Fin & Lady
Cathleen Schine, 2013
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781250050052
Summary
From the author of The Three Weissmanns of Westport, a wise, clever story of New York in the ’60s
It’s 1964. Eleven-year-old Fin and his glamorous, worldly, older half sister, Lady, have just been orphaned, and Lady, whom Fin hasn’t seen in six years, is now his legal guardian and his only hope. That means Fin is uprooted from a small dairy farm in rural Connecticut to Greenwich Village, smack in the middle of the swinging ’60s. He soon learns that Lady—giddy, careless, urgent, and obsessed with being free—is as much his responsibility as he is hers.
So begins Fin & Lady, the lively, spirited new novel by Cathleen Schine, the author of the bestselling The Three Weissmanns of Westport. Fin and Lady lead their lives against the background of the ’60s, the civil rights movement, and the Vietnam War—Lady pursued by ardent, dogged suitors, Fin determined to protect his impulsive sister from them and from herself.
From a writer The New York Times has praised as “sparkling, crisp, clever, deft, hilarious, and deeply affecting,” Fin & Lady is a comic, romantic love story: the story of a brother and sister who must form their own unconventional family in increasingly unconventional times. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1953
• Where—Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA
• Education—B.A., Barnard College
• Currently—lives in New York City and Venice, California
In her own words:
I tried to be a medieval historian, but I have no memory for facts, dates, or abstract ideas, so that was a bust. When I came back to New York, I tried to be a buyer at Bloomingdale's because I loved shopping. I had an interview, but they never called me back. I really had no choice. I had to be a writer. I could not get a job.
After doing some bits of freelance journalism at the Village Voice, I did finally get a job as a copy editor at Newsweek. My grammar was good, but I can't spell, so it was a challenge. My boss was very nice and indulgent, though, and I wrote Alice in Bed on scraps of paper during slow hours. I didn't have a regular job again until I wrote The Love Letter.
The Love Letter was about a bookseller, so I worked in a bookstore in an attempt to understand the art of bookselling. I discovered that selling books is an interdisciplinary activity, the disciplines being: literary critic, psychologist, and stevedore. I was fired immediately for total incompetence and chaos and told to sit in the back and observe, no talking, no touching.
I dislike humidity and vomit, I guess. My interests and hobbies are too expensive or too physically taxing to actually pursue. I like to take naps. I go shopping to unwind. I love to shop. Even if it's for Q-Tips or Post-Its.
When asked what book most influenced her career as a writer, here is her response:
When I left graduate school after a gruesome attempt to become a medieval historian, I crawled into bed and read Our Mutual Friend. It was, unbelievably, the first Dickens I had ever read, the first novel I'd read in years, and one of the first books not in or translated from Latin I'd read in years. It was a startling, liberating, exhilarating moment that reminded me what English can be, what characters can be, what humor can be. I of course read all of Dickens after that and then started on Trollope, who taught me the invaluable lesson that character is fate, and that fate is not always a neat narrative arc.
But I always hesitate to claim the influence of any author: It seems presumptuous. I want to be influenced by Dickens and Trollope. I long to be influenced by Jane Austen, too, and Barbara Pym and Alice Munro. I aspire to be influenced by Randall Jarrell's brilliant novel, Pictures from an Institution. And I read Muriel Spark when I feel myself becoming soft and sentimental, as a kind of tonic. (From a 2003 Barnes & Noble interview.)
Book Reviews
In this bildungsroman set against the swinging '60s, a young boy named Fin is orphaned and must move from his quiet Connecticut dairy farm to live with his much older half sister, Lady, in Greenwich Village, where things will never be the same for him.
