The Book of Unknown Americans
Cristina Henriquez, 2014
Knopf Doubleday
304 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780385350846
Summary
A boy and a girl who fall in love. Two families whose hopes collide with destiny. An extraordinary novel that offers a resonant new definition of what it means to be American.
Arturo and Alma Rivera have lived their whole lives in Mexico. One day, their beautiful fifteen-year-old daughter, Maribel, sustains a terrible injury, one that casts doubt on whether she’ll ever be the same. And so, leaving all they have behind, the Riveras come to America with a single dream: that in this country of great opportunity and resources, Maribel can get better.
When Mayor Toro, whose family is from Panama, sees Maribel in a Dollar Tree store, it is love at first sight. It’s also the beginning of a friendship between the Rivera and Toro families, whose web of guilt and love and responsibility is at this novel’s core.
Woven into their stories are the testimonials of men and women who have come to the United States from all over Latin America. Their journeys and their voices will inspire you, surprise you, and break your heart.
Suspenseful, wry and immediate, rich in spirit and humanity, The Book of Unknown Americans is a work of rare force. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—(ca.) 1977-78
• Where—State of Delaware, USA
• Education—B.A., Northwestern University; M.F.A., Iowa
Writers' Workshop
• Currently—lives in Chicago, Illinois
Born in Delaware, Henriquez spent her childhood summers in Panama with her father's extended family. Her intimate knowledge of that country, with its unique relationship to the U.S., informs most of her work.
She has lived in at least seven states and is now based in Chicago, where she lives with her husband and young daughter. (From the Oxford American, June 8 2009.)
Henriquez is the author of the story collection Come Together, Fall Apart (2006), which was New York Times Editors' Choice selection, as well as the novels <em >The World in Half (2009) and <em >The Unknown Americans (2014). Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Atlantic, Glimmer Train, Virginia Quarterly Review, Ploughshares, TriQuarterly, AGNI, and The Oxford American, and in various anthologies. (Adapted from the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Mayor and Maribel are at the heart of this novel. But Henriquez also devotes space to their neighbors, whose stories illuminate the lives behind the current debates about Latino immigration.... While these stories are unfailingly well written and entertaining, more often than not the first-person accounts don’t seem quite authentic. The clean, detailed prose may make it more palatable for Americans with a low tolerance for the exotic, but it forsakes the vibrancy we suspect goes with each portrait. The narrative might have been more persuasive in the omniscient point of view.
Ana Castillo - New York Times Book Review
A novel crowded with characters as vivid as they are resilient—families and neighbors who have bravely chosen hope over fate. The Book of Unknown Americans begins with a vivid vision of promise. [But] Hollywood hopes sink like L.A. smog when....[t]he Riveras come seeking better care for their daughter, Maribel.... [The]collective story is interlaced with tales of dreams deferred from the other tenants, [including] a Puerto Rican dancer who could well be a proxy for anyone from far away with an American-size appetite to dream.
Jennifer Arellano - Elle
A novel as disturbing as it is beautiful: a testament to the mixed blessings our country offers immigrants, who struggle against bigotry and economic hardship while maintaining just enough hope to keep striving for something better. A narrative mosaic that moves toward a heartrending conclusion.
Daniel A. Olivas - Los Angeles Review of Books
Passionate.... Henríquez imagines the sweet—and bitter—reality of coming to America, giv[ing] voice to the unheard stories of people who have quit their native countries for what they hope will be a better life. Alternating points of view bring to life nine families living in an apartment building in Delaware who have fled their birthplaces—dusty towns in Panama, Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Paraguay—to begin anew in the States.... Through her characters’ fears, their robust affection for one another, and their resilience, Henriquez illuminates the disparity between the lives they’ve given up and the benefits they’ve gained. For some, the struggle to find new identities as Americans yields rewards; for others, the transition is too difficult, and they return home the way they came: "out of one world and into the next."
Abbe Wright - Oprah Magazine
Henriquez gives space to the voices of...men and women who have fled their...homes to make a better life in a country that, as often as not, refuses to acknowledge their existence. Evoking a profound sense of hope, Henriquez delivers a moving account of those who will do anything to build a future for their children.
