Goodbye, Vitamin
Rachel Khong, 2017
Henry Holt & Co.
208 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781250109163
Summary
Her life at a crossroads, a young woman goes home again in this funny and inescapably moving debut from a wonderfully original new literary voice.
Freshly disengaged from her fiance and feeling that life has not turned out quite the way she planned, thirty-year-old Ruth quits her job, leaves town and arrives at her parents’ home to find that situation more complicated than she'd realized.
Her father, a prominent history professor, is losing his memory and is only erratically lucid. Ruth’s mother, meanwhile, is lucidly erratic. But as Ruth's father’s condition intensifies, the comedy in her situation takes hold, gently transforming her all her grief.
Told in captivating glimpses and drawn from a deep well of insight, humor, and unexpected tenderness, Goodbye, Vitamin pilots through the loss, love, and absurdity of finding one’s footing in this life. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1985-86
• Raised—southern California, USA
• Education—B.A., Yale University; M.F.A., University of Florida
• Currently—lives in San Francisco, California
Rachel Khong is Chinese-American food writer and author. Her 2017 debut novel, Goodbye, Vitamin, is about a young woman who returns home to find her father afflicted with Alzheimer's. She is also one of the writers of the 2017 nonfiction book, All About Eggs: Everything We Know About the World's Most Important Food, a compilation of essays, recipes, anecdotes by the Lucky Peach editorial staff.
Khong's parents immigrated from China to the States when she was two. She grew up in southern California, earned her Bachelor's from Yale and her Master's from the University of Florida. Returning to California, this time to San Francisco, Khong worked in restaurants and then, in 2011, landed a job as the managing editor for the food journal Lucky Peach. Five years later, she became the magazine's executive editor. She left Lucky Peach in 2016, shortly before it folded, in order to devote herself to full-time writing.
Khong's fiction and non-fiction has appeared in American Short Fiction, The Believer, Pitchfork and Village Voice. In 2013, she was named one of Refinery29's 30 under 30. (Adapted from varioius online souces.)
Read the author's interview with Vogue magazine.
Book Reviews
A heartwarming book about Alzheimer's disease? Seriously? Rachel Khong's first novel comes adorned with rows of hot pink, orange, and yellow lemons, but a pitcher of lemonade would have been apt too, for this is a writer who clearly knows how to squeeze the sweetness out of the tart fruit life throws at you.
Heller McAlpin - NPR
Wry, warmhearted, and wise, Khong’s writing can turn mid-sentence from really funny to really sad, and often back again. Her subject is disease, but she (and her characters) resist any impulse to pathologize.… Khong’s novel will stay with you long after you turn the last page. What more can be said for a book about remembering?
Julia Felsenthal - Vogue
Goodbye, Vitamin is one of those rare books that is both devastating and light-hearted, heartfelt and joyful, making it a perfect and unique summer read. Don't miss it.
Isaac Fitzgerald - BuzzFeed
Tender yet funny in turns, Goodbye, Vitamin offers poignant insight into family, memory, marriage, parenthood, love, and loss.
Jarry Lee - BuzzFeed
A darkly funny debut novel about love, loss, and heartbreak.
PopSugar
A good mix of humor and love.
Elle
Tragic and funny.
Entertainment Weekly
(Starred review.) In her tender, well-paced debut novel … Khong writes heartbreaking family drama with charm, perfect prose, and deadpan humor.
Booklist
[A] heartfelt family dramedy in a debut novel that ruminates on love, loss, and memory.… Ruth and Howard are a hilarious father-daughter duo, at turns destructive and endearing, and … Khong's pithy observations and cynical humor round out a moving story that sparks empathy where you'd least expect it.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to start a discussion for Goodbye, Vitamin … then take off on your own:
1. What do you think of Ruth Young?
2. How does Ruth respond to the breakup with her finance Joel? What do you think of the line, "You know what else is unfair, about Joel? That I loosened the jar lid, so somebody else could open him"? What does she mean?
3. Talk about Ruth's relationships with her parents, especially with her father. Consider the journal her father kept when she was a little girl. How has her relationship with Howard changed now that he is ill?
4. What happened to the family after Ruth left home, and why did she stay away for so long?
5. Talk about Ruth's mother. How does she react to (or cope with) Howard's increasing illness?
6. What do you think of the graduate students' ruse: to pretend that Howard has been reinstated to his academic position? Helpful? Cruel? Funny? Does it help him, "keep his mind off, well, losing it"?