Los Angeles Times
The tale of an unprepared relative thrust into parenting a newly orphaned child usually takes a comedic bent and wraps up with a newfound romance and emotional maturity. Eleven-year-old Fin and his stepsister...haven't seen each other in six years.... Readers whose interest may begin to flag over Fin's adoration of Lady should hang on for a final plot twist.... [F]amily [drama] with more bite than sweetness. —Jan Blodgett, Davidson Coll. Lib., NC
Library Journal
[A] young boy raised by his madcap half sister....a mix of Auntie Mame and Holly Golightly.... [Lady] puts Fin in charge of finding her a suitable husband...[but] she's unable to love anyone except Fin and their black housekeeper, Mable, a character who defies conventional stereotypes and thus personifies the upheavals in the decade's civil rights movement.... Schine offers up a bittersweet lemon souffle of family love and romantic passion.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)
Time Flies
Clair Cook, 2013
Touchstone
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781451673678
Summary
Two best friends, a high school reunion, and a rollicking road trip down memory lane...
Years ago, Melanie followed her husband, Kurt, from the New England beach town where their two young sons were thriving to the suburbs of Atlanta. She’s carved out a life as a successful metal sculptor, but when Kurt leaves her for another woman, having the tools to cut up their marriage bed is small consolation.
She’s old enough to know that high school reunions are often a big disappointment, but when her best friend makes her buy a ticket and an old flame gets in touch to see if she’ll be going, she fantasizes that returning to her past might help her find her future...until her highway driving phobia resurfaces and threatens to hold her back from the adventure of a lifetime.
Time Flies is an epic trip filled with fun, heartbreak, and friendship that explores what it takes to conquer your worst fears...so you can start living your future. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—February 14, 1955
• Where—Alexandria, Virginia, USA
• Education—B.A., Syracuse University
• Currently—Scituate, Massachusetts
Raised on Nancy Drew mysteries, Claire Cook has wanted to write ever since she was a little girl. She majored in theater and creative writing at Syracuse University and immersed herself in a number of artistic endeavors (copywriter, radio continuity director, garden designer, and dance and aerobics choreographer), yet somehow her dreams got pushed to the side for more real-life matters—like marriage, motherhood, and a teaching career. Decades passed, then one day she found herself parked in her minivan at 5 AM, waiting for her daughter to finish swim practice. She was struck with a now-or-never impulse and began writing on the spot. By the end of the season, she had a first draft. Her first novel, Ready to Fall, was published in 2000, when Cook was 45.
Since then, this "late starter" has more than made up for lost time. She struck gold with her second book, Must Love Dogs. Published in 2002, this story of a middle-aged divorcee whose singles ad produces hilariously unexpected results was declared "funny and pitch-perfect" by the Chicago Tribune and "a hoot" by the Boston Globe. (The novel got a second life in 2005 with the release of the feature film starring Diane Lane and John Cusack.) Cook's subsequent novels, with their wry, witty take on the lives of middle-aged women, have become bestsellers and book club favorites.
Upbeat, gregarious, and grateful for her success, Cook is an inspiration for aspiring writers and women in midlife transition. She tours indefatigably for her novels and genuinely enjoys speaking with fans. She also conducts frequent writing workshops, where she dispenses advice and encouragement in equal measure. "I'm extraordinarily lucky to spend my time doing what I love," she has said on countless occasions. " The workshops are a way to say thank you and open doors that I stumbled through to make it easier for writers coming up behind me.''
Extras
From a 2004 Barnes & Noble interview:
• I first knew I was a writer when I was three. My mother entered me in a contest to name the Fizzies whale, and I won in my age group. It's quite possible that mine was the only entry in my age group since "Cutie Fizz" was enough to win my family a six-month supply of Fizzies tablets (root beer was the best flavor) and half a dozen turquoise plastic mugs with removable handles. At six I had my first story on the "Little People's Page" in the Sunday paper (about Hot Dog, the family Dachshund) and at sixteen, I had my first front page feature in the local weekly.
• In the acknowledgments of Multiple Choice I say that even though it's probably undignified to admit it, I'm having a blast as a novelist. To clarify that, having a blast as a novelist does not necessarily mean having a blast with the actual writing. The people part—meeting readers and booksellers and librarians and the media—is very social and I'm having lots of fun with that. The writing part is great, too, once you get past the procrastination, the self-doubt, and the feelings of utter despair. It's all of the stuff surrounding the writing that's hard; once you find your zone, your place of flow, or whatever it is we're currently calling it, and lose yourself in the writing, it really is quite wonderful. I've heard writers say it's better than sex, though I'm not sure I'd go that far.