Publishers Weekly
Spectacular...highly believable and poignant.... A well-written story set among "unknown Americans," ostensibly Hispanic but in many ways any family adjusting to a new culture and way of life, regardless of ethnicity. —Lawrence Olszewski
Library Journal
[T]he Riveras, who have just left their happy lives in Mexico, are dropped off at a dilapidated apartment building [in] Delaware.... Each scene, voice, misunderstanding, and alliance is beautifully realized and brimming with feeling in the acclaimed Henriquez’s compassionately imagined, gently comedic, and profoundly wrenching novel of big dreams and crushing reality, courageous love and unfathomable heartbreak. —Donna Seaman
Booklist
A...page-turner.... That plot complication shades toward melodrama, giving the closing pages a rush but diminishing what Henriquez is best at: capturing the way immigrant life is often an accrual of small victories in the face of a thousand cuts and how ad hoc support systems form to help new arrivals get by. A smartly observed tale of immigrant life that cannily balances its optimistic tone with straight talk.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. How does Alma’s perspective in the novel’s first chapter illustrate her and her family’s hopes for their new life in America? Take another look at her statement after the trip to the gas station: “The three of us started toward the road, doubling back in the direction from which we had come, heading toward home” (11). What are the meanings of “home” here, and how does this scene show how America meets and differs from the Riveras’ expectations of it?
2. Mayor describes how he’s bullied at school and his general feelings of not fitting in. How do you think this draws him to Maribel? What do they have in common that perhaps those around them, including their parents, cannot see on the surface?
3. How is the scene where the Riveras sit down for a dinner of oatmeal a turning point for the family and for the book? Discuss the role of food in the novel, especially how it evokes memories of home and establishes a sense of community. Are there any other cultural values or traditions that do the same thing?
4. What are some key differences in the way that the women in the novel respond to challenges of assimilation compared to the men? How does Alma’s point of view highlight these differences?
5. What brings Alma and Celia together as neighbors and friends, and how does their relationship change by the end of the book?
6. What are some of the signs throughout the novel that Maribel is getting better? Consider the scene in the pizza restaurant in particular, and her response to Alma’s joke. How does laughter here, and in other places in the book, evoke feelings of nostalgia and change?
7. How does Alma’s lingering guilt about Maribel’s accident affect her choices and interactions when she’s in America? Do you think that she still feels this way by the end of the book? What does she have to do, and realize within herself, to move beyond her feelings?
8. Do other characters besides Alma struggle with guilt? How does this emotion echo throughout the book, even among the varying narrators/voices?
9. How would you describe the atmosphere of the impromptu Christmas party in the Toros’ apartment (p. 137)? What brings the residents of the building together, as a group and in more intimate settings? Why do you think Cristina Henríquez brought all the characters together during this particular holiday?
10. Discuss Quisqueya’s role in what happens to Mayor and Maribel. Without her intervention, how might have their relationship, and ultimately the novel, ended differently?
11. How does Garrett cast a threatening shadow over several characters’ thoughts and actions? Did your opinion of him change after you learned about his home environment? How much blame can, or did, you ascribe to him for what happens to Arturo?
12. How does the Toros’ buying a car influence the course of events in the novel? What does the car mean for Rafael and Mayor individually and for their father-son relationship?
13. Was Alma’s decision to return to Mexico with Maribel the best one? Were there alternatives, or did their departure seem inevitable to you?
14. Alma and Mayor are the primary narrators of the book, yet they have very different voices and perspectives. How does pairing these points of view affect the telling of this story, even as they are punctuated by the voices of the neighbors in Redwood Apartments? And how does the chorus of voices affect this main story and pose larger questions of immigration and the Latino experience in the United States?
15. Were you surprised that the book takes place in Newark, Delaware, rather than in the larger Latin American communities of Florida, New York, Texas, or California? What does this setting suggest about immigrant families like the Riveras and the Toros across the country? Do you feel differently about the immigration debate now raging in the United States after reading this book?
16. Do you, the members of your family, or your friends have stories of moving to another country to start a new life? Did any of the stories in the novel resonate with those you know?
17. How does the final chapter, told in Arturo’s voice, influence your understanding of what he felt about America? What do you make of how he ends his narrative, “I loved this country,” and that it is the last line of the book (286)?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
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I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You
Courtney Maum, 2014
Touchstone
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781476764580
Summary
A reverse love story set in Paris and London about a failed monogamist’s attempts to answer the question: Is it really possible to fall back in love?
Despite the success of his first solo show in Paris and the support of his brilliant French wife and young daughter, thirty-four-year-old British artist Richard Haddon is too busy mourning the loss of his American mistress to a famous cutlery designer to appreciate his fortune.
But after Richard discovers that a painting he originally made for his wife, Anne—when they were first married and deeply in love—has sold, it shocks him back to reality and he resolves to reinvest wholeheartedly in his family life . . . just in time for his wife to learn the extent of his affair. Rudderless and remorseful, Richard embarks on a series of misguided attempts to win Anne back while focusing his creative energy on a provocative art piece to prove that he’s still the man she once loved.