7. How does the book treat the function of memory— the way it identifies us, fails us, haunts us, pains us … and, of course, enables us to function? Ruth once describes her memory, for example of Joel, "like an ancient candlestick from some wrecked ship." What does she mean by that? Talk about your experiences with your own memory. Are we our memories?
8. Has anyone in your life been a victim of Alzheimer's? If so, is the author's account of it in Goodbye, Vitamin realistic?
9. Talk about the book's title: how does it relate to the story? Consider, too, the book's cover (hardback edition) with its pink, orange, and yellow lemons. What do the lemons suggest about the story inside?
10. Many reviewers comment on the book's humor. How does Khong manage to take a desperately grim subject and turn it into something less grim? What is Khong's technique as a writer?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
The Alice Network
Kate Quinn, 2017
HarperCollins
528 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062654199
Summary
In an enthralling new historical novel, two women—a female spy recruited to the real-life Alice Network in France during World War I and an unconventional American socialite searching for her cousin in 1947—are brought together in a mesmerizing story of courage and redemption.
1947
In the chaotic aftermath of World War II, American college girl Charlie St. Clair is pregnant, unmarried, and on the verge of being thrown out of her very proper family. She's also nursing a desperate hope that her beloved cousin Rose, who disappeared in Nazi-occupied France during the war, might still be alive.
So when Charlie's parents banish her to Europe to have her "little problem" taken care of, she breaks free and heads to London. She is determined to find out what happened to the cousin she loves like a sister.
1915
A year into the Great War, Eve Gardiner burns to join the fight against the Germans and unexpectedly gets her chance when she's recruited to work as a spy. Sent into enemy-occupied France, she's trained by the mesmerizing Lili, the "Queen of Spies", who manages a vast network of secret agents right under the enemy's nose.
Thirty years later, haunted by the betrayal that ultimately tore apart the Alice Network, Eve spends her days drunk and secluded in her crumbling London house. Until a young American barges in uttering a name Eve hasn't heard in decades, and launches them both on a mission to find the truth…no matter where it leads. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—May 9, 1975
• Where—southern California, USA
• Education—B.A., M.Mus., Boston University
• Currently—lives in the state of Maryland
Kate Quinn is the author of historical novels. Several, set in ancient Rome, are known as the Empress of Rome Saga. Another series, The Borgia Chronicles, is set during the Italian Renaissance. With her novels, The Alice Network (2017) and The Huntress (2019), Quinn switched centuries, setting her stories during the eras of World War I and World War II, respectively.
Quinn has also joined 10 or so other authors in a collaborative series called Songs of Blood and Gold. The three books, now collected in a single volume, span the era of ancient Greece into the Roman empire.
As she writes on her website, Quinn has always loved history. She tells us why she enjoys writing about her favorite subject:
Too often we grow up thinking history is boring, dull, nothing but flat lists of dates and places. In my books I hope to show the life, the laughter, and the humanity that runs through our common past.
The author is a native of Southern California. She attended Boston University, where she earned a Bachelor's and Master's degree in classical voice. Today she lives in Maryland with her husband and two dogs. She still loves opera, as well as action movies, cooking, and baseball. (Adapted from the author's website.)
Book Reviews
In The Alice Network, the lives of two indomitable women intertwine in a plot crackling with suspense. We root for Charlie and Eve, and cheer when they triumph.
NPR.org
Amazing historical fiction.… [A] must read!
Historical Novel Society
Lovingly crafted and brimming with details, readers are sure to be held in Quinn’s grip watching as the characters evolve. Powerful reading you can’t put down!
Romantic Times
(Starred review.) Allowing Charlie to describe present events, while Eve shares her experience as an English spy for the real-life Alice Network during World War I, creates a fascinating tension that intensifies as the finale approaches.… A compelling blend of historical fiction, mystery, and women's fiction. —Stacey Hayman, Rocky River P.L., OH
Library Journal
Kate Quinn announces herself as one of the best artists of the genre. The plotting is seamless, the pace breathtaking, and the prose is both vivid and laced with just the right amount of details. Fans of historical fiction, spy fiction and thrilling drama will love every moment.
