Seduction
M.J. Rose, 2013
Atria Books
372 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781451621501
Summary
A gothic tale about Victor Hugo’s long-buried secrets and the power of a love that never dies.
In 1843, novelist Victor Hugo’s beloved nineteen-year-old daughter drowned. Ten years later, still grieving, Hugo initiated hundreds of seances from his home on the Isle of Jersey in order to reestablish contact with her. In the process, he claimed to have communed with Plato, Galileo, Shakespeare, Dante, Jesus—and even the devil himself. Hugo’s transcriptions of these conversations have all been published.
Or so it has been believed...
Recovering from a great loss, mythologist Jac L’Etoile thinks that throwing herself into work will distract her from her grief. In the hopes of uncovering a secret about the island’s mysterious Celtic roots, she arrives on Jersey and is greeted by ghostly Neolithic monuments, medieval castles and hidden caves.
But the man who has invited her there, a troubled soul named Theo Gaspard, hopes she’ll help him discover something quite different—transcripts of Hugo’s lost conversations with someone he called the Shadow of the Sepulcher. Central to his heritage, these are the papers his grandfather died trying to find. Neither Jac nor Theo anticipate that the mystery surrounding Victor Hugo will threaten their sanity and put their very lives at stake.
Seduction is a historically evocative and atmospheric tale of suspense with a spellbinding ghost story at its heart, written by one of America’s most gifted and imaginative novelists. Awakening a mystery that spans centuries, this multilayered gothic tale brings a time, a place and a cast of desperate characters brilliantly to life. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—New York City, New York, USA
• Education—B.A., Syracuse University
• Currently—lives in Greenwich, Connecticut
M. J. Rose is an American author and book marketing executive. She is a graduate of Syracuse University and spent the 1980's working in advertising, eventually as Creative director of Rosenfeld Sirowitz and Lawson. One of her commercials is featured in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. She lives in Connecticut with the composer Doug Scofield and their dog, Winka.
Rose launched her publishing career in 1998, when she self-published her first novel, Lip Service. When traditional publishers had rejected it—unsure of how to market a book that did not fit into one distinct genre—Rose promoted the book online, setting up a website where readers could download the book. After selling 2500 copies (in digital and paper formats), the book was chosen by the Literary Guild/Doubleday Book Club and became the first e-book to be subsequently published by a mainstream New York publisher.
Following Lip Service, Rose wrote the thrillers In Fidelity (2001), Flesh Tones (2003), and Sheet Music (2004). Her Butterfield Institute Series introduced protagonist Dr. Morgan Snow, a renowned New York sex therapist, and includes The Halo Effect (2005), The Delilah Complex (2006), and The Venus Fix (2006). In 2006, she also wrote the erotic novel, Lying in Bed.
Rose began a new series focusing on reincarnation and other supernatural phenomena, starting with The Reincarnationist (2007),and continuing with The Memorist (2008), The Hypnotist (2010), and The Book of Lost Fragrances (2012). The Reincarnationist was the inspiration for the Fox TV series "Past Life."
Rose provides book marketing services and consultation to authors through AuthorBuzz.com and runs the popular publishing industry blog, Buzz, Balls & Hype. She co-authored Buzz Your Book with Doug Clegg, which she uses to teach an online book marketing class of the same name. (From Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
Rose’s vivid imagination and beautiful writing make this a book to savor. (Top Pick 4 ½ stars)
Romance Times
The sensuality, and the pure and utter dreamlike state with which [Rose] writes is effortless and engaging, producing [a] story that’s impossible to leave behind... drawing the reader into the depths of a sensual mystery that they will truly never forget! This deserves a standing ovation!
Suspense Magazine
Rose interweaves mythology, the supernatural, psychoanalysis and Evil Incarnate, creating an amazing amalgam of narrative wonder... will haunt you.
Mystery Lovers Bookshop
The 1843 drowning death of Victor Hugo’s beloved eldest daughter, Didine, provides the catalyst for Rose’s well-crafted paranormal novel of suspense, a sequel to The Book of Lost Fragrances (2012)... Rose is especially good at recreating Hugo’s despair and willingness to do anything to reunite with Didine, making his abandonment of rationality all too plausible.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) Full of well-researched history, the paranormal, and modern intrigue, this atmospheric tale of suspense is fully engrossing to those willing to suspend their disbelief.
Library Journal
Rose’s growing fan base will probably devour this one.
Booklist
Rose (The Book of Lost Fragrances, 2012, etc.) fails to breathe new life into her latest offering, which includes themes and characters introduced in previous stories and rehashes discussions about reincarnation, Jungian psychology and olfactory sensations.... As the author switches back and forth between the very distant past...and the present, she finally connects all the troubled characters...and brings the book to a close--but not before Jac, her hosts and therapists have protracted discussions about reincarnation and the collective unconscious.
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.
Driftless
David Rhodes, 2009
Milkweed Editions
448 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781571310682
Summary
Rhodes returns to the midwestern landscape he knows so well, offering a fascinating and entirely unsentimental portrait of a town apparently left behind by the march of time.
Home to a few hundred people yet absent from state maps, Words, Wisconsin, comes richly to life by way of an extraordinary cast of characters. Among them, a middle-aged couple guards the family farm from the mendacious schemes of their milk co-operative; a lifelong paraplegic suddenly regains the use of her legs, only to find herself crippled by fury at her sister and caretaker.