Skillfully balancing biting wit with a deep emotional undercurrent, debut novelist Courtney Maum has created the perfect portrait of an imperfect family—and a heartfelt exploration of marriage, love, and fidelity. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Courtney Maum graduated from Brown University with a degree in Comparative Literature. She then lived in France for five years where she worked as a party promoter for Corona Extra, which had everything to do with getting a Visa, and nothing to do with her degree. Today, Maum splits her time between the Berkshires, New York City, and Paris, working as a creative brand strategist, corporate namer, and humor columnist. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
A charming and engrossing portrait of one man's midlife mess.... Smart, fast-paced.... You come for the plot, but you stay for the characters—especially Maum's flawed but likable and basically well-intentioned hero. Ultimately, this is the story of a man who would do anything to be a better person, and you will avidly wish for him to succeed.
Elle
Courtney Maum bursts onto the scene with a hilarious and wise novel.... Richard Haddon is one of the more lovable male characters we've encountered this season.... You'll find yourself agog at Maum's masterful storytelling and dead-on descriptions.
Glamour
Courtney Maum kills it.
Vanity Fair
[An] affably comic take on husbandly comeuppance, Courtney Maum’s I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You follows a once-sizzling British artist’s hilariously misguided efforts to win back the love of his wife.
Vogue
In Maum’s debut novel, it’s 2002, and as English artist Richard Haddon’s reputation swells...his marriage slowly crumbles.... These characters are complex, and their story reflects their confusion and desire. As her story bounces through time and across continents...Maum rarely loses focus. An impressive, smart novel.
Publishers Weekly
Richard Haddon should be celebrating.... Instead, he's feeling like a sellout. Anne has just discovered that Richard had been having an affair.... Maum carefully paints Richard and Anne's relationship, from its heady start, to Richard's infidelity, to his shaky attempts to repair the damage. A solid, well-written character-driven contemporary novel. —Christine Perkins, Whatcom County Lib. Syst., Bellingham, WA
Library Journal
Maum’s tale deftly captures a thirtysomething’s sense of grief for the lost passion of youth and the search for something of depth to take its place. Writing with an authentic and affecting vulnerability, Maum considers sentimentality from every possible angle—interpersonal relationships, lofty idealism, and art—and each receives an equally unflinching examination. An unapologetically thoughtful novel told without melodrama and with a lot of heart.
Booklist
Despite the clever title and intellectual-verging-on-pretentious characters—a sensitive British painter who wants his work to have meaning; his French lawyer wife who doesn't want him to sell out...—Maum's first novel is basically a romantic comedy for elitists.... The not-terribly-sharp humor is more enjoyable than the predictable plot shot through with sentimentality.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. The novel begins with the statement, "Moments of great import are often tinged with darkness because perversely we yearn to be let down" (p. 1). Consider this in light of Anne-Laure and Richard’s marriage. In what ways is their marriage "tinged with darkness"? Do you agree that Richard wanted to be let down? Why or why not?
2. Early in the novel, Richard explains their financial situation: Richard, a struggling artist, and Anne-Laure, a law student, accept help from Anne’s parents to buy a house while expecting their daughter. While Anne "never felt guilty about accepting her parents’ cash" (p. 29), Richard did, feeling that he let "the shame of such a handout build inside...until it made me feel like less of a man, less of an artist, less than everything I had one day hoped to be" (p. 29). Discuss the theme of shame in the novel. How do Richard’s expectations for himself differ from the reality of his life? In what way(s) does shame drive Richard to do what he does? Do you think shame also drives Anne-Laure?
3. The Blue Bear is continually compared to Richard’s key paintings throughout the novel. While the former was painted during a particularly emotional time in Richard’s life, the latter series "was effortless...[m]editative" (p. 31), painted in a "nostalgic fugue state" (p. 31). How do the two paintings act as metaphors for Richard’s life? Do you think there is any meaning in Richard painting himself outside of the room, with a limited point of view, in the key paintings and in The Blue Bear?
4. Discuss the ways in which Richard and Anne-Laure’s marriage is portrayed in the novel. Are their marital problems unusual or ordinary? Can you determine what might have gone wrong in their marriage to cause Richard to stray?
5. So much of the novel centers on the power of the visual to transcend language. And it is Richard, the artist, who struggles the most with finding the words to say what he means. In a casual conversation with Anne, Richard refers to himself as a "traitor" for wanting to leave Julian’s gallery—a word loaded with meaning given Richard’s recent past. Richard laments his inability to express himself, claiming his "words were never right" (p. 66). What are other examples in the novel when words fail Richard? In what ways does he rely on his artwork to do the talking for him? Does Richard ultimately discover a way to express himself?