BookPage
Discussion Questions
1. Female friendship is a constant theme throughout The Alice Network. Charlie St. Clair and Eve Gardiner begin as antagonists, whereas Eve and Louise de Bettignies (Lili) are friends from the start. How does each friendship grow and change over the course of events?
2. The young Eve introduced in 1915 is very different from the older Eve seen through Charlie’s eyes in 1947. How and when did you see the young Eve begin to change into her older self? What was the catalyst of those changes?
3. Lili tells Eve "To tell the truth, much of this special work we do is quite boring." Did the realities of spywork surprise you, compared to the more glamorous version presented by Hollywood? How do you think you would have fared, working for the historical Alice Network?
4. Rene Bordelon is denigrated by his peers as a war profiteer and an informer. He sees himself as a practical businessman, pointing out that he is not to blame making money off the invaders, or for tragedies like Oradours-sur-Glane which happened on German orders. Did you see him as a villain or an opportunist? Do you think he earned his final fate?
5. Eve loves Captain Cameron and hates Rene Bordelon—but her relationship with Rene is longer, darker, and more emotional. How is her hatred for him complicated by intimacy? How does his realization of Eve’s true identity change him? How do you think they continued to think and feel about each other during their thirty years separation, and how did that effect their eventual climax?
6. Finn Kilgore and Captain Cameron are parallels for each other: both Scotsmen and soldiers with war wounds and prison terms in their pasts, acting as support systems for the women they love who go into danger. How are the two men different as well as alike? How does Finn succeed where Cameron fails?
7. Rose’s disappearance provides the story’s driving search. Did her eventual fate surprise you? Had you ever heard of Oradours-sur-Glane? How did Rose’s fate change the goal of the search?
8. Everyone in The Alice Network suffers some form of emotional damage from war: Charlie’s depression after losing her Marine brother to suicide, Eve’s torture-induced nightmares, Finn’s concentration-camp memories and resulting anger issues, Cameron’s guilt over losing his recruits. How do they each cope with their war wounds? How do they help each other heal? How is PTSD handled in Eve’s day as compared to Charlie’s day—and as compared to now?
9. Charlie dreads the stigma of being a "bad girl" pregnant out of wedlock, and Eve fears shame and dismissal as a horizontale if it is learned she slept with a source for information. Discuss the sexual double-standards each woman faced. How have our sexual standards for women changed since 1915 and 1947?
10. Charlie decides to keep her baby, and Eve decides to have an abortion. Why did each woman make the choice she did?
11. Charlie argues that Rene should be brought to legal justice, and Eve argues for vigilante justice. Who do you think is right? How did it affect the ending? How do you think the outcome will bind Eve and Charlie and Finn in future, since they cannot share their adventure with anyone else?
12. "There are two kinds of flowers when it comes to women. The kind that sit safe in a beautiful vase, or the kind that survive in any conditions … even in evil." The theme of the fleurs du mal carries from Lili to Eve — how does Eve pass it on to Charlie? When do you see Charlie becoming a fleur du mal in her own right? How has knowing Eve changed Charlie’s life, and vice versa?
(Questions from the author's website.)
Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore
Matthew Sullivan, 2017
Scribner
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781501116841
Summary
When a bookshop patron commits suicide, his favorite store clerk must unravel the puzzle he left behind in this fiendishly clever debut novel from an award-winning short story writer.
Lydia Smith lives her life hiding in plain sight. A clerk at the Bright Ideas bookstore, she keeps a meticulously crafted existence among her beloved books, eccentric colleagues, and the BookFrogs—the lost and lonely regulars who spend every day marauding the store’s overwhelmed shelves.
But when Joey Molina, a young, beguiling BookFrog, kills himself in the bookstore’s upper room, Lydia’s life comes unglued. Always Joey’s favorite bookseller, Lydia has been bequeathed his meager worldly possessions. Trinkets and books; the detritus of a lonely, uncared for man.
But when Lydia flips through his books she finds them defaced in ways both disturbing and inexplicable. They reveal the psyche of a young man on the verge of an emotional reckoning. And they seem to contain a hidden message. What did Joey know? And what does it have to do with Lydia?
As Lydia untangles the mystery of Joey’s suicide, she unearths a long buried memory from her own violent childhood. Details from that one bloody night begin to circle back. Her distant father returns to the fold, along with an obsessive local cop, and the Hammerman, a murderer who came into Lydia’s life long ago and, as she soon discovers, never completely left.
