The Exiles Return
Elisabeth de Waal, 2014
Picador
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781250045782
Summary
With a foreward by Edmund de Waal, author of The Hare with the Amber Eyes . . . Set in the ashes of post-second World War Vienna, a powerful, subtle novel of exiles returning home fifteen years after fleeing Hitler's deadly reign.
Vienna is demolished by war, the city an alien landscape of ruined castles, a fractured ruling class, and people picking up the pieces. Elisabeth de Waal’s mesmerizing The Exiles Return is a stunningly vivid postwar story of Austria’s fallen aristocrats, unrepentant Nazis, and a culture degraded by violence.
The novel follows a number of exiles, each returning under very different circumstances, who must come to terms with a city in painful recovery. There is Kuno Adler, a Jewish research scientist, who is tired of his unfulfilling existence in America; Theophil Kanakis, a wealthy Greek businessman, seeking to plunder some of the spoils of war; Marie-Theres, a brooding teenager, sent by her parents in hopes that the change of scene will shake her out of her funk; and Prince “Bimbo” Grein, a handsome young man with a title divested of all its social currency.
With immaculate precision and sensitivity, de Waal, an exile herself, captures a city rebuilding and relearning its identity, and the people who have to do the same. De Waal has written a masterpiece of European literature, an artifact revealing a moment in our history, clear as a snapshot, but timeless as well. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1899
• Where—Vienna, Austria
• Death—1991
• Where—England, UK
• Education—Ph.D., University of Vienna
Elisabeth de Waal was born in Vienna in 1899. She studied philosophy, law, and economics at the University of Vienna, and completed her doctorate in 1923. She also wrote poems (often corresponding with Rilke), and was a Rockefeller Foundation fellow at Columbia. She wrote five unpublished novels, two in German and three in English, including The Exiles Return in the late 1950s. She died in 1991. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
The Exiles Return has an immediacy that makes de Waal's readers feel the experiences of its characters in a visceral way....With the publication, after all these years, of The Exiles Return, we are allowed to hear a voice that has not only endured but, by the subtlety and fervor of its free expression, triumphed.
Andrew Ervin - New York Times Book Review
Elisabeth de Waal has assembled an unusual tableau—evocative and altogether memorable.... Here’s hoping that The Exiles Return will now find the American audience that it deserves.
Erika Dreifus - Washington Post
There is a distinctly fin de siècle feel to Elisabeth de Waal's rediscovered novel about Viennese exiles, banished by war, streaming back to their native city in the mid-1950s. The Exiles Return captures the atmosphere of post-World War II Vienna, with its crumbling buildings, decaying aristocracy, mercantile fervor and ideological denial. But its restrained prose style and preoccupation with the gap between public morality and private behavior evoke even more strongly the novels of Henry James, Thomas Hardy, Gustave Flaubert, Leo Tolstoy and other 19th-century masters.... The Exiles Return is both an oddity and the bittersweet legacy of a gifted writer, melding the narrative pleasures of fiction with a vivid historical snapshot.
Chicago Tribune
The Exiles Return is, in a sense, a reverie about what it meant to return to postwar Vienna; a dream turned nightmare of a family wanting to recoup its wartime losses….The Exiles Return, a novel of five exiles returning home after fleeing Hitler, is a masterpiece of European literature.
Buffalo News
[The Exiles Return] succeeds magnificiently on its own uncompromising terms...And in holding up a uniquely wrought mirror to [de Waal's] Vienna.
San Francisco Chronicle
Until Edmund de Waal, Elisabeth de Waal’s grandson, inherited “the yellowing typescript” of this historical novel, written in the 1950s, it languished and was untitled and unpublished in her lifetime. The setting is postwar Vienna.... While the novel’s prose is by turns lyrical and melancholy, and there’s much to be admired in this elegy to loss and return, the novel’s dramatic impact is ultimately thwarted by an operatic ending that betrays its age.
Publishers Weekly
Exile Kuno Adler, a fiftyish research pathologist now living in New York, decides to...return to his native Austria.... His homecoming coincides with that of two others.... Three stories eventually come together in a sensational conclusion.... This elegant novel should appeal to readers who admire the European stylishness of war-era books such as...Suite Francaise and ...Sarah's Key. —Barbara Love, Kingston Frontenac P.L., Ont.
