rebelling against fate in the last incarnation? Why or why not?
7. In the fifth letter, the writer notes that this "third biography has been more punishing than the others" (page 179). And after reading it, Wang is convinced he read the story at some point in his schooling since "the story had resonated so strongly in his memory" (page 215). All of the histories are graphic and brutal stories; why do you think this one (Ming Dynasty, 1542) is the most difficult for the writer to relive? Which of the five histories do you see as the darkest or most agonizing?
8. Towards the end of the novel, we learn that Shuxiang is the letter writer. How does this change your understanding of Wang and Shuxiang’s relationship as mother and son? Do you see her differently as a mother? Refer back to Wang’s memories of his mother, and compare them to Shuxiang’s own recollections.
9. In each of their incarnations, the two characters have complex and intense relationships with each other. After so much conflict and passion between them throughout the past thousand years, consider the significance of ending the novel with a mother and son relationship. Why do you think the author chose to end the novel on this note?
10. Consider Echo’s role throughout the novel, and at the end; the author brings the novel full circle, placing Echo into the same histories her father and grandmother lived. Despite her conviction that "The Watcher is mentally ill" (page 367), Echo begins to read the letters and stories of her past lives. As such a young child, how will Echo interpret these stories? Do you think Shuxiang was right to pass on her insight of previous incarnations to her granddaughter? Why or why not?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
Twain's End
Lynn Cullen, 2015
Gallery Books
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781476758961
Summary
A fictionalized imagining of the personal life of America’s most iconic writer: Mark Twain.
In March of 1909, Mark Twain cheerfully blessed the wedding of his private secretary, Isabel V. Lyon, and his business manager, Ralph Ashcroft. One month later, he fired both.
He proceeded to write a ferocious 429-page rant about the pair, calling Isabel "a liar, a forger, a thief, a hypocrite, a drunkard, a sneak, a humbug, a traitor, a conspirator, a filthy-minded and salacious slut pining for seduction." Twain and his daughter, Clara Clemens, then slandered Isabel in the newspapers, erasing her nearly seven years of devoted service to their family.
How did Lyon go from being the beloved secretary who ran Twain’s life to a woman he was determined to destroy?
In Twain’s End, Lynn Cullen "cleverly spins a mysterious, dark tale" (Booklist) about the tangled relationships between Twain, Lyon, and Ashcroft, as well as the little-known love triangle between Helen Keller, her teacher Anne Sullivan Macy, and Anne’s husband, John Macy, which comes to light during their visit to Twain’s Connecticut home in 1909.
Add to the party a furious Clara Clemens, smarting from her own failed love affair, and carefully kept veneers shatter.
Based on Isabel Lyon’s extant diary, Twain’s writings, letters, photographs, and events in Twain’s boyhood that may have altered his ability to love, Twain’s End triumphs as "a tender evocation of a vain, complicated man’s twilight years and a last chance at love" (People). (Summary from the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—July 11, 1955
• Where—Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA
• Education—B.A., Indiana University
• Currently—lives in Atlanta, Georgia
Lynn Cullen grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the fifth girl in a family of seven children. She learned to love history combined with traveling while visiting historic sites across the U.S. on annual family camping trips.
Lynn attended Indiana University in Bloomington and Fort Wayne, and took writing classes with Tom McHaney at Georgia State. She wrote children’s books as her three daughters were growing up, while working in a pediatric office and, later, at Emory University on the editorial staff of a psychoanalytic journal.
While her camping expeditions across the States have become fact-finding missions across Europe, she still loves digging into the past. She does not miss, however, sleeping in musty sleeping bags. Or eating canned fruit cocktail. She now lives in Atlanta with her husband, their dog, and two unscrupulous cats.
Books
Lynn is the author of the 2010 novel, The Creation of Eve, which was named among the best fiction books of the year by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and was an April 2010 Indie Next selection.
Her 2011 novel, Reign of Madness, about Juana the Mad, daughter of the Spanish Monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand, was chosen as a Best of the South selection by the Atlanta Journal Constitution and was a 2012 Townsend Prize finalist.
Her 2013 novel, Mrs. Poe, examines the fall of Edgar Allan Poe through the eyes of poet Francis Osgood.