Bedazzling, addictive, and wildly clever, Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore is a heart-pounding mystery that perfectly captures the intellect and eccentricity of the bookstore milieu and will keep you guessing until the very last page. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—near Denver, Colorado, USA
• Education—B.A., University of San Francisco; M.F.A., University of Idaho
• Awards—Robert Olen Butler Fiction Prize
• Currently—lives in the state of Washington
Matthew J. Sullivan, author of the novel Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore (2017), was one of eight children growing up outside of Denver, Colorado. He received his BA from the University of San Francisco and an MFA from the University of Idaho.
He has been a resident writer at Yaddo, Centrum, and the Vermont Studio Center. His short stories have been awarded the Robert Olen Butler Fiction Prize and the Florida Review Editor’s Prize for Fiction and have been published in many journals, including The Chattahoochee Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Fugue, Evansville Review, and 580-Split.
In addition to working for years at Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver and at Brookline Booksmith in Boston, he currently teaches writing, literature, and film at Big Bend Community College in the high desert of Washington State. He is married to a librarian and has two children. (Adapted from the publisher.)
Book Reviews
If you can pass up a mystery with a bookstore in the title, you have great willpower. Personally, I couldn't resist Matthew Sullivan's Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore, an appealing first novel…The oddball characters and layered plot make this puzzle mystery both charming and challenging.
Marilyn Stasio - New York Times Book Reviews
Shocking, charming and thrilling.… With compelling characters and rich descriptions, Sullivan’s writing is spot-on. Sullivan nails it, delivering a captivating conflict plus masterfully executed prose.
Associated Press
A strong debut.… [P]owerful, intricate tale of broken friendship and family loyalties.
Seattle Times
(Starred review.) Quirky characters and a keen sense of place distinguish this multigenerational tale of abandonment, desperation, and betrayal. Sullivan’s writing occasionally calls too much attention to itself and a surfeit of coincidence strains credulity, but this inventive and intricately plotted mystery still largely satisfies.
Publishers Weekly
Though darker than other beloved novels set in bookstores, this story will appeal to fans of Gabrielle Zevin’s The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry and Katarina Bivald’s The Readers of Broken Wheel. Recommended. Mystery readers will also appreciate the clever connections between the characters and the crimes.
Library Journal
This quirky debut novel will have particular appeal for puzzle solvers and booklovers.
Booklist
This quirky debut novel will have particular appeal for puzzle solvers and booklovers.
BookPage
[A] nicely paced tale about a horrifying incident with a woman at its core who must put aside her ordered life to find out what really happened all those years ago, where the truth, in the end, may be stranger than fiction. An intriguingly dark, twisty story and eccentric characters make this book a standout.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. While talking with Raj, Lydia reminisces about her relationship with Gas 'n Donuts: "but her nostalgia for the place had never been strong enough to outweigh her dread of dredging up the past" (138). How is Lydia’s relationship with the past presented, and how do you see it evolve over the course of the novel?
2. What were your initial impressions of the characters, specifically Lydia’s father? How did these impressions change over the course of the novel?
3. As Lydia assess her own muddied memories of the Hammerman, she visits Moberg, who has long suspected that Lydia’s father was the murderer. Hurting and suspicious, Lydia also seems to believe that her father might be behind the murders. Did you find yourself believing that her father might be guilty? At what point did you realize it was Raj’s father who had committed the murders?
4. Sullivan weaves a tight web of a story with characters whose lives are significantly intertwined yet all of these characters feel acute loneliness and isolation. Explore these themes with your group. What other themes do you see at work?
5. Mrs. Patel feels immense guilt about the O’Toole murders, believing that "their blood was on [her] hands" (302). Once she learns of Joey’s suicide, she experiences further emotional upheaval. Take a moment to think about the "justice" of Mrs. Patel’s final act. Did it take you by surprise? How did it resonate with you?
6. Lydia lives her life hiding in plain sight among books; discuss with your group this aspect of her character along with the one of the quotes Sullivan selected for the epigraph (from Steven Millhauser, "August Eschenburg"):
All words are masks, and the lovelier they are, the more they are meant to conceal.
7. Lydia’s familiarity with books and the bookstore setting are crucial to the plot of the novel. Discuss with your group the significance of Joey’s cutouts in books as a means of communication. Contemplate what metaphorical gesture Sullivan might be making.