Library Journal
[An] incisive, and tragic tale of bombarded and morally decimated postwar Vienna....De Waal's acid, eyewitness drama of malignant prejudice, innocence betrayed, the disintegration of the old order, and love transcendent has the same jolting immediacy as the novels of Irene Nemirovsky as well as deeply archetypal dimensions.
Booklist
An elegant, unpublished novel…This novel reveals [de Waal’s] intelligence and articulateness as it evokes 1950s Vienna, haunted by the ghosts of its distant and more recent pasts…. Restrained yet incisive, this finely observed novel lacks a resounding conclusion but nevertheless offers European mood music of a particular and beguiling resonance.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. The story behind the book is its own tale of exile: The author fled Vienna for England in 1939, wrote the manuscript there ten years later, and kept it hidden in her archives until they passed on to her grandson, who saw the book published. "My grandmother had spent her life in transit," Edmund de Waal writes in the foreword. Could you sense this perspective in the story? Did it feel written as a simple chronicling of the exile life, a yearning for her own return to Vienna, as catharsis?
2. Dr. Krieger hides his Nazi history at first, and when he finally reveals it, justifies it with his exoneration—"I was acquitted and vindicated," he says—as if a successful trial could change past events. How does the novel suggest we approach the past? Do our own personal histories exist as irreducible facts, or are they their own stories, which we can edit, retell, hide, or erase entirely?
3. Kanakis returns to Vienna to buy an eighteenth-century villa—his "dream house," a "hotel particulier." Is he trying to relive the past, or preserve it, by owning it? Is that possible?
4. What is Vienna itself like, as a character? Is its identity constructed more by old historic families like Nina's in her palace, or by the newest arrivals, the "Czech and Pole and Croat, Magyar and Italian, and Jew of course" who, Kanakis says, "enrich this German city, which through them became unique and truly imperial."
5. Adler says in the book's opening chapter that, despite his wife's disapproval, "the urge to go had been irresistible." As he explains to Dr. Krieger, "I came home. I am an Austrian. I belong here." Is Adler's return as simple as that, or are there deeper reasons for it? Why do you think he came back? Would you?
6. How does returning from exile change the characters? Do they become more themselves—reclaim some missing piece of their identity lost when they fled—or do they become different people entirely?
7. What does the novel tell us about free will and destiny? It opens with Adler, on a train returning to Vienna, conflicted about his own freedom—feeling on the one hand like "an automaton, like a piece of machinery" and on the other, rationalizing with himself that "he could, of course, have got out in Zurich," that he "still was a free agent." Are the novel's characters driven by forces beyond their control, or are they masters of their own future? Are some characters more free than others?
8. Adler is disgusted by the sin of his wife's fashion business, and by the aesthetic hedonism of Kanakis; Nina is depressed by her appearance, saying "all men are alike, a fair face was what attracted them" while she herself wants to "penetrate the mask" of Adler's looks. What does these characters find immoral about superficiality?
9. Can a place exist both as our memories of it, and as something real? Which is more potent—its present reality or what we remember it to be? "Strange how these early memories persist and remain untouched by later experience," Adler thinks. Can we keep the past separate from the present?
10. Do you agree that where one comes from is an inescapable part of one's identity, that, as Kanakis's father told him, "being Viennese...was something which you cannot lose." Or can we choose and construct our identities independently of our birthplace? Or is it some combination of the two?
11. Adler's loneliness upon returning to Vienna "was of a different kind from the loneliness he had experienced in exile." How so?
12. What does the author mean when she calls Austria a "God-created, man-cultivated, man-cared-for country?"
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
The Consequences
Colette Freedman, 2014
Kensington Publishing
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780758281029
Summary
The end of an affair may be only the beginning. . .
Over the course of one tumultuous Christmas Eve, Kathy Walker confirmed her suspicions about her husband's affair, confronted his mistress, Stephanie, and saved her marriage. She and Robert have eighteen years, two teenagers, and a film production business between them—plus a bond that Kathy has no intention of giving up on. Yet though Robert is contrite, Kathy can't quite silence her doubts.