• I love books that don't wrap everything up too neatly at the end, and I think it's a big compliment to hear that a reader is left wanting more. After each novel, I hear from many readers asking for a sequel— they say they just have to find out what will happen to these people next. I think it's wonderful that the characters have come to life for them. But, for now, I think I'll grow more as a writer by trying to create another group of quirky characters. Maybe a few books down the road, I'll feel ready to return to some of them—who knows?
• When asked what book most influenced her life as a writer, here is what she said:
I get asked this question a lot on book tour, and I'm always tempted to say anything by Jane Austen or Alice Munro, just so people will know I'm well read, and sometimes I'm even tempted to say something by Gogol, just so people will think I'm really, really well read. But, alas, ultimately I tell the truth. The Nancy Drew books influenced me the most. I think they taught me a lot about pacing, and about ending chapters in such a way that the reader just can't put the book down and absolutely has to read on to the next chapter. I also think these books are responsible for the fact that I can't, for the life of me, write a chapter that's much longer than ten pages.
There's another variation of this question that I'm asked all the time on book tour: Who are your favorite authors? I always answer it the same way: My favorite authors are the ones who've been nice to me. It's so important for established authors to take emerging authors under their wings. Two who've been particularly generous to me as mentors and friends are Mameve Medwed and Jeanne Ray. Fortunately, they both happen to be very talented—and funny—so if you've somehow missed their books, you should read them immediately.
(Author bio and interview from Barnes & Noble.)
Book Reviews
[Cook's] characters are always looking for the next exciting chapter in their lives and her tenth novel, Time Flies, takes her trademark theme in a thought provoking new direction...The resulting story is both touching and hilarious.
Bourne Journal
Cook’s penchant for hitting the emotional sore spot and combining it with humor hits the mark. ... A thoroughly enjoyable and amusing read, this story is sure to delight.
New York Journal of Books
Full of engaging characters and humorous situations.... This lighthearted story will have readers plumbing its hidden depths and enjoying the ride.
Romance Reviews Today
[F]unny, bittersweet.... Melanie is a metal artist in Atlanta struggling to get her sculptures acknowledged. One of her pieces has just been accepted into a juried art show and sold to a local chef. Melanie, who has recently separated from her husband, Kurt, is also dealing with her new life as a single, middle-aged woman.... Meanwhile, her best friend, BJ, pesters her to return to Massachusetts for their high school reunion...Cook's strong characters and the sense of humor...[infuse] her latest heartwarming novel. —Kristen Stewart, Pearland Lib., Brazoria Cty. Lib. System, TX
Library Journal
.
A spunky, lighthearted road trip down memory lane.... The banter is a lot of fun, and the characters’ realization of what is important is certain to make readers yearn for reconnections of their own. Another delightful beach read from the author of Wallflower in Bloom.
Booklist
The latest novel from Cook (Wallflower in Bloom, 2012, etc.). When Melanie's husband...leaves her for another woman, [her] artwork saves her sanity and attracts the attention of the charming restaurateur.... [H]er best friend from high school, B.J., is nagging her to come North for the upcoming high school reunion. Melanie doesn't want to, until she starts getting emails from a former boyfriend, now divorced.... After accompanying Melanie and B.J on their hysterical road trip, readers will feel like they've made friends for life. Women will like this book.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Time Flies begins with the sentence, “When my cell phone rang, I’d just finished cutting up my marriage mattress.” When her best friend B.J. asks narrator Melanie what’s up, she blows a sprinkling of sawdust off the phone and says, “Not much. Same old, same old.” How does this opening set you up for the rest of the book? What does it make you want to know?”
2. Melanie became a metal sculptor after moving to Atlanta. “Creativity had consoled me my whole life,” she says, “and conquering a new medium was something I could control. And if I was really, really honest, a part of the draw was that Kurt hated the idea.” Do you think this is part of the normal push and pull of a long-term marriage? Can you share any examples from your own life?
3. When Melanie’s highway driving phobia resurfaces, it takes her by surprise and throws her for a loop. What are you really, really, really afraid of? Can you imagine it ever crossing the line into a full-blown phobia? Why or why not?