Twain's End, published in 2015, explores the tangled relationship among Mark Twain, his secretary Isabel V. Lyon, and his business manager Ralph Ashcroft.
Lynn is also the author of numerous award-winning books for children, including the 2007 young adult novel I Am Rembrandt’s Daughter, which was a Barnes & Noble "Discover Great New Writers" selection, and an ALA Best Book of 2008. (From the author's website.)
Be sure to check out Lynn Cullen's essay on how she and a group of women formed their book club some 25 years ago. She was a guest on the Booking Mama blog.
Book Reviews
A tender evocation of a vain, complicated man's twilight years and last chance at love.
People
Twain’s End remains a book that is a joy to read. Ms. Cullen is the Bronte of our day.
Huffington Post
Cullen has a knack for weaving in small details to create rich fictional portraits of real-life figures.
Atlanta Magazine
A fascinating book about a complicated writer.
Missourian
(Starred review.) The extraordinary relationship between the popular, complicated author Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, and his longtime secretary Isabel Lyon is wonderfully reimagined in this absorbing novel.... [A] fascinating interpretation of this early 20th-century literary immortal, distinguished by incisive character portrayals and no-holds-barred scrutiny.
Publishers Weekly
Intelligently drawn…Cullen expertly portrays both Samuel Clemens and Mark Twain… fans of historical fiction and biographies will enjoy.
Library Journal
Cullen portrays the author as a Jekyll-and-Hyde character.... Because Cullen succeeds in portraying Clemens as so unsympathetic, Isabel's devotion becomes a problem for the novel. She comes across as star-struck.... A more nuanced character would have strengthened this sad story of futile, desperate love.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Samuel Clemens often talks about his dual personalities—Sam Clemens and Mark Twain—occasionally saying he wishes to be rid of the latter or even that he hates him. How much do you believe an author’s life is caught up in their identity as a writer? Do you think Sam Clemens uses Mark Twain as an excuse for his behavior, or do you think his fame and renown as Twain fuel the behavior?
2. Samuel Clemens, Clara, and others tell Isabel that Sam is completely dependent on her. Do you believe his affection for her stems in large part from that dependency?
3. Do you think Sam’s attraction to women stems from their beauty and youth, or do you think that other factors, like their status of subservience to him, play a role? Consider the invalid Olivia, or Isabel, whose fortune was gone and financial need great. Do you suppose a need for power and status fueled his passions? How much of his childhood and background plays a role, if at all, in his psychology?
4. Do you think that Sam would have married Isabel on his return from England if the reporter’s question concerning marriage rumors had not been denied? Do you believe Sam ever had intentions of marrying Isabel, or was he too conscious of his reputation?
5. Why do you think Mrs. Clemens speaks so candidly with Isabel about Sam’s roving eye without admonishing Isabel for her flirtation? Why do you imagine she tells her about his propensity to break hearts and hurt people that are close to him? How much of this is said out of kindness, and how much of it is a warning? Do you think she spoke so openly with her husband’s previous interests?
6. How do you explain Isabel’s passion for Sam despite her knowledge of his philandering, his status as a married man, and her role in his family? Do you think she ought to have left her role as his secretary? How soon should she have left her position for her life to have taken a different trajectory? How do you think it would have turned out differently?
7. Thinking of her daughter singing before a crowd with her husband in attendance, Olivia Clemens feels troubled, as she believed “Clara hadn’t a chance. No one did, really, against Mark Twain. Not even Youth himself.” What do you think of Mrs. Clemens’s attitude toward the power of her husband’s alter ego? Do you think she means to say that no one can compete with the popularity of Mark Twain, or is she getting at something more?
8. What do you make of Olivia Clemens’s situation? How would you characterize her relationship with Sam? Is her husband truly the cause of her illness? If so, why has she persisted in living with him and tolerating his actions?
9. The story of the young Sam discovering Jennie and his father together sheds light on Sam’s sense of guilt, but in what other insights does it offer on his personality? On his understanding of himself?
10. What do you think is the largest draw for Isabel: Mr. Clemens’s wit, charm, intellect, status, or his unavailability? Do you think their closeness sealed her affection and she would have been equally as passionate had Sam been less famous or even not famous at all?