While Robert reels from his wife's ultimatum and his mistress's rejection, Stephanie makes a discovery: she's pregnant. Her resolve to stay away from Robert wavers now that they could make a real family together.
In the days that follow, Stephanie, Robert, and Kathy must each reckon with the intricate realities of desire, the repercussions of betrayal, and the secrets that, once revealed, ripple through lives and relationships in thoroughly unexpected ways. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Colette Freedman is the author of The Affair (2013) and The Consequences (2014). She is also an internationally produced playwright with over 15 produced plays, including Sister Cities, which was the hit of the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe. She has co written, with international bestselling novelist Jackie Collins, the play Jackie Collins Hollywood Lies. In collaboration with the author Michael Scott, she has co-written the thriller The Thirteen Hallows. (Adapted from the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Freedman's new novel picks up where her previous [The Affair, 2013] left off: Now that the wife has confronted the mistress, can a marriage survive?... Although dissecting an affair in a split narrative can be illuminating..., Freedman too often repeats scenes, offers clunky comparisons...and lacks new insights into the world of extramarital affairs to make the narrative experiment worthwhile. Familiar ground that's been done better before.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Stephanie asks herself, “What attracted a thirty-three-year-old, single, unattached, attractive woman, with her own mortgage and car, to a man with the ultimate baggage: a wife, two teens, and a struggling business?” Why do you think she’s attracted to a man with so many complications? Have you ever been in her position? What does she see in Robert that makes him so attractive to her?
2. Stephanie says, “All men lie. But let’s be honest, we wouldn’t want them to tell us the truth about everything, would we?” She similarly believes that all women lie as well. When is it okay to lie to a spouse or partner? Have you ever lied to your spouse? Can a lie be justified?
3. As technology changes, so too does the nature of an affair and, indeed, all relationships. Stephanie checks her e-mail and finds an urgent message from Robert. She also gets an instant message from him. How do you think technology has played a role in affairs? Are relationships stronger or weaker now because we are almost always connected?
4. Stephanie’s father advises her that “love is the only thing worth fighting for.” Is love always worth fighting for—even if it’s with the wrong person?
5. Are you surprised by Stephanie’s coldness when she learns about Jimmy’s death? Does it make her a bad friend that she did not immediately console Robert? How would you react if your lover’s best friend had just died?
6. Should Stephanie tell Robert she is pregnant with his child or should she keep that information to herself? Why?
7. Maureen tells Robert that it is time for him to choose between Stephanie and Kathy. Yet, do you think the choice is still his to make? Is it really now the women who are making the decisions in this situation?
8. When Kathy confronts Robert, she accepts some responsibility for what happened. How culpable do you feel Kathy was? Can you fault her for his affair?
9. Robert worries that Kathy will spy on him for the rest of their relationship. When trust is broken, how long do you feel it takes for that trust to be rebuilt? Indeed, is it ever possible for trust to be rebuilt? Could you trust your partner if he or she had betrayed you by having an affair?
10. Kathy wonders if a man and a woman can have a purely platonic relationship. Do you think it’s possible? Do you know any male-female friendships that are completely devoid of sexual tension?
11. Kathy’s sister Julia immediately rushes to judgment over their sister Sheila’s affair. Have you ever jumped to a conclusion about a relationship before hearing both sides of the story?
12. When the truth about an affair comes out, women usually side with women and men with men. Have you ever stuck with a friend even though you knew he or she was behaving in an inappropriate manner?
13. Sheila says, “In an affair, there are no blacks and whites, only shades of gray.” But is that true? Or is an affair always black and white and simply wrong? Where are the shades of gray in Robert’s affair?
14. Robert and Kathy’s children are present throughout the book and are a major factor in both Kathy’s and Robert’s thoughts. We never get to see their side of the story. How perceptive would teenage children be to a situation like this unfolding around them? Whose side do you think they would take?
15. Until Kathy discovers Robert’s ultimate betrayal of lies, she still has hope that they can rebuild their relationship. Can you understand her actions and is she right to fight for Robert even after the betrayal of the affair? Do you agree with her?