4. Melanie and B.J.’s high school class reunion committee has decided they’re not going to mention either the year they graduated or how many years it’s been. They’re simply going to call it The Marshbury High School Best Class/Best Reunion Evah. How many years do you think it’s been? What are the clues?
5. Music plays a huge part in the stroll down memory lane for the characters in Time Flies. Do you think that’s true for everybody? What one song most reminds you of high school? Why?
6. Speaking of memories, Melanie’s son Troy accuses her of turning her memories of his childhood experiences into a Disney movie. What does he mean by that? Do you think all moms have that tendency?
7. Clearly, Melanie and Marion have some deep-seated sister issues. How do you see it? Who’s mostly at fault? Do you think it’s unusual to have a sibling that drives you crazy? Did you ever “borrow” anything from a sibling’s room when you were growing up? Did you get caught?
8. Throughout the book, Melanie and B.J. call each other Thelma, Louise, Romy and Michele. Why? Is there another movie that speaks to you about female friendship? Do you think in some ways Time Flies is a midlife takeoff on Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion? More baggage, more wrinkles, but the same need to impress?
9. When Melanie receives an email from Finn Miller, she jumps almost immediately into full retro crush mode. Why do you think it’s easier for her to do this than it is for her to deal with Ted Brody? What’s the lure of old high school crushes? Who’s yours?
10. What does finally getting a tattoo after all these years signify for B.J.? For Melanie? If your best friend talked you into getting one, what would it be? Real or temporary?
11. Why do you think Melanie and B.J. have stayed friends all these years? What do they do for each other? How would their relationship be different if they met as adults? Do you have high school friends still in your life? Why or why not?
12. Have you ever gone to a high school reunion? Will reading Time Flies make you more or less apt to go to your next one?
(Questions issued by publisher.)
top of page (summary)
Love All
Callie Wright, 2013
Henry Holt and Co.
272 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780805096972
Summary
An addictive and moving debut about love, fidelity, sports, and growing up when you least expect it, told through the irresistible voices of three generations
It’s the spring of 1994 in Cooperstown, New York, and Joanie Cole, the beloved matriarch of the Obermeyer family, has unexpectedly died in her sleep. Now, for the first time, three generations are living together under one roof and are quickly encroaching on one another’s fragile orbits. Eighty-six-year-old Bob Cole is adrift in his daughter’s house without his wife. Anne Obermeyer is increasingly suspicious of her husband, Hugh’s, late nights and missed dinners, and Hugh, principal of the town’s preschool, is terrified that a scandal at school will erupt and devastate his life. Fifteen-year-old tennis-team hopeful Julia is caught in a love triangle with Sam and Carl, her would-be teammates and two best friends, while her brother, Teddy, the star pitcher of Cooperstown High, will soon catch sight of something that will change his family forever.
At the heart of the Obermeyers’ present-day tremors is the scandal of The Sex Cure, a thinly veiled roman à clef from the 1960s, which shook the small village of Cooperstown to the core. When Anne discovers a battered copy underneath her parents’ old mattress, the Obermeyers cannot escape the family secrets that come rushing to the surface. With its heartbreaking insight into the messy imperfections of family, love, and growing up, Love All is an irresistible comic story of coming-of-age—at any age. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1977-1978
• Raised—Cooperstown, New York, USA
• Education—B.A., Yale; M.F.A., University
of Virginia
• Awards—Glimmer Train Short Story Award
• Currently—lives in Brooklyn, New York City
Callie Wright is a reporter–researcher at Vanity Fair. She graduated from Yale and earned her MFA at the University of Virginia, where she was a Poe/Faulkner Fellow in Creative Writing and won a Raven Society Fellowship. She is the recipient of a Glimmer Train Short Story Award for New Writers and her short fiction has appeared in Glimmer Train and The Southern Review. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
[A] winsome debut novel… Wright is a sure-handed writer who's at her strongest when describing the vicissitudes of marriage, which she does with great heart and originality… Love All is a study in intimacy—how we create it, how we bungle it; and, most of all, how we yearn for and require it, no matter how small or large our daily geography.