11. Why do you think the author chose to write the final chapter from the perspective of Mrs. Lyon instead of Isabel?
12. How much did you know about Samuel Clemens’s life before reading this book? How has your reading of Twain’s End impacted your perception of the man? Of Mark Twain and his books?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
Mrs. Poe
Lynn Cullen, 2013
Gallery Books
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781476702926
Summary
Inspired by literature’s most haunting love triangle, award-winning author Lynn Cullen delivers a pitch-perfect rendering of Edgar Allan Poe, his mistress’s tantalizing confession, and his wife’s frightening obsession in this new masterpiece of historical fiction.
1845: New York City is a sprawling warren of gaslit streets and crowded avenues, bustling with new immigrants and old money, optimism and opportunity, poverty and crime. Edgar Allan Poe’s "The Raven" is all the rage—the success of which a struggling poet like Frances Osgood can only dream.
As a mother trying to support two young children after her husband’s cruel betrayal, Frances jumps at the chance to meet the illustrious Mr. Poe at a small literary gathering, if only to help her fledgling career. Although not a great fan of Poe’s writing, she is nonetheless overwhelmed by his magnetic presence—and the surprising revelation that he admires her work.
What follows is a flirtation, then a seduction, then an illicit affair…and with each clandestine encounter, Frances finds herself falling slowly and inexorably under the spell of her mysterious, complicated lover.
But when Edgar’s frail wife, Virginia, insists on befriending Frances as well, the relationship becomes as dark and twisted as one of Poe’s tales. And like those gothic heroines whose fates are forever sealed, Frances begins to fear that deceiving Mrs. Poe may be as impossible as cheating death itself. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—July 11, 1955
• Where—Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA
• Education—B.A., Indiana University
• Currently—lives in Atlanta, Georgia
Lynn Cullen grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the fifth girl in a family of seven children. She learned to love history combined with traveling while visiting historic sites across the U.S. on annual family camping trips.
Lynn attended Indiana University in Bloomington and Fort Wayne, and took writing classes with Tom McHaney at Georgia State. She wrote children’s books as her three daughters were growing up, while working in a pediatric office and, later, at Emory University on the editorial staff of a psychoanalytic journal.
While her camping expeditions across the States have become fact-finding missions across Europe, she still loves digging into the past. She does not miss, however, sleeping in musty sleeping bags. Or eating canned fruit cocktail. She now lives in Atlanta with her husband, their dog, and two unscrupulous cats.
Books
Lynn is the author of the 2010 novel, The Creation of Eve, which was named among the best fiction books of the year by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and was an April 2010 Indie Next selection.
Her 2011 novel, Reign of Madness, about Juana the Mad, daughter of the Spanish Monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand, was chosen as a Best of the South selection by the Atlanta Journal Constitution and was a 2012 Townsend Prize finalist.
Her 2013 novel, Mrs. Poe, examines the fall of Edgar Allan Poe through the eyes of poet Francis Osgood.
Twain's End, published in 2015, explores the tangled relationship among Mark Twain, his secretary Isabel V. Lyon, and his business manager Ralph Ashcroft.
Lynn is also the author of numerous award-winning books for children, including the 2007 young adult novel I Am Rembrandt’s Daughter, which was a Barnes & Noble "Discover Great New Writers" selection, and an ALA Best Book of 2008. (From the author's website.)
Be sure to check out Lynn Cullen's essay on how she and a group of women formed their book club some 25 years ago. She was a guest on the Booking Mama blog.
Book Reviews
A vivid portrait of New York's cultural life in the mid-1800s, when writers like Poe were practically rock stars. Don't miss it.
People
Cullen, whose previous novels have focused on obscure women from the past, such as Juana of Castile (Reign of Madness) and Sofonisba Anguissola (The Creation of Eve), now turns her attention to Frances Sargent Osgood, a mid-19th-century poet and children’s author who, some believe, was romantically involved with Edgar Allen Poe.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) Cullen has crafted a beautifully heartbreaking story filled with emotional twists and turns. Yes, it's dark, but so was Poe, and readers can expect a page-turning tale exposing the transgressions, antics, and heroics behind a literary icon. —Andrea Brooks, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights
Library Journal
[I]maginative historical novelist Cullen cleverly spins a mysterious, dark tale...with just enough facts to make it believable. Celebrities...step in for a fun romp through history.... [W]e’re left to wonder if Mrs. Poe is Edgar’s Mr. Hyde, or is Poe himself the villain? It’s enough to make the teacups rattle. —Laurie Borman
Booklist
Although Cullen attempts to portray Osgood and Poe as sympathetic characters, it's difficult to identify with either as they teeter back and forth between feelings of guilt, anguish, fear and defiance. The narrative might have been more interesting had the author focused on the relationship between the title character and her husband.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Cullen begins Mrs. Poe with two epigraphs. In the first, Osgood is recounting her first meeting with Poe to Reverend Griswold. In the second, Poe describes Frances Osgood. How do these two quotes set up the novel? Were Cullen’s representations of Osgood and Poe as you expected after reading the epigraphs?