6. Revisit the scene where Anne-Laure discovers Lisa’s letters in Richard’s bag (pages 95-99). What makes this scene so heart-wrenching? Do you think Anne-Laure did the right thing by asking Richard to leave immediately? Would you have done the same? Imagine Richard had thrown away the letters as he planned—do you think their marriage would have healed sooner?
7. Revisit the scene on page 184 when Anne-Laure reveals to her parents that Richard was unfaithful. How does the their response to infidelity compare with the response from Richard’s parents? How does Lisa’s response differ from the responses of Richard’s and Anne-Laure’s parents? Discuss how these three responses—French, British, and American—might imply cultural differences regarding extramarital affairs.
8. The personal—Richard and Anne-Laure’s relationship—and the political—the increasing conflict in Iraq—intersect greatly in the novel. How do they relate? How do they evoke different kinds of uncertainty?
9. Why do you think Richard decides to move out of the house? Do you think he believes in the saying, If you love something, give it away? Do you? Turn to page 244 and discuss.
10. Do you think that Richard and Anne-Laure feel similarly about infidelity? Does one character seem more flexible about the rules of monogamy? If so, do these responses support or debunk cultural stereotypes?
11. Discuss Richard’s video project. What’s at stake for him in this project? How does it have a similar voice, so to speak, as The Blue Bear? In what ways do both projects explore absence?
12. "Because in the end, that’s why some of us stupid humans get married. Because we know that we can lose each other, and find each other again. Because we’re capable of forgiveness. Or at least, we think we are" (p. 326). Is this a true definition of what marriage means? Does Anne-Laure save the marriage in the end, when Richard could not? How so?
13. Explore the implications of the title. Who is having so much fun alone? Is the title meant to be ironic? What might you cite as the overall message of the novel?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
Euphoria
Lily King, 2014
Grove Atlantic
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 97808021237011
Summary
From New England Book Award winner Lily King comes a breathtaking novel about three young anthropologists of the ‘30’s caught in a passionate love triangle that threatens their bonds, their careers, and, ultimately, their lives.
English anthropologist Andrew Bankson has been alone in the field for several years, studying the Kiona river tribe in the Territory of New Guinea. Haunted by the memory of his brothers’ deaths and increasingly frustrated and isolated by his research, Bankson is on the verge of suicide when a chance encounter with colleagues, the controversial Nell Stone and her wry and mercurial Australian husband Fen, pulls him back from the brink.
Nell and Fen have just fled the bloodthirsty Mumbanyo and, in spite of Nell’s poor health, are hungry for a new discovery. When Bankson finds them a new tribe nearby, the artistic, female-dominated Tam, he ignites an intellectual and romantic firestorm between the three of them that burns out of anyone’s control.
Set between two World Wars and inspired by events in the life of revolutionary anthropologist Margaret Mead, Euphoria is an enthralling story of passion, possession, exploration, and sacrifice from accomplished author Lily King. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1963
• Where—State of Massachusetts, USA
• Education—B.A., University of North Carolina; M.A., Syracuse University
• Awards—Whiting Writers' Award; Raymon Carver Prize; New England Book Award; 2 Maine Fiction Awards
• Currently—lives in Yarmouth, Maine
Lily King is the author of several well-regarded novels, which have achieved numerous "best novel" and "editor choice" citations, as well as literary prizes and nominations.
King grew up in Massachusetts and received her B.A. in English Literature from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and her M.A. in Creative Writing from Syracuse University. She has taught English and Creative Writing at several universities and high schools in this country and abroad. She lives in Maine.
Books
1999 - The Pleasing Hour
2005 - The English Teacher
2010 - Father of the Rain
2014 - Euphoria
2020 - Writers & Lovers: A Novel
Lily is the recipient of a MacDowell Fellowship and a Whiting Writer's Award. Her short fiction has appeared in literary magazines including Ploughshares and Glimmer Train, as well as in several anthologies. (Bio adapted from the publisher 3/3/2020.)
Book Reviews
In Euphoria, the novelist Lily King has taken the known details of that occasion—a 1933 field trip to the Sepik River, in New Guinea, during which Mead and her second husband, Reo Fortune, briefly collaborated with the man who would become her third husband, the English anthropologist Gregory Bateson—and blended them into a story of her own devising. The result is as uncanny as it is transporting. Euphoria is a meticulously researched homage to Mead’s restless mind and a considered portrait of Western anthropology in its primitivist heyday. It’s also a taut, witty, fiercely intelligent tale of competing egos and desires in a landscape of exotic menace—a love triangle in extremis.