16. At the end of the book, the two women discuss going into business together. Given that they are very alike in many ways (Stephanie has acknowledged that she is a younger version of Kathy), do you think the women would be good business partners?
17. Statistically, men often have affairs with women who look like a younger version of their present partners. Women never have affairs with men who look like their partners. Why is this, and what does this tell us about the sexes?
18. Where do you think Robert will be in a year’s time? He is about to lose his wife and family, his home, and probably his business. Can he start again or will he end up like Jimmy Moran?
19. All affairs begin in the mind. But at what point does an affair begin? Is it with flirtation, a kiss that is more than a peck on the cheek, sexual texting or salacious e-mails? Or does the affair really begin the moment the couple end up in bed together?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
My Name Is Mary Sutter
Robin Oliveira, 2010
Penguin Group (USA)
384 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780143119135
Summary
An enthralling historical novel about a young woman's struggle to become a doctor during the Civil War
In this stunning first novel, Mary Sutter is a brilliant, headstrong midwife from Albany, New York, who dreams of becoming a surgeon. Determined to overcome the prejudices against women in medicine-and eager to run away from her recent heartbreak- Mary leaves home and travels to Washington, D.C. to help tend the legions of Civil War wounded. Under the guidance of William Stipp and James Blevens-two surgeons who fall unwittingly in love with Mary's courage, will, and stubbornness in the face of suffering-and resisting her mother's pleas to return home to help with the birth of her twin sister's baby, Mary pursues her medical career in the desperately overwhelmed hospitals of the capital.
Like Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain and Robert Hicks's The Widow of the South, My Name Is Mary Sutter powerfully evokes the atmosphere of the period. Rich with historical detail (including marvelous depictions of Lincoln, Dorothea Dix, General McClellan, and John Hay among others), and full of the tragedies and challenges of wartime, My Name Is Mary Sutter is an exceptional novel.
And in Mary herself, Robin Oliveira has created a truly unforgettable heroine whose unwavering determination and vulnerability will resonate with readers everywhere. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1954
• Raised—Loudonville, New York, USA
• Education—B.A., Universityof Montana; M.F.A., Vermont College
• Awards—Michael Shaara Prize; James Jones First Novel Award
• Currently—lives outside Seattle, Washington
Robin Oliveira is an American author, former literary editor, and nurse, who is known for her 2010 debut novel, My Name is Mary Sutter. Her second novel is I Always Loved You was issued in 2014.
Background
Robin Frazier Oliveira was born in Albany, New York, in 1954 and grew up in nearby Loudonville, graduating from Shaker High School. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Russian from the University of Montana in 1976, and continued her study at the Pushkin House Institute of Russian Literature in Moscow. After finding this wasn't a viable career path, she studied nursing, earning a living as registered nurse specializing in critical care and bone marrow transplant, in Seattle.
Writing
Oliveira worked in nursing until the birth of her children, when she left work to stay home with them, but when her youngest son entered kindergarten, she decided to try to write a book instead of returning. She went back to school to earn a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2006. She served as assistant editor at Narrative Magazine and from 2007 through 2011 as fiction editor for the annual literary magazine Upstreet.
In 2002 Oliveira began writing the novel that became My Name is Mary Sutter. It tells the story of an Albany midwife trying to become a surgeon during the American Civil War. At first, Oliveira admits, the writing wasn't very good, and her writing teacher doubted it could succeed. Rewriting took years, including traveling to Washington D.C. for extensive research at the National Archives and the Library of Congress. In 2007, while still in progress, it won the James Jones First Novel Award under the working title The Last Beautiful Day.
My Name is Mary Sutter was finally published in 2010. It was widely reviewed, mostly favorably, with reviewers commenting on the detailed research and the determined heroine. It won an honorable mention for the 2010 Langum Prize for American Historical Fiction and won the 2011 Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction.
Her 2013 novel, I Always Loved You imagines a love affair between Mary Cassat and Edgar Degas. Kikus Reviews cited the "accomplished" research, which will enable readers to "gain a better understanding of impressionism."