8. Using the quote below as a starting point, discuss Lydia’s drive to uncover the mystery. How do your own philosophical ideals align with these philosophies?
"But then not having answers had always been the point: the point of her childhood, the product of her hours in the library, the sum of [her father’s] philosophy when she was a little girl. You leave yourself open to answers, he’d always taught her. You keep turning pages, you finish chapters, you find the next book. You seek and you seek and you seek, and no matter how tough things become, you never settle" (208).
9. Despite her long-term relationship with David, Lydia is still "fully aware of the one thing she could never reveal: her night with the Hammerman" (137). Once Lydia discovers that David has been communicating with her father, and he knows about the night of the murders she feels betrayed (213). Did you imagine that Lydia and David would ever recover from the secrecy? What values do you place on a relationship?
10. Sullivan ends the novel with Raj and Lydia happening upon a television show about the O'Toole murders and "Little Lydia," ending the novel with this line:
"And though [Lydia] wanted to close her eyes and feel the promise of this moment, she couldn’t help but look beyond his shoulder, hoping to see for one last time the girl he’d just erased from the screen."
Where do you think Sullivan leaves us with Lydia and her relationship to the murders and to herself?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
He Said / She Said
Erin Kelly, 2017
St. Martin's Press
400 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781250113696
Summary
In the summer of 1999, Kit and Laura travel to a festival in Cornwall to see a total eclipse of the sun. Kit is an eclipse chaser; Laura has never seen one before. Young and in love, they are certain this will be the first of many they’ll share.
But in the hushed moments after the shadow passes, Laura interrupts a man and a woman. She knows that she saw something terrible. The man denies it. It is her word against his.
The victim seems grateful. Months later, she turns up on their doorstep like a lonely stray. But as her gratitude takes a twisted turn, Laura begins to wonder—did she trust the wrong person?
15 years later, Kit and Laura married are living under new names and completely off the digital grid: no Facebook, only rudimentary cell phones, not in any directories. But as the truth catches up to them, they realize they can no longer keep the past in the past.
From Erin Kelly, queen of the killer twist, He Said/She Said is a gripping tale of the lies we tell to save ourselves, the truths we cannot admit, and how far we will go to make others believe our side of the story. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1976
• Where—Essex, England, UK
• Education—B.A. Warwick University
• Currently—London, England
Erin Kelly is a bestselling British author living in London, England. Born in 1976, she grew up in Essex and studied English at Warwick University. After graduation, she worked as a journalist and continues to freelance, writing over the years for The Daily Mail, Psychologies, Red, and Look, as well as for Elle, Marie Claire, and Glamour.
Her first novel The Poison Tree (2009) became a major ITV drama and Richard & Judy bestseller; it was also longlisted for the 2011 CWA John Creasy Award. She followed that initial success with The Sick Rose (2011), The Burning Air (2013) and The Ties That Bind (2014) — all of which attained wide acclaim and were translated into 19 languages. In 2014, Kelly wrote the novelization of the award-winning TV series, Broadchurch. (Sadly, she never met the series star David Tennant.)
Kelly also teaches writing. Since 2014 she has been a course tutor for Curtis Brown Creative, where four of her students have gone on to achieve six-figure book deals and others have found agents. She regularly runs courses for Guardian Masterclasses and Swanwick Writers School; she also gives lectures and runs workshops at literary festivals throughout the UK.
Kelly lives in north London with her husband and daughters. (Adapted from various online sources.)
Book Reviews
Thriller of the Month. Creepy, tangled and disturbing. Erin Kelly’s new thriller will keep you guessing to the end. [She] is on fine form here.… [A] master at drip-feeding us the details, keeping us guessing about the truth, and the many shades of grey it contains, right until the end
Guardian (UK)
Erin Kelly is supremely skilled at unusual and intelligent suspense plots, and this one has to be my favourite so far.
Daily Mail (UK)
There’s so much to love here — seamless plotting, descriptive prose, characters so real they pull you in to their tangled lives — and then an absolute humdinger of a twist that will take your breath away.
Sunday Mirror (UK)
Erin Kelly has a pleasantly crisp style and expertly hides the "unreliable twist."
Raleigh News and Observer
He Said/She Said is a thriller to savor, and should be one of the highlights of the summer.