Emily Eakin - New York Times Book Review
King's superb coup is to have imagined a story loosely founded on the intertwined lives of the above three that instantly becomes its own, thrilling saga—while provoking a detective's curiosity about its sources.... There are so many exhilarating elements to savor... By the end of Euphoria, this reader sighed with wistful satisfaction, wishing the book would go on. Brava to Lily King.
Joan Frank - San Francisco Chronicle
It’s the rare novel of ideas that devours its readers’ attention.... It’s not a literary form known for its great romances, either, although of course love and sex play a role in most fictional characters’ lives. Lily King’s Euphoria, a shortish novel based on a period in the life of pioneering anthropologist Margaret Mead, is an exception. At its center is a romantic triangle, and it tells a story that begs to be consumed in one or two luxurious binges... King is a sinewy, disciplined writer who wisely avoids the temptation to evoke the overwhelming physicality of the jungle (the heat, the steam, the bugs) by generating correspondingly lush thickets of language. Her story... sticks close to the interlocking bonds that give the novel its tensile power.
Laura Miller - Salon
"
(Starred review.) While the love triangle sections do turn pages..., King’s immersive prose takes center stage. The fascinating descriptions of tribal customs and rituals, paired with snippets of Nell’s journals—as well as the characters' insatiable appetites for scientific discovery—all contribute to a thrilling read that, at its end, does indeed feel like "the briefest, purest euphoria."
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) [The] three-way relationship is complex and involving, but even more fascinating is the depiction of three anthropologists with three entirely diverse ways of studying another culture..... These differences, along with professional jealousy and sexual tension, propel the story toward its inevitable conclusion. —Evelyn Beck, Piedmont Technical Coll., Greenwood, SC
Library Journal
Set between the First and Second World Wars, the story is loosely based on events in the life of Margaret Mead. There are fascinating looks into other cultures and how they are studied, and the sacrifices and dangers that go along with it. This is a powerful story, at once gritty, sensuous, and captivating."—Booklist
Booklist
(Starred review.)[C]learly based on anthropologist Margaret Mead's relationship with her second and third husbands, R. F. Fortune and Gregory Bateson—neither a slouch in his own right.... King does not shy from showing the uncomfortable relationship among all three anthropologists and those they study.... A small gem, disturbing and haunting.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Set against the lush tropical landscape of 1930s New Guinea, this novel charts British anthropologist Andrew Bankson’s fascination for colleagues Nell Stone and her husband, Fen, a fascination that turns deadly. How far does the setting play a role in shaping events? Is there a sense that the three have created their own small universe on the banks of the Sepik River, far removed from the Western world? If so, by whose rules are they playing?
2. "She tried not to think about the villages they were passing.… [T]he tribes she would never know and words she would never hear, the worry that they might right now be passing the one people she was meant to study, a people whose genius she would unlock, and who would unlock hers, a people who had a way of life that made sense to her" (p. 8). In the light of this quote, discuss Nell Stone’s passion and need for anthropology and find ways in which they differ from Bankson’s and Fen’s. Talk about the significance of her childhood dream of being carried away by gypsies.
3. Continue your discussion by considering Nell’s statement: "If I didn’t believe they shared my humanity entirely, I wouldn’t be here.… I’m not interested in zoology" (p. 55). Find instances in the novel in which she demonstrates this. How far do you agree, as Nell states, that it is an anthropologist’s role to encourage self-analysis and self-awareness in the tribes he/she studies?
4. Over the course of the novel we learn a great deal about Bankson’s childhood and young adulthood. Talk about the reasons and life events that brought him to anthropology. What has led him to the brink of suicide? How seriously do you think he views his statement: "The meaning of life is the quest to understand the structure and order of the natural world—that was the mantra I was raised on. To deviate from it was suicide" (p. 32).
5. Given his upbringing and his father’s passion for "hard" science, Nell’s focus on humanity instead of zoology must hold great appeal for Bankson. What else draws him to Nell, leaving him with "Fierce desires, a great tide of feeling of which I could make little sense, an ache that seems to have no name but want. I want" (p. 86). What exactly does Bankson want?
6. Discuss the ways in which Bankson’s attitude toward his work changes as he gets to know Nell and her research methods. Consider his acknowledgment of the limitations of an anthropologist’s work and discuss how far it is possible to ever get to know another’s culture. Take into account Bankson’s interest in the objectivity of the observer.
7. Take your discussion of the previous question a step further by considering whether it is ever possible to truly know another person. Apply your observations to Bankson’s views of Nell and Fen.