Personal
Oliveira lives just outside Seattle, Washington, with her husband Andrew. They have a daughter, Noelle, and a son, Miles. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 2/19/2014.)
Book Reviews
The Civil War offers a 20-year-old midwife, who dreams of becoming a doctor, the medical experience she craves...in this rich debut that takes readers from a small upstate New York doctor's office to a Union hospital overflowing with the wounded and dying.... The focus on often horrific medicine and the women who practiced it against all odds makes for compelling reading.
Publishers Weekly
Despite her skill as a midwife, Mary Sutter cannot overcome the obstacle that bars her from further medical training: her gender. The Civil War changes everything. After her brother enlists in the Union Army, Mary follows him from Albany to Washington, DC, to volunteer as a nurse.... This well-written and compelling debut will engage all readers of historical fiction, especially those interested in the Civil War. —Kathy Piehl, Minnestoa State Univ. Lib., Mankato
Library Journal
Oliveira’s graceful, assured portrayal of a courageous woman shines through in her outstanding debut novel. Mary Sutter’s expert midwifery skills are renowned throughout Albany, New York, in 1861, yet she yearns for more.... Oliveira has a firm grasp on the finer details of the era and lets readers form their own judgments about the painful decisions made by her appealingly vulnerable characters. [An] impressive historical epic. —Sarah Johnson
Booklist
Discussion Questions
1. The end of My Name Is Mary Sutter is both satisfying and surprising. What was your response to the conclusion of each character's story?
2. Women's rights have greatly expanded since Mary's time, but do you believe that women are still limited by prejudice as to what they can or should do professionally? Do you believe men and women should have different roles or responsibilities within society?
3. Beyond Mary, which character did you find the most interesting? Why? Which character did you find the least interesting?
4. Blevens explains that he cannot accept Mary as an apprentice because of the Civil War. Do you believe he would have taken her on had the the war not begun? Why?
5. As a woman and midwife, Mary has a particular kind of medical knowledge; Blevens and Stipp have another. What are the values and limitations of each? How does Mary eventually blend the two?
6. Describe Mary and Jenny's relationship. What type of tensions exist? Consider the relationship from both women's perspectives.
7. "From labor to death, she thought, despite every moment at the breast, every reprimand, every tender tousle of hair, every fever fought, every night spent worrying, it came to this: you couldn't protect your children from anything, not even from each other" (p. 43). Do you believe Amelia is right? What experiences from your own life make you feel this way?
8. How is Dr. Blevens affected by his experiences during the Civil War?
9. From Jake to Thomas to William Stipp, there is a wide range of male characters in the novel. What type of masculinity does each demonstrate?
10. Have you ever struggled with the same kind of professional or personal obstacles that Mary does? How did you handle it? What did you learn from the experience?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
I Always Loved You
Robin Oliveira, 2014
Viking Adult
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780670785797
Summary
A novel of Mary Cassatt and Edgar Degas’s great romance.
The young Mary Cassatt never thought moving to Paris after the Civil War to be an artist was going to be easy, but when, after a decade of work, her submission to the Paris Salon is rejected, Mary’s fierce determination wavers.
Her father is begging her to return to Philadelphia to find a husband before it is too late, her sister Lydia is falling mysteriously ill, and worse, Mary is beginning to doubt herself. Then one evening a friend introduces her to Edgar Degas and her life changes forever. Years later she will learn that he had begged for the introduction, but in that moment their meeting seems a miracle. So begins the defining period of her life and the most tempestuous of relationships.
In I Always Loved You, Robin Oliveira brilliantly re-creates the irresistible world of Belle Epoque Paris, writing with grace and uncommon insight into the passion and foibles of the human heart. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1954
• Raised—Loudonville, New York, USA
• Education—B.A., Universityof Montana; M.F.A., Vermont College
• Awards—Michael Shaara Prize; James Jones First Novel Award
• Currently—lives outside Seattle, Washington
Robin Oliveira is an American author, former literary editor, and nurse, who is known for her 2010 debut novel, My Name is Mary Sutter. Her second novel is I Always Loved You was issued in 2014.