Associated Press
The shockertwist is a jaw-dropper.
Good Housekeeping
Kelly brings readers a truly intriguing thriller, with dark twists and moments that truly mess with the psyche. He Said/She Said will keep you poised at the edge of your seat as you try to predict what will happen next — even though it's impossible to do so. The characters are poignantly flawed, with deep emotions and complex backgrounds. The writing is at points tense and truly nerve-wracking, but the payoff is worth every moment of uncertainty the novel brings.
Romance Times
This riveting psychological thriller from British author Kelly explores the extremes to which people will go to conceal a lie.… [R]eaders will be rewarded with airtight plotting, mounting tension, and shocking twists.… [T]his is an affecting tale of infatuation, desperation, and betrayal.
Publishers Weekly
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Library Journal
(Starred review.) Kelly delivers another tale full of lies, obsessions, and richly drawn characters.This is a sure bet for readers who like their psychological suspense heavy on character and full of twists.
Booklist
(Starred review.) This first-rate psychological thriller and deft exploration of the delicate dance of marriage and the secrets people keep works on multiple levels, and the passages about the early days of Laura and Kit’s relationship—filled with the gossamer promise of new love—make what's in store for them even more harrowing. A stunning conclusion will take more than a few days to fade from memory.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher. In the meantime, use our generic mystery questions.)
GENERIC DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Mystery / Crime / Suspense Thrillers
1. Talk about the characters, both good and bad. Describe their personalities and motivations. Are they fully developed and emotionally complex? Or are they flat, one-dimensional heroes and villains?
2. What do you know...and when do you know it? At what point in the book do you begin to piece together what happened?
3. Good crime writers embed hidden clues in plain sight, slipping them in casually, almost in passing. Did you pick them out, or were you...clueless? Once you've finished the book, go back to locate the clues hidden in plain sight. How skillful was the author in burying them?
4. Good crime writers also tease us with red-herrings—false clues—to purposely lead readers astray? Does your author try to throw you off track? If so, were you tripped up?
5. Talk about the twists & turns—those surprising plot developments that throw everything you think you've figured out into disarray.
- Do they enhance the story, add complexity, and build suspense?
- Are they plausible or implausible?
- Do they feel forced and gratuitous—inserted merely to extend the story?
6. Does the author ratchet up the suspense? Did you find yourself anxious—quickly turning pages to learn what happened? A what point does the suspense start to build? Where does it climax...then perhaps start rising again?
7. A good ending is essential in any mystery or crime thriller: it should ease up on tension, answer questions, and tidy up loose ends. Does the ending accomplish those goals?
- Is the conclusion probable or believable?
- Is it organic, growing out of clues previously laid out by the author (see Question 3)?
- Or does the ending come out of the blue, feeling forced or tacked-on?
- Perhaps it's too predictable.
- Can you envision a different or better ending?
8. Are there certain passages in the book—ideas, descriptions, or dialogue—that you found interesting or revealing...or that somehow struck you? What lines, if any, made you stop and think?
9. Overall, does the book satisfy? Does it live up to the standards of a good crime story or suspense thriller? Why or why not?
(Generic Mystery Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O
Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland, 2017
HarperCollins
768 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062409164
Summary
A captivating and complex near-future thriller combining history, science, magic, mystery, intrigue, and adventure that questions the very foundations of the modern world.
When Melisande Stokes, an expert in linguistics and languages, accidently meets military intelligence operator Tristan Lyons in a hallway at Harvard University, it is the beginning of a chain of events that will alter their lives and human history itself.
The young man from a shadowy government entity approaches Mel, a low-level faculty member, with an incredible offer. The only condition: she must sign a nondisclosure agreement in return for the rather large sum of money.
Tristan needs Mel to translate some very old documents, which, if authentic, are earth-shattering. They prove that magic actually existed and was practiced for centuries. But the arrival of the scientific revolution and the Age of Enlightenment weakened its power and endangered its practitioners.
Magic stopped working altogether in 1851, at the time of the Great Exhibition at London’s Crystal Palace — the world’s fair celebrating the rise of industrial technology and commerce. Something about the modern world "jams" the "frequencies" used by magic, and it’s up to Tristan to find out why.