8. The theme of possession, of ownership, runs throughout the novel, twisting like the river Sepik itself through the relationships and conversations of the protagonists. Talk about Nell’s search for "a group of people who give each other the room to be in whatever way they need to be" (p. 88). Has she found this kind of freedom in any of the tribes she has studied? In any of her relationships? Talk specifically about Fen and Bankson.
9. Further your discussion by focusing on the idea of words and thoughts as things to be owned—as Nell states, "once I published that book and my words became a commodity.… " (p. 91). How has this impacted her relationship with Fen? Consider her statement "I only know that when F leaves and B and I talk I feel like I am saying—and hearing—the first wholly honest words of my life" (p. 198).
10. On several occasions during the novel, Nell refers to an Amy Lowell poem, "Decade." Why do you think the poem holds such meaning for her? How does the poem’s central idea—of feelings for a lover changing from the sweet, almost painful intensity of red wine into the blissful satisfaction of bread—relate to her and her own relationships?
11. While Nell declares later that "He is wine and bread and deep in my stomach" (p. 247), do you believe that Bankson was able to give Nell the freedom she was looking for? How or how not? Could it have led inevitably to her death?
12. How far would you consider Nell to be the epitome of a young, independent accomplished woman? Talk about her character, her personality, work habits and motivations. Then discuss her disturbing relationship with Fen, and her inability to escape his harm. How did she end up in such an untenable situation?
13. In one journal entry, Nell writes: "I am angry that I was made to choose, that both Fen & Helen needed me to choose, to be their one & only when I didn’t want a one & only" (p. 92). Consider Nell’s relationship with Helen as compared to her relationship with Fen and talk about the reasons she may have chosen Fen over Helen. Do you think that she made this decision or it was made for her?
14. Set against a distant backdrop of a Western world mired in doubt and economic depression, the novel can be seen to depict a search for understanding, for a sense of order. Look at the ways in which the study of the tribes of New Guinea reflects the protagonists’ desperate search for meaning—a search that can lead to a sense of failure or instead to Nell’s euphoria when "at that moment the place feels entirely yours" (p. 50). Find instances of despair and disillusionment for Nell, Fen, and Bankson in their various work experiences. How do they react?
15. What do the three of them really see in the tribes of New Guinea? To what extent, when unlocking the puzzles of the Kiona and the Tam, are they searching for meaning within themselves? How important is it to impending events that the Tam tribe appears to be female-dominated?
16. In the context of the previous two questions, talk about the significance of the Grid to the three anthropologists. What does it represent to them? Why does Bankson refer to a "shift in the stars" caused by the Grid?
17. Discuss the glimpses the novel gives into the world of 1930s colonialism—in the conversations with Westerners in New Guinea and in Australia; and in Bankson’s, Nell’s, and Fen’s attitudes to the tribes they study and the Western society to which they must eventually return. How, if at all, do Nell, Fen, and Bankson take colonial approaches toward their research practices and anthropological subjects? What is the role of Xambun as he rejoins his tribal village after being recruited by a Western company? Is it possible to live between the two worlds?
18. Fen briefly mentions a dark family secret, then continues the conversation to discuss the primitive world versus the "civilized world": "Nothing in the primitive world shocks me, Bankson. Or I should say, what shocks me in the primitive world is any sense of order and ethics. All the rest—the cannibalism, infanticide, raids, mutilation—it’s all comprehensible, nearly reasonable, to me. I’ve always been able to see the savageness beneath the veneer of society" (p.137-38). What does this say about Fen? How far do you agree with his comment, especially in the light of events that follow in the novel?
19. For all of Nell and Bankson’s heartfelt conversations, and Bankson’s keen observations of her at work, there are many important things left unsaid. Nell states: "You don’t realize how language actually interferes with communication . . . how it gets in the way like an overdominant sense" (p. 79). Should Bankson have understood further Nell’s sadness within her marriage, Fen’s physical abuse? As a reader, do we miss the clues too?
20. Discuss Fen’s obsession with the flute, and the reasons why it ultimately leads to the destruction of so much: the anthropologists’ relationship with the Tam tribe, Fen’s relationship with Nell and Bankson. If Xambun had not been killed, would it have been acceptable for Fen to take the flute?
21. Continue your discussion to consider whether an anthropologist must always betray in some way the tribes he/she works with. How does Nell writing books about the people she studies differ from Fen selling the flute to a museum? Was Nell’s work in the field beneficial to the Tam or to the children of Kirakira? Are her reasons for working with them ultimately as selfish as Fen’s need to profit from the flute? How morally responsible are Bankson and Nell for Xambun’s death?