Background
Robin Frazier Oliveira was born in Albany, New York, in 1954 and grew up in nearby Loudonville, graduating from Shaker High School. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Russian from the University of Montana in 1976, and continued her study at the Pushkin House Institute of Russian Literature in Moscow. After finding this wasn't a viable career path, she studied nursing, earning a living as registered nurse specializing in critical care and bone marrow transplant, in Seattle.
Writing
Oliveira worked in nursing until the birth of her children, when she left work to stay home with them, but when her youngest son entered kindergarten, she decided to try to write a book instead of returning. She went back to school to earn a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2006. She served as assistant editor at Narrative Magazine and from 2007 through 2011 as fiction editor for the annual literary magazine Upstreet.
In 2002 Oliveira began writing the novel that became My Name is Mary Sutter. It tells the story of an Albany midwife trying to become a surgeon during the American Civil War. At first, Oliveira admits, the writing wasn't very good, and her writing teacher doubted it could succeed. Rewriting took years, including traveling to Washington D.C. for extensive research at the National Archives and the Library of Congress. In 2007, while still in progress, it won the James Jones First Novel Award under the working title The Last Beautiful Day.
My Name is Mary Sutter was finally published in 2010. It was widely reviewed, mostly favorably, with reviewers commenting on the detailed research and the determined heroine. It won an honorable mention for the 2010 Langum Prize for American Historical Fiction and won the 2011 Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction.
Her 2013 novel, I Always Loved You imagines a love affair between Mary Cassat and Edgar Degas. Kikus Reviews cited the "accomplished" research, which will enable readers to "gain a better understanding of impressionism."
Personal
Oliveira lives just outside Seattle, Washington, with her husband Andrew. They have a daughter, Noelle, and a son, Miles. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 2/19/2014.)
Book Reviews
American painter Mary Cassatt has just moved to the City of Light....[where] a chance meeting with Edgar Degas...changes the course of her career and life. Though it’s never been proven that the two painters were lovers, Oliveira explores the next 40 turbulent years of their relationship, and what might have been, crafting a tale of inspiration, desire.
Publishers Weekly
Oliveira has woven a rich tapestry of the artist's life in Belle Epoque Paris, in a close, intimate rendering rather than a grand, sweeping landscape. Readers who enjoy historical fiction set in this time period will enjoy the novel, as will those who like fictionalized accounts of historical figures. —Pam O'Sullivan, Coll. at Brockport Lib., SUNY
Library Journal
Oliveira draws from research and imagination.... The book is accomplished and well-researched, but the relationship between Cassatt and Degas isn't as engaging as the secondary story: the love affair between Morisot and Manet. Readers may come away with little understanding of what made Cassatt and Degas click; nevertheless, they'll gain a better understanding of impressionism.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. In Robin Oliveira's novel, it's clear that Mary Cassatt and Edward Degas genuinely loved each other. Might they have found happiness in marriage? Would their art have been diminished or elevated by the relationship?
2. It seems extraordinary that one organization, the Ecole des Beaux Arts, once held such power in determining what was considered "good" art. Yet in our own era, an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art will attract more reviews and attendees than any show in an independent gallery. Does this kind of official validation ultimately have a positive or negative effect on art, literature, music, and other creative commodities?
3. After she meets Degas, Cassatt thinks, "People were always asking artists that inane question. Don't ask me how I do what I do.... But hadn't she asked Degas the same thing in his studio?" (p. 112) Why are we drawn to understand other people's creative processes?
4. Mary Cassatt's father, Robert, is indifferent to the needs of anyone beside himself. To what extent did his attitude toward the women in his family influence Mary's attitudes toward marriage and her relationship with Degas?
5. While Mary Cassatt is still struggling to make her name, her father asks her, "What is the purpose of any endeavor if not to make money? And how does an artist tell whether or not he is successful?" (p. 130) How would you answer his questions?
6. As depicted in Oliveira's novel, many legendary artists—not to mention the writers Emile Zola and Stephane Mallarme—were part of the same circle. How did their association help them achieve success? Do you think all of them would have achieved fame independently?
7. Degas treated his "rat," Marie, quite cruelly while she modeled for his wax sculpture of a ballet dancer. Does great art justify the collateral damage of its creation?