And so the Department of Diachronic Operations — D.O.D.O.— gets cracking on its real mission: to develop a device that can bring magic back, and send Diachronic Operatives back in time to keep it alive … and meddle with a little history at the same time. But while Tristan and his expanding operation master the science and build the technology, they overlook the mercurial — and treacherous — nature of the human heart.
Written with the genius, complexity, and innovation that characterize all of Neal Stephenson’s work and steeped with the down-to-earth warmth and humor of Nicole Galland’s storytelling style, this exciting and vividly realized work of science fiction will make you believe in the impossible, and take you to places — and times — beyond imagining. (From the publisher.)
Author Bios
Neal Stephenson
• Birth—October 31, 1959
• Raised—Champaign-Urbana, Illinois; Ames, Iowa, USA
• Education—B.A., Boston University
• Awards—2 Prometheus Hall of Fame Awards
• Currently—lives in Seattle, Washington
Neal Town Stephenson is an American writer and game designer known for his works of science fiction, historical fiction, cyber- and postcyber-punk.
Stephenson's work explores subjects such as mathematics, cryptography, linguistics, philosophy, and the history of science. He also writes non-fiction articles about technology in publications such as Wired.
Stephenson has worked part-time as an advisor for Blue Origin, a company (funded by Jeff Bezos) developing a manned sub-orbital launch system, and is also a cofounder of Subutai Corporation, whose first offering is the interactive fiction project The Mongoliad. He is currently Magic Leap's Chief Futurist.
Background
Born in Fort Meade, Maryland, Stephenson came from a family of engineers and scientists; his father was a professor of electrical engineering while his paternal grandfather was a physics professor. His mother worked in a biochemistry laboratory, and her father was a biochemistry professor.
Stephenson's family moved to Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, in 1960 and then to Ames, Iowa, in 1966 where he graduated from high school in 1977.
He went on to stydy at Boston University, first specializing in physics, then switching to geography after he found that it would allow him to spend more time on the university mainframe. He graduated in 1981 with a B.A. in geography and a minor in physics.
In 1984, Stephenson published his first novel, The Big U — a satirical take on life at American Megaversity, a vast, bland and alienating research university beset by chaotic riots. His breakthrough novel came in 1992 with Snow Crash, a comic novel in the late cyberpunk or post-cyberpunk tradition. It was was the first of Stephenson's epic science fiction novels.
Successive novels deal with futurism, technology, World War II cryptology, metaphysics, ancient Greek philosophy, and international crime/terrorism (a thriller). He has also writen historical fiction, the Baroque Cycle — a series of eight books set in the 17th and 18th centuries, one of which won the 2005 Prometheus Award.
In May 2010, the Subutai Corporation, of which Stephenson was named chairman, announced the production of an experimental multimedia fiction project called The Mongoliad, which centered around a narrative written by Stephenson and other speculative fiction authors, including Nicole Galland (see below).
In 2012, Stephenson launched a Kickstarter campaign for CLANG, a realistic sword fighting fantasy game. The concept of the game was to use motion control to provide an immersive experience. The campaign's funding goal of $500,000 was reached by the target date of July 9, 2012 on Kickstarter, but the project ran out of money and finally closed down in 2014.
Seveneves, a science fiction novel, came out in 2015, and plans have been announced to adapt it for the screen. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 7/12/2017 .)
Nicole Galland
• Birth—ca. 1965
• Raised—West Tisbury (Martha's Vineyard), Massachusetts, USA
• Education—B.A., Harvard University
• Currently—lives on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts
Nicole Galland is an American novelist, first known for her historical fiction. Then, in 2017 she switched genres to publish a near-future thriller, The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O., with Neal Stephenson. She has also published a contemporary comic novel, Stepdog, and using the pseudonym E.D. de Birmingham, she wrote Book Five of the Mongoloid Cycle. Mongoloid, a historical-epic-fantasy, is a collaborative effort of several speculative writers, including Neal Stephenson (see above.)
Background
Galland was born in New York, but grew up in West Tisbury, Massachusetts, a farming community on the island of Martha's Vineyard, where her maternal family has roots going back to the 18th century. Her mother works as a nurse and her stepfather, a Viet Nam vet, was a Physician’s Assistant at Martha’s Vineyard only hospital.
She studied theater and earned a degree at Harvard in Comparative Religion with a focus in Buddhism. Although she received a full fellowship to pursue a Ph.D. in Drama at the University of California at Berkeley, she withdrew following a violent and bizarre assault at gunpoint. Traumatized by the encounter, she would eventually use it as fodder in her writing.