22. Fen justifies taking the flute so that he can restore balance to his relationship with Nell: "There has to be a balance. A man can’t be without power—it doesn’t work like that" (p. 238). Contrast this with Nell’s thoughts on balance: "[P]erhaps a culture that flourishes is a culture that has found a similar balance among its people" (p. 144). Do you think they are talking about the same thing? Does balance always need to rest on power?
23. Trace Bankson’s emotional and intellectual development throughout the course of the novel, ending with his visits from his biographer. How do you think his experience with Nell and Fen affected and changed him? Talk about what may have kept him going after Nell’s death. Why did he not revert back to his suicidal path? Consider the quote that holds so much meaning for him from war poet Edward Shillito’s "Hardness of Heart": "Tears are not endless and we have no more."
(Questions by Lindsey Tate; issued by the publisher.)
Lucky Us
Amy Bloom, 2014
Random House
256 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781400067244
Summary
My father’s wife died. My mother said we should drive down to his place and see what might be in it for us.
So begins the story of teenage half sisters Eva and Iris in this brilliantly written, deeply moving, and fantastically funny novel by the beloved and critically acclaimed author of Away.
Disappointed by their families, Iris, the hopeful star, and Eva, the sidekick, journey across 1940s America in search of fame and fortune. Iris’s ambitions take the sisters from small-town Ohio to an unexpected and sensuous Hollywood, across the America of Reinvention in a stolen station wagon, to the jazz clubs and golden mansions of Long Island.
With their friends in high and low places, Iris and Eva stumble and shine through a landscape of big dreams, scandals, betrayals, and war. Filled with memorable characters and unexpected turns, Lucky Us is a thrilling and resonant novel about success and failure, good luck and bad, and the pleasures and inevitable perils of family life. From Brooklyn’s beauty parlors to London’s West End, these unforgettable people love, lie, cheat, and survive in this story of our fragile, absurd, heroic species. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1953
• Where—N/A
• Education—B.A. Weslyan University; M.S.W. Smith College
• Awards—Costa Award; National Magazine Award
• Currently—lives in Connecticut, USA
Amy Bloom is an American writer best know for her 2007 novel Away. Her next novel, Lucky Us, was published in 2014. She has also penned short stories—in 1993 her collection, Come to Me, was nominated for National Book Award, and in 2000 her collection, A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.
Bloom received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theater/Political Science, Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Wesleyan University, and a M.S.W. (Master of Social Work) from Smith College.
Having trained and practiced as a clinical social worker, Bloom used her psychotherapeutic background in creating the Lifetime Television network TV show, State of Mind. She is listed as creator, co-executive producer, and head writer for the series, which examines the professional lives of psychotherapists.
Bloom has also written articles in periodicals including The New Yorker, New York Times Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, Vogue, Slate, and Salon.com. Her short fiction has appeared in The Best American Short Stories, O. Henry Prize Stories and several other anthologies, and has won a National Magazine Award.
Currently, Bloom is a University Writer in Residence at Wesleyan University (as of 2010). Previously, she was a senior lecturer of Creative Writing in the department of English at Yale University, where she taught Advanced Fiction Writing, Writing for Television, and Writing for Children.
In August 2012, Bloom published her first children's book entitled Little Sweet Potato. According to the New York Times, the story "follows the trials of a 'lumpy, dumpy, bumpy' young tuber who is accidentally expelled from his garden patch and must find a new home. On his journey, he is castigated first by a bunch of xenophobic carrots, then by a menacing gang of vain eggplants."
Bloom resides in Connecticut. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 6/3/2014.)
Book Reviews
(Starred review.) [E]verything here is fresh.... Told partially from Eva’s perspective, and with epistolary interludes...Eva’s world is one of endless opportunities for reinvention—and redemption—if one only takes them. With a spare and trusting style, Bloom invites readers to fill the spaces her pretty prose allows, with true and beautiful results. —Annie Bostrom
Booklist
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.)
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The Secret Life of Violet Grant
Beatriz Williams, 2014
Penguin Group (USA)
448 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780399162176
Summary
Manhattan, 1964. Vivian Schuyler, newly graduated from Bryn Mawr College, has recently defied the privilege of her storied old Fifth Avenue family to do the unthinkable for a budding Kennedy-era socialite: break into the Madison Avenue world of razor-stylish Metropolitan magazine.
But when she receives a bulky overseas parcel in the mail, the unexpected contents draw her inexorably back into her family’s past, and the hushed-over crime passionnel of an aunt she never knew, whose existence has been wiped from the record of history.
Berlin, 1914. Violet Schuyler Grant endures her marriage to the philandering and decades-older scientist Dr. Walter Grant for one reason: for all his faults, he provides the necessary support to her liminal position as a young American female physicist in prewar Germany. The arrival of Dr. Grant’s magnetic former student at the beginning of Europe’s fateful summer interrupts this delicate détente.