2. Although Frances narrates the story, it is named for Mrs. Poe. Why do you think that Cullen has chosen to call the novel Mrs. Poe? Did the title affect your reading of the story? How?
3. After Frances meets Virginia Poe for the first time, Eliza asks her, "What does she seem like? Sweet? Sharp?" and Frances replies "Both, oddly enough" (p. 55). What does she mean? Do you agree with Frances’s assessment of Virginia? Why or why not?
4. Miss Fuller tells Frances, "Beneath that pretty society-girl surface, you strike me as the striving sort." (p. 163). Do you agree? What reasons does Frances have to be "the striving sort"? What are your initial impressions of Frances? Did your feelings about Frances change throughout the novel? In what ways?
5. Of Poe, Reverend Griswold says, "I find that there is nothing about Edgar Poe that is remotely like the rest of us. He is a predator, plain and simply. A wolf in wolf’s clothing" (p. 123). Why do you think that Griswold feels such animosity towards Poe? What do you think of Griswold? Discuss his interactions with Frances.
6. After Frances learns that Poe has praised her poetry in a lecture, the two meet to discuss writing. She tells him, "I find that the thoughts spoken between the lines are the most important part of a poem or story." To which he replies, "as in life" (p. 36). How does this apply to their relationship? Are there other instances in the novel where this is true? Discuss them.
7. The subject of marriage comes up frequently in Mrs. Poe. Eliza tells Frances "Wedded bliss is a tale made up to keep the species going" (p. 278), and Margaret Fuller says, "for every married person [at Anne Lynch’s conversazione] there is a story of rejection and betrayal" (p. 77). Discuss the marriages in Mrs. Poe. Why do you think Eliza feels that wedded bliss is simply a story? And, why does Frances stay married to Samuel although she knows he is a philanderer? Do you think that Frances is justified in making her decision?
8. At one of the conversaziones, Poe says, "Desire inspires us to be our very best" (p. 169). Do you agree? In what ways, if any, do Poe and Frances improve because of their relationship?
9. Margaret Fuller warns Frances to steer clear of the Poes, stating that Poe is "not what he seems" but rather "a poor boy much damaged from the trauma of his childhood." (p. 193). Do you agree with her assessment of the Poes? What do you think caused her to drop the idea of running a profile of them? Do you think that Margaret is acting as Frances’s friend, as she claims? What makes you think so?
10. Were you surprised by Samuel’s return? Although he is "maddeningly agreeable" (p. 230) with regard to Frances’s relationship with Poe, he is critical of her work. After reading one of her poems, he tells her, "There was a time when you would have made fun of a poem like this" (p. 240). Why does Samuel’s statement bother Frances so much? What do you think of the poem that he critiques?
11. Frances thinks that Virginia Poe is out to do her harm. What evidence supports her suspicions? Were you surprised when you found out the truth?
12. The Poes invite Frances to attend a play called "Fashion" with them. How does the plot of the play mirror their outing? Why does Poe apologize for his wife?
13. In several of his conversations with Frances, Poe makes references to stories that he has written, including "William Wilson" and "The Oval Portrait.".How does Poe use these stories to communicate with Frances?
14. Poe reads "Al Aaraaf," the poem he wrote when he was fourteen, at the Boston Lyceum, claiming that he wanted "to see if they could tell the difference between a child’s verse and a masterpiece" (p. 260). What do you think the real motivation behind his decision is? Do you agree with Mrs. Ellet that he called "down the wrath of the Boston circle" because it terrified him to do so (p. 271)? Why?
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Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)