Moving back and forth between east and west coasts, and a stint on the Mediterranean, Galland spent her 20s and 30s working in theater, teaching, editing and juggling various odd jobs. This included co-founding a teen theater company in California that debuted at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. She once described her eclectic life as existing at the whim of serendipity.
Her screenplay, The Winter Population, won an award in 1998 but has yet to be produced. When her first novel, The Fool’s Tale, was published in 2005, she left her position as Literary Manager/Dramaturge at Berkeley Repertory Theatre to write full-time. While at Berkeley Rep she had written Revenge of the Rose, her second novel, and her third, Crossed: A Tale of the Fourth Crusade, was written over a 2-year period during which she essentially lived out of a backpack.
Having resided in the California Bay Area, Los Angeles and New York City for years, Galland returned to Martha's Vineyard to live full-time. She is married to actor Billy Meleady.
In addition to her novels, Galland has written for Salon.com and several Vineyard-based publications, including the Vineyard Gazette, Martha’s Vineyard Magazine, and Edible Vineyard, of which she is a contributing editor
Galland has been involved in Vineyard theater, working at the Vineyard Playhouse and with ArtFarm Enterprises. She is co-founder, with Chelsea McCarthy, of Shakespeare for the Masses, an off-season series presenting irreverent adaptations Shakespeare’s plays on the Vineyard. And finally, a point of trivia, she appears in the CD-ROM Star Wars: Rebel Assault II as Ina Rece. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 7/12/2017.)
Book Reviews
[T]hough it’s no comic classic, The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. is big, roomy and enjoyable. The historical scenes are refreshingly unembarrassed by their hey-nonny-nonnyisms. The characters are lively, the plot moves along and the whole thing possesses heart and charm. And you don’t need me to tell you whether it tends towards a tragic or comic denouement. You can guess
Adam Roberts - Guardian (UK)
Quantum physics, witchcraft, and multiple groups with conflicting agendas, playfully mixed with vernacular from several centuries and a dizzying number of acronyms, create a fascinating experiment in speculation and metafiction that never loses sight of the human foibles and affections of its cast.
Publishers Weekly
According to the dusty old documents military intelligence operator Tristan Lyons asks linguistics expert Melisande Stokes to translate, magic actually existed until the scientific revolution. The government's Department of Diachronic Operations aims to get it back.
Library Journal
(Starred review.) Immense and immensely entertaining genre-hopping yarn.… Blend time travel with Bourne-worthy skulduggery, throw in lashings of technology and dashes of steampunk.… A departure for both authors and a pleasing combination of much appeal to fans of speculative fiction.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to start a discussion for The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O … then take off on your own:
1. Talk about Triston Lyones and Melisande Stokes. How would you describe them, their skills, personalities, inner strengths and weaknesses, desires, fears?
2. Why does Tristan hire Melisande? What are her skill sets that he believes qualifies her to do the work?
3. What does Melisande come to learn about the manuscripts? What are they in such good shape despite their age?
4. (Follow-up to Question 3) How was magic vanished or at least brought to an end? Where did it go? Explain the role photography played in its demise.
5. Talk about Doctor Frank Oda and his role in all this.
6. How about Erszebet Karpaty? And the Irish witch?
7. Talk about the D.O.D.O. — and the joke that runs for about 150 pages to uncover its full name. Did you find it amusing?
8. (Follow-up to Question 7) How would you describe the growth of D.O.D.O mirror into a bureaucracy: to what extent is the novel a satirical mirror of real life institutions?
9. There is a blizzard of memos back & forth. What were your feelings about them? Funny. Informative? Tiresome? Too many?
10. Were you able to pick up references to Shakespeare or, say, Monty Python? What do you think about the chapter sub-headings written in an 18th or 19th century style?
11. Comment on the conspiratorial machinations of The Fuggers (btw, there really is a Fugger bank dynasty, going back to the 14th century).
12. How did you experience Neal Stephenson's melding of technobabble with magic?
13. (Follow-up to Question 12) What challenges might be presented were time travel a possibility? How does Stephenson describe the technical issues?
14. What does the novel have to say about the human proclivity for foolishness?
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15. Well, what do you think of the book? The ending — satisfying or not?
(Questions issued by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)