Oprah.com
The problem with most first novels is that they read like first novels. Callie Wright’s debut, Love All, reads like the work of a writer in mid-career… [Wright] has a feel for life among the small-town gentry reminiscent of Updike.
Vanity Fair
[A] fetching debut novel.
Elle Magazine
A generation after a salacious roman à clef airs an entire town’s dirty laundry, the tell-all book resurfaces in the same house it originally wreaked havoc on, forcing one family to ask if history will repeat itself… [LOVE ALL’s] storyline will launch any kind of gossip session or book club discussion.
Marie Claire
In this winning first novel, three generations of a Cooperstown, New York, clan find their lives upended by a long-buried copy of The Sex Cure—a real-life roman a clef from 1962 that scandalized town residents.
AARP Magazine
Three generations of a family in transition are at the center of Wright’s touching character-driven tale. Octogenarian grandfather Bob Cole is grieving the death of his wife.... But the Obermeyers have their own problems.... And The Sex Cure, a novel that was published in the 1960s—a thinly veiled expose of the town’s scandalous inhabitants—resurfaces, painfully connecting the generations. Wright’s greatest asset, her ability to switch voices as family members narrate in turn, is also the novel’s greatest weakness, skimming each story without gaining emotional resonance or tying together themes. But the prose is effortless, and the characters are accessible and genuine, making this a promising debut.
Publishers Weekly
[T]hree generations of the same family see their settled lives begin to splinter. Sex, marriage vows and teenage angst seam Wright's first novel, set in the small community of Cooperstown, made famous in the 1960s when a notorious novel, The Sex Cure, exposed the thinly veiled affairs of its citizens.... Narrated from multiple perspectives, some more compelling than others, and larded with themes, Wright's novel is overfreighted yet capable and humane. Inhabiting an appealing if familiar scenario, this is a novel long on empathy but missing the spark of animation.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Each chapter of Love All is told from the point of view of one of the five family members living at 59 Susquehanna, but only Julia’s chapters are in the first person. What is the significance of this? How does isolating the points of view from chapter to chapter affect the way the narrative comes together and how you felt about each character? Which Obermeyer did you connect to the most and why?
2. The power of secrets is a recurring theme in Love All. What are some of the secrets each character holds, and how do they impact the characters’ development? Do you think it is better to keep a damaging secret hidden, or is it better to reveal it, no matter the consequences?
3. The Sex Cure was a real novel published in the 1960s. How is the scandal of The Sex Cure reflected in the lives of the characters in the novel? Why do you think the author chose to use this as the foundation of her novel?
4. Each Obermeyer possesses certain unfulfilled desires or dreams that get in the way of their ideal happiness. How do the characters deal with their discontent as their plans go astray? What holds each of them back and do the reasons overlap? Do any of the characters resolve their inner conflicts?
5. Would things have turned out differently if Anne and Hugh had communicated their feelings to one another after the Valentine’s Day party back when their relationship was new? What attracted them to each other in the first place, and what changed in their relationship? Do you believe that their marriage could have been saved? When have you regretted a misstep in a relationship and what, if anything, would you have done differently?
6. How much does the unique setting of Cooperstown defi ne this story? How does the town act as a source of comfort, but also a crutch to its inhabitants?
7. Anne seems to place great importance on the way she is perceived. In what ways does her external posture differ from her internal self? Why does she become fascinated by The Sex Cure as a young girl? Why does she vandalize the author’s home? Why do you think she never shows Hugh the will she writes when she’s upset?
8. Why is Teddy so afraid to leave Cooperstown? What is the significance of the Ted Williams card and why do you think Teddy destroys it? What changes in Teddy after he finds out about his dad’s affair?
9. Hugh gains a new sense of power and resolve after the accident at his school and the onset of his affair overcoming the inertia that began with the death of his brother. What stirs this emotion in him? Do you sympathize with Hugh or do you think he is selfi sh as a husband and a father?