Lionel Richardson, a captain in the British Army, challenges Violet to escape her husband’s perverse hold, and as the world edges into war and Lionel’s shocking true motives become evident, Violet is tempted to take the ultimate step to set herself free and seek a life of her own conviction with a man whose cause is as audacious as her own.
As the iridescent and fractured Vivian digs deeper into her aunt’s past and the mystery of her ultimate fate, Violet’s story of determination and desire unfolds, shedding light on the darkness of her years abroad...and teaching Vivian to reach forward with grace for the ambitious future and the love she wants most. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1971-72
• Raised—Seattle, Washington, USA
• Education—B.A., Stanford University; M.B.A., Columbia University
• Currently—lives in Greenwich, Connecticut
A graduate of Stanford University with an MBA from Columbia, Beatriz spent several years in New York and London hiding her early attempts at fiction, first on company laptops as a corporate and communications strategy consultant, and then as an at-home producer of small persons.
She now lives with her husband and four children near the Connecticut shore, where she divides her time between writing and laundry. (From the author's website.)
Book Reviews
Williams's latest is another absorbing page-turner filled with romance and secrets but with some flaws. While Violet's narrative will captivate readers with its intrigue and the protagonist's struggles, Vivian's story is less compelling and the plot strains believability toward the end. —Christina Thurairatnam, Holmes Cty. Dist. P.L., Millersburg, OH
Library Journal
[A] substantive beach read steeped in history and familial intrigue. Separated by 50 years but joined together in spirit and ambition, Vivian Schuyler and Violet Schuyler Grant share equal parts of the narrative flow as the story leapfrogs back and forth between 1964 New York and 1914 Berlin.... Readers will love wallowing in the twists and turns of this irresistibly luxurious tale. —Margaret Flanagan
Booklist
Williams competently advances the narratives of both women by alternating between Vivian's and Violet's stories. But although both are interesting protagonists, readers will find Vivian's wisecracking subterfuge annoying and question Violet's naive, subservient approach to her marriage.... [Readers] will want to know why Vivian's family wasn't interested in discovering the complete truth about Violet's fate prior to Vivian's investigation.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Vivian Schuyler’s and Violet Grant’s stories are separated by fifty years. They each pursued very different career paths, yet both women had similar ambitions and faced a surprising number of similar challenges and obstacles. Discuss the similarities and differences in their professional goals, how they pursued those goals, and how they overcame obstacles along the way. What about similarities in their personal lives?
2. It has been fifty years since Vivian found out about Violet, her great-aunt. How do modern women’s experiences measure up to Vivian’s? To Violet’s?
3. The meaning and context of love plays a central role The Secret Life of Violet Grant, which touches on romantic, platonic, and familial love, and even delves into the dynamics of abuse. Discuss different examples of love and how it functions-or fails to function-in the context of the characters’ lives.
4. Why do you think Vivian was immediately drawn so strongly to Violet’s story?
5. Discuss Vivian’s friendship with Gogo. How does this relationship affect both women? How does it change by the end of the book? Does it matter that it was rooted in Vivian’s determination to work at the Metropolitan? Do you think Vivian and Gogo will remain friends?
6. Does this friendship bear any similarities to that between Violet and the Comtesse de Saint-Honore?
7. Early on, Lionel Richardson expresses a sentiment about women voting-only “sensible” women should vote. As appalling as his behavior is, Walter Grant actually disagrees with this opinion and expresses support for Violet’s ambitions and women’s rights in general. Compare and contrast Lionel and Walter in this regard. How do their actions measure up to their words?
8. Discuss Vivian’s relationship with her family-how she does and doesn’t fit in with the Schuylers? In light of the tension between them all, why do you think family is still important to her?
9. Though we don’t see it, Violet’s relationship with the Schuylers was clearly much more fraught. Do you think family was still important to her? Why or why not?
10. The Greenwalds (from A Hundred Summers) make an appearance in The Secret Life of Violet Grant. Discuss how they fit in with and compare to the Schuylers.
11. At one point, Vivian’s sister Pepper says, “I think the secret to marriage is just old-fashioned tolerance.” Do you agree? What role do you think this sentiment plays in their parents’ marriage? Why do they stay together, despite the cracks in the relationship and the readier acceptance of divorce among the upper classes of the period? How about the other couples in the book?
12. Demands for obedience are ever present in Violet’s life, especially in the areas of family, work, and romance. How does she confront them?
13. Vivian is much more outspoken and boisterous than her great-aunt. How does she confront similar demands and social strictures? How does her approach compare to Violet’s?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
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