8. The novel intimates that Edouard Manet married his father's mistress and that Berthe Morisot married Edouard's brother, Eugene. Do you empathize with their decisions?
9. So many of Cassatt's later paintings capture the love between mother and child. Yet she herself was childless. Do you think she could really understand this particular form of love? Why or why not? If you were a woman living in an era when childbirth put your health-and often your life-at risk, do you think you would have been willing to take that chance?
10. Manet died at the height of his powers, whereas Degas lived for years unable to create. In your opinion, which artist suffered the worse fate?
11.To whom does the novel' s title I Always Loved You refer?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
The Secret of Raven Point
Jennifer Vanderbes, 2014
Scribner
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781439167007
Summary
A powerful story of love, loss, and redemption amid the ruins of war-torn Italy.
1943: When seventeen-year-old Juliet Dufresne receives a cryptic letter from her enlisted brother and then discovers that he’s been reported missing in action, she lies about her age and travels to the front lines as an army nurse, determined to find him. Shy and awkward, Juliet is thrust into the bloody chaos of a field hospital, a sprawling encampment north of Rome where she forges new friendships and is increasingly consumed by the plight of her patients. One in particular, Christopher Barnaby, a deserter awaiting court-martial, may hold the answer to her brother’s whereabouts—but the trauma of war has left him catatonic.
Racing against the clock, Juliet works with an enigmatic young psychiatrist, Dr. Henry Willard, to break Barnaby’s silence before the authorities take him away. Plunged into the horrifying depths of one man’s memories of combat, Juliet and Willard are forced to plumb the moral nuances of a so-called just war and to face the dangers of their own deepening emotional connection.
In luminous prose, Vanderbes tells the story of one girl’s fierce determination to find her brother as she comes of age in a time of unrelenting violence. Haunting, heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting, The Secret of Raven Point is an unforgettable war saga that captures the experiences of soldiers long after the battles have ended. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1974
• Where—New York City, New York, USA
• Education—B.A., Yale University; M.F.A., Iowa Writers' Workshop
• Awards—numerous fellowships (see below)
• Currently—lives in New York City
Jennifer Vanderbes was born and raised in New York City and received her B.A. in English Literature from Yale University and her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the Iowa Writers' Workshop.
Her first published story, "The Hatbox", was selected by Tobias Wolff for inclusion in Best New American Voices 2000 and was hailed as "outstanding" by Publisher's Weekly: "The piece exhibits relaxed, old-fashioned storytelling reminiscent of W. Somerset Maugham."
Novels
Her first novel, Easter Island, was named a "best book of 2003" by the Washington Post and Christian Science Monitor and was translated into sixteen languages.
Her second novel, Strangers at the Feast (2010), was described by Library Journal as "an absorbing and suspenseful story about the dynamics of family, generational misunderstandings, and the desperate ways one copes with both the arbitrariness of fate and the consequences of one's choices."
Her third novel, The Secret of Raven Point (2014), received a starred review in Library Journal, which said, "Readers will fall in love with the delightful Juliet, who is a smart and courageous heroine....the only disappointing thing about this book is that it has to end."
Other writings
Her essays and reviews have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and The Atlantic, and her short fiction has appeared in Granta.
Her first play, Primating, about primatologists on a chimp reserve in Africa, was recently optioned by Jeffrey Richards Associates, the producers of August: Osage County and The Glass Menagerie.
She has taught creative writing at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Columbia University, the University of Tampa and the Colgate Writers' Conference.
Fellowships
Her awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Fellowship at the New York Public Library, a Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing Fellowship, a Colgate University Creative Writing Fellowship, and a Truman Capote Fellowship. (Adapted from Wikipedia and the author's website. Retrieved 2/18/2014.)