10. Bob never finds out if his wife knew about his ongoing affairs throughout their marriage. He says that he doesn’t care to look forward or back in life, but his past continues to haunt him even after the death of his wife. Do you think that it is possible to strictly live in the moment, or is your present state a constant blend of past, present, and future?
11. Julia says, “the only people who could really hurt us were the people we love.” Do you think this is true? Why does Julia write the letter about Carl? How is this manifested in the other relationships in the novel? Is it inevitable to hurt those we love the most? Why or why not?
(Questions issued by publisher.)
Summerland
Elin Hilderbrand, 2012
Little, Brown & Co.
464
ISBN-13: 9780316099943
Summary
A summer's night, a deadly crash, and four lives changed forever—in the page-turning bestseller from Elin Hilderbrand.
A warm June evening, a local tradition: the students of Nantucket High have gathered for a bonfire on the beach. What begins as a graduation night celebration ends in tragedy after a horrible car crash leaves the driver, Penny Alistair, dead, and her twin brother in a coma.
The other passengers, Penny's boyfriend, Jake, and her friend Demeter, are physically unhurt—but the emotional damage is overwhelming. Questions linger about what happened before Penny took the wheel.
As summer unfolds, startling truths are revealed about the survivors and their parents—secrets kept, promises broken, hearts betrayed. Elin Hilderbrand explores the power of community, family, and honesty, and proves that even from the ashes of sorrow new love can take flight. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1969-70
• Raised—Collegeville, Pennsylvania, USA
• Education—B.A., Hopkins University; University of Iowa Writers' Workshop
• Currently—lives in Nantucket, Massachuestts
Elin Hilderbrand is an American writer of Summer beach read romance novels, some 20 in all. Her books have been set on and around Nantucket Island where she lives with her husband and three children.
Hilderbrand was born and raised in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. As a child, she spent summers on Cape Cod, "playing touch football at low tide, collecting sea glass, digging pools for hermit crabs, swimming out to the wooden raft off shore," until her father died in a plane crash when she was sixteen. She spent the next summer working—doing piecework in a factory that made Halloween costumes; she promised herself that the goal for the rest of her life would be that she would always have a real summer.
She graduated from Johns Hopkins University and became a teaching/writing fellow at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. In 1993 she moved to Nantucket, took a job as "the classified ads girl" at a local paper, and later started writing.
Her first novels were published by St. Martin's Press. With A Summer Affair, published in 2008, she moved to Little, Brown and Company. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 7/11/2013.)
Book Reviews
Nantucket Island’s year-round residents are shaken when a car crash claims the life of driver Penny Alistair, a vibrant and popular high school student, and leaves her twin brother, Hobby, in a coma..... The sparks that this story throws out becomes a current that circles the agitated kids and their parents, electrifying the atmosphere as they grapple with what happened. Hilderbrand has a gift for building tension, and the reader will be willing to do just about anything to discover the real reason why Penny would drive herself, her brother, and her boyfriend over an embankment into oblivion.
Publishers Weekly
Hildebrand's latest touches on heavy subject matter but has a satisfying conclusion. Like Jodi Picoult, she writes about ordinary, believable characters in a difficult situation that could happen to anyone. While the multiple points of view are tough to follow at first, once the story "clicks," fans of realistic fiction will find themselves devouring this novel to discover what really happened that night on the beach. —Amber Woodard, Cumberland Univ. Lib., Lebanon, TN
Library Journal
Discussion Questions
1. What do you think of the use of Nantucket’s collective voice in Summerland ? How does the island—and the voice of its people—play its own role in the novel?
2. Following the tragic accident, Jordan decides to move his family to Australia for a year, even though Jake does not want to leave the island. For whom did Jordan make that decision? Why?
3. How would you describe Penny’s relationship with Ava? Should Ava have realized something more serious was wrong with Penny? What did Ava provide Penny that no one else could?
4. What do you think of Jordan’s decision not to run a story about the accident in the Nantucket Standard ? Do you think he made the right choice?
5. Throughout the novel, many characters struggle with guilt over the cause of the car accident, including Demeter and Jake. Do you think Penny was solely responsible for the accident? Or was anyone else at fault? Why or why not?
6. Penny had a very sensitive soul. What did she struggle with? Was she determined to end her life?
7. Perth and Nantucket are both coastal towns, but they are a world apart. How does life differ in these two places? What do Jordan and Jake learn from their time in Perth?
8. What caused Demeter to start drinking in an unhealthy way? What led her to continue her drinking, and what were the consequences?
9. What sparked Ava’s reawakening, and what led to her big decisions at the end of the novel?
10. What do you think of Hobby’s decision to keep Demeter’s secret news to himself? Do you think that’s something he should have shared with others?
11. How are the lives of the parents in the novel influenced by the lives of their children—and vice versa?
12. How does each character in Summerland find a way to start healing as the summer draws to a close?
(Questions issued by publisher.)
The Jewels of Paradise
Donna Leon, 2012
Grove/Atlantic
256 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780802120656
Summary
Donna Leon has won heaps of critical praise and legions of fans for her best-selling mystery series featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti. With The Jewels of Paradise, Leon takes readers beyond the world of the Venetian Questura in her first standalone novel.
Caterina Pellegrini is a native Venetian, and like so many of them, she’s had to leave home to pursue her career. With a doctorate in baroque opera from Vienna, she lands in Manchester, England. Manchester, however, is no Venice. When Caterina gets word of a position back home, she jumps at the opportunity.
The job is an unusual one. After nearly three centuries, two locked trunks, believed to contain the papers of a baroque composer have been discovered. Deeply-connected in religious and political circles, the composer died childless; now two Venetians, descendants of his cousins, each claim inheritance. Caterina’s job is to examine any enclosed papers to discover the “testamentary disposition” of the composer.
But when her research takes her in unexpected directions she begins to wonder just what secrets these trunks may hold. From a masterful writer, The Jewels of Paradise is a superb novel, a gripping tale of intrigue, music, history and greed. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1942
• Where—Montclair, New Jersey, USA
• Education—N/A
• Awards—Crime Writers' Association Silver Dagger Award
• Currently—lives in Venice
Donna Leon is the American author of a series of crime novels set in Venice and featuring the fictional hero Commissario Guido Brunetti. Her 2013 novel, The Jewels of Paradise is her first stand alone mystery novel.
Leon has lived in Venice for over 25 years. She was a lecturer in English Literature for the University of Maryland University College-Europe (UMUC-Europe) in Italy, and then worked as a Professor from 1981 to 1999 at the American military base of Vicenza (Italy. She stopped teaching and concentrated on writing and other cultural activities in the field of music (especially Baroque music).
The Commissario Brunetti novels are all situated in or around Venice. They are written in English and translated into many foreign languages, but not into Italian, at Leon's request. The ninth Brunetti novel, Friends in High Places, won the Crime Writers' Association Silver Dagger in 2000. German Television has produced 18 Commissario Brunetti mysteries for broadcast. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 7/14/2013.)
Book Reviews
Leon's first stand-alone mystery, and, while it is undeniably strange to be wandering through Venice without the protection of Brunetti's solid presence, the young heroine of this novel is so winning that readers should find themselves forgiving the commissario his absence.... The Jewels of Paradise is as much a tale about a young woman wising up and learning to fight more effectively for her own happiness as it is a mystery.... Commissario Brunetti is allowed to take a vacation once in a while, but only if his replacements are as wry and erudite as Caterina.
Maureen Corrigan - Washington Post
Written with all Leon's elegant delicacy combined with her ability to reveal the truth almost without your noticing, this a little gem of a book, immersed as it is in Leon's own love for the baroque.
Geoffrey Wansell - Daily Mail (UK)
Bestseller Leon debuts a stand-alone. Opera expert Caterina Pellegrini, who’s been teaching in Manchester, England, returns home to Venice to...[research] the contents of recently discovered trunks believed to have belonged to a once renowned baroque composer.... Despite the intriguing setup, Leon uncharacteristically fails to mine the premise for maximal emotion....and finally, out of the blue, there’s a slapdash deus ex machina ending. Consider this one a paradise lost.