Book Reviews
In 1943...Juliet Dufresne signs up to be an Army nurse,....surpris[ing] herself with her capacity for growth and for maintaining her own integrity against seemingly insurmountable odds. The book does not shy away from the grotesque details of battle or the horrible decisions that ordinary people must make when faced with war’s extraordinary demands.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) Readers will fall in love with the delightful Juliet, who is a smart and courageous heroine, and other hospital workers as they form friendships and struggle to accept tragedy and loss while treating their patients' physical and mental wounds.... [T]he only disappointing thing about this book is that it has to end. —Vicki Briner, City Coll. Lib., Fort Lauderdale, FL
Library Journal
Vanderbes graphically depicts the gruesome nature of battlefield injuries, both to the body and to the psyche, even as she shows Juliet’s courage and strength. The skillful Vanderbes’ aching depiction of Juliet’s struggle to maintain her humanity amid the army’s callous bureaucracy and the horrors of war works as both an homage to our armed forces and a moving personal story of emotional growth.
Booklist
When her beloved brother is declared missing in action, smart, flinty Juliet Dufresne, training to be a nurse, goes to Italy to find him, in an empathetic, oblique take on the layers of damage done during war. Part mystery, part coming-of-age tale, part World War II novel...[w]hat begins as formulaic turns unusual and affecting as the emotional depths of Vanderbes' story slowly emerge.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. In the beginning of the novel, Juliet’s identity is largely determined by her relationship to her brother and what it means to be “Tuck’s little sister.” How does Juliet’s sense of self change throughout the novel?
2. How was Juliet affected by her mother’s death and growing up without a female role model? How does Juliet find other female role models later in life? How does it affect her relationships with men? How does Juliet find other female role models later in life?
3. Which character did you find the most compelling? Which character did you empathize with the most? Why?
4. Consider Juliet’s role as a nurse at the front in Italy. How does she mature throughout her time in Italy? How does she show her bravery? Does her personal desire to get information from Barnaby in any way undermine her role as his nurse?
5. How do the nurses and doctors at the front cope when they’re confronted with death and the fragility of life on a daily basis? How does this affect the way they perceive the value of human life? Consider this passage from page 49: “Skin and ligaments held it all together, the entirety of the mass of flesh she called herself. But no bone of hers looked much different from someone else’s bone; her femur would roughly mirror the femur of any soldier on the operating table; none of the flesh she’d seen in the hospitals—the torn muscles, the exposed stomachs, the broken ribs—had anything to do with the people it belonged to. The same delicate pieces made up everyone, and if the wrong pieces or too many pieces broke, the whole person ceased to exist. Juliet had witnessed this daily for months, and yet the strangeness of it never subsided.”
6. How did you react to Barnaby’s stories during his sessions with Dr. Willard? How did these stories of being bullied by Captain Brilling and the other soldiers paint a picture of life at the front?
7. In what way does the novel’s depiction of World War II support or undermine your previous understanding of that war? Consider the story Dr. Willard tells about the Goumier soldiers after the battle of Monte Cassino. Is the battle fatigue Dr. Willard is treating similar to what soldiers experience in today’s conflicts?
8. Consider what Juliet’s relationships with Beau, Dr. Willard, and even Brother Reardon reveal about her femininity and sexuality. Think about the contrast between Glenda’s social life at the field hospital and Juliet’s.
9. How does each of the characters deal with death and dying? How does Juliet come to terms with the thought that Tucker is dead? Consider this excerpt as Juliet discovers a corpse in the woods near the lake on their leave from the hospital: “The pain of death had always frightened Juliet, but she saw now that solitude wrought the greater horror. Had Tuck been left somewhere, abandoned?” (p. 133)
10. After Mother Hen’s death, Juliet discovers that Dr. Willard is not as stalwart in his beliefs as she thought he was. Why do Dr. Willard and the others work to heal men who may return to the front and die? Why did Mother Hen try to save a man that was already dying? How does this form Juliet’s concept of justice? In the end, is Juliet more frightened of death or an unjust world?
11. Brother Reardon has the courage to do what Dr. Willard and Juliet could not when he runs off with Barnaby. How does this moment provide each of the characters with an opportunity to redeem themselves?
12. Juliet is surprised to see Liberata again, her spirit reduced, her brother lost. Why is Juliet upset that Liberata no longer pleads for her help? What did the other characters lose in the war? What do they find?
13. How did you react to the letter that Juliet receives from Barnaby? Why do you think he decided to write to her? Should it affect Juliet’s memory of her brother?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)