Publishers Weekly
[S]et in present-day Venice. Caterina Pellegrini, a researcher and music scholar, is...presented with two trunks that hold the papers of a 17th-century composer. She discovers not only unpublished scores but references to a hidden treasure.... Caterina investigates the composer and the cousins to discover the truth of the mysterious jewels. Verdict: Steeped in the language and music of the past, this novel lingers between the baroque era and the modern world, leading the reader on an informed ramble through Venice. —Catherine Lantz, Morton Coll. Lib., Cicero, IL
Library Journal
Fascinating.... [Leon's] first stand-alone
boasts the same sensitivity to human behavior that distinguishes her Guido Brunetti series.
Bill Ott - Booklist
A veteran mystery maven weaves present-day Venice into a 300-year-old puzzle in this engaging stand-alone. Caterina Pellegrini....has accepted a commission from two venal cousins and their suave lawyer to examine the contents of two locked trunks...believed to contain the papers of a long-dead composer.... Along the way, she discovers the hidden story of the composer's tragic life and, perhaps, puts her own back on track.... While the plot can get a bit academic at times—mixing Catholic Church politics with music and legal terms—...[and] while lacking some of the warmth of the Brunetti series, Leon's stand-alone still packs the charms of Venice into a smart whodunit.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Why is Caterina Pellegrini so eager to return to Venice at the start of the novel? Why did she leave Italy in the first place? Are her negative feelings towards Manchester—her horror at its “physical ugliness,” for one—inspired by the place, or by her own sense of displacement?
2. What sort of institution is La Fondazione Musicale Italo-Tedesca? What does Roseanna Salvi tell Caterina about the Foundation’s prospects, and why did Caterina’s employers decide to base her research project there? What are they hoping she discovers?
3. The subject of Caterina’s research, the composer Steffani, also turns out to have spent much of his professional life outside of Italy. What other possible reason does Caterina find for the “unbearable sadness” she reads on Steffani’s face in a famous portrait of the musician? What would this potential condition have implied for Steffani’s life, and which aspect of it seems to most affect Caterina?
4. What is Caterina’s first impression of Dr. Moretti? What about him does she admire, and which of his qualities is she ambivalent about? What does she learn about him when they go to lunch?
5. What kind of a relationship does Caterina have with her sister Cristina? In what ways are they similar? How do they negotiate the sharp differences in the choices they’ve made in their lives? How is their epistolary friendship different because they correspond via email, rather than by letter?
6. Several emails into the sisters’ exchange, Cristina confesses that she’s “thinking of jumping ship...I’m deeply tired of it and of having to close an eye and then close the other one and then close the third one if I had it.” (p. 157). What is Christina referring to in this instance? Is hers a crisis of faith in God or the Catholic Church? Are there other reasons behind her desire for a change?
7. Caterina tries to make the case to Moretti that most things—not unlike religious articles such as the Book of Mormon or the Shroud of Turin—are “what enough people choose to believe” they are (p. 166), that is, either priceless relics or “nonsense.” All of Caterina’s examples are religious, but are there secular examples of objects invested with powerful meaning? From what do they derive their power?
8. What was the nature of Steffani’s relationship with the “original” cousins? Why is Caterina troubled by the tone of the letters she finds?
9. As their relationship continues to swing towards flirtation, Dr. Moretti continues to suggest opportunities for personal, rather than official, contact with Caterina. Increasingly, he also seems to show his aversion for his clients, the cousins. Why does a seemingly careful professional man insist on blurring these lines? What finally leads Caterina to conclude that he is a “coldhearted bastard?” Who is Dr. Moretti working for?
10. When Steffani’s will and the Jewels of Paradise are finally discovered by Caterina, what are the reactions of the cousins? Of Dr. Moretti? How does Caterina’s interpretation of Steffani’s bequest differ from Dr. Moretti’s?
11. Caterina’s mysterious patron—the Romanian who recommends her for the Venetian job—resurfaces several times throughout Caterina’s stay, whether in her memories of an ally in Manchester or as the owner of an email account Caterina easily accesses when she believes hers to be hacked. What is the nature of their relationship?
(Questions issued by publisher.)