A woman of conflicting impulses and pastor of the local Friends church stumbles upon an enlightenment she never expected; a cantankerous retiree discovers a cougar living in his haymow, haunting him like a childhood memory; and, finally, a former drifter forever alters the ties that bind a community together.
At once intimate and funny, wise and generous, Driftless is an unforgettable story of contemporary life in rural America. (From the publisher.)
Visit the website.
Author Bio
• Birth—1946
• Raised—outside Des Moines, Iowa, USA
• Education—B.A., Marlboro College; M.F.A., Iowa
Writers' Workshop
• Currently—lives in Wonewoc, Wisconsin
David Rhodes is an American novelist. He has published five books—Jewelweed in 2013 and before that Driftless in 2008. Both books, along with Rock Island Line before them, take place in the fictional small town of Word, Wisconsin.
Rhodes grew up outside Des Moines, Iowa. As a young man, he worked in fields, hospitals, and factories across the state. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Marlboro College in 1969 and a Master of Fine Arts degree from The Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1971. Soon after, he published three acclaimed novels: The Last Fair Deal Going Down (1972), The Easter House (1974), and Rock Island Line (1975).
In 1976, a motorcycle accident left Rhodes partially paralyzed. In 2008, he returned to the literary scene with Driftless, a novel hailed as “the best work of fiction to come out of the Midwest in many years” (Alan Cheuse). He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2010, to support the writing of Jewelweed, published three years later.
Rhodes lives with his wife, Edna, in rural Wonewoc, Wisconsin. (Adapted from the pubisher and Wikipedia. Retrieved 6/4/2013.)
Book Reviews
[Driftless] presents a series of portraits that resemble Edgar Lee Masters’s Spoon River Anthology in their vividness and in the cumulative picture they create of village life. Each of these stories glimmers.
New Yorker
Driftless is a fast-moving story about small town life with characters that seem to have walked off the pages of Edgar Lee Masters’s Spoon River Anthology.
Wall Street Journal
A wry and generous book. Driftless shares a rhythm with the farming community it documents, and its reflective pace is well-suited to characters who are far more comfortable with hard work than words. (Best Novels of 2008)
Christian Science Monitor
Rhodes consciously avoids drama to deliver a portrait of a real rural America as singular, beautiful and foreign as anywhere else.
Philadelphia City Paper
Now, after what had to have been years of effort beyond the usual struggle of trying to make a good novel, we get [Rhodes’s] fourth, and, I have to shout it out, finest book yet. Driftless is the best work of fiction to come out of the Midwest in many years.
Chicago Tribune
A symphonic paean to the stillness that can be found in certain areas of the Midwest, The writing in Driftless is beautiful and surprising throughout, [and] it’s this poetic pointillism that originally made Rhodes famous.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
A profound and enduring paean to rural America. Radiant in its prose and deep in its quiet understanding of human needs.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Comprised of a large number of short chapters, the novel opens with a prologue reminiscent of Steinbeck’s beautiful tribute to the Salinas Valley in the opening of East of Eden, with a little touch of Michener’s prologue to his novel Hawaii. The book moves at a stately pace as it offers deep philosophy and meditative asides about life in Words, Wisconsin, in the Driftless zone, which is to say, about life on earth.
NPR - All Things Considered
After a 30-year absence from publishing due to a motorcycle accident that left him paralyzed, Rhodes is back with a novel featuring July Montgomery, the hero of his 1975 novel, Rock Island Line, which movingly involves him with the fates of several characters who live in the small town of Words, Wis.... It takes a while for all these stories to kick in, but once they do, Rhodes shows he still knows how to keep readers riveted.... [T]the result is a novel that is as affecting as it is pleasantly overstuffed.
Publishers Weekly
[S]et in a rural area of Wisconsin so remote and forgotten that it's left off the map. Most of the residents have chosen to be isolated from the world around them and one another. Nevertheless, their concerns—spirituality, family, love, and desire—are global and universal.... The characters and their struggles come vibrantly alive, though Rhodes's didactic authorial voice at times overwhelms the narrative and seeps into the dialog. —Christine DeZelar-Tiedman
Library Journal
(Starred review.) By the end of the darkly rhapsodic novel Rock Island Line (1975), July Montgomery has suffered enough tragedies for several cursed lifetimes even though he is only 22. His creator, on the other hand, was riding high as each of his three novels met with acclaim. But Rhodes was about to face his own season of loss. Now, in a triumphant return after 30 years...Rhodes picks up the thread of July’s life with deepened powers.... Encompassing and incisive, comedic and profound, Driftless is a radiant novel of community and courage. —Donna Seaman
Booklist
Rhodes's first novel in more than 30 years (Rock Island Line, 1975, etc.) provides a welcome antidote to overheated urban fiction.... Life is slow and rural; it's farm country, and locals care about the rhythms of the seasons, their roots in the community and each other. All is not well, however, when the milk cooperative tries to increase its profit margins at the expense of honest farmers.... A quiet novel of depth and simplicity.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. The prologue describes the geography of the region in which Driftless takes place, and the novel’s title is taken from the name of the area. How does the Driftless Region, which Rhodes describes as “singularly unrefined...in its hilly, primitive form,” influence the events of the book?
2. Words, Wisconsin, is a tiny town, not even located on maps of the region. How important is the rural setting of Driftless? How would the book be different if it were set in a city, or even in nearby Grange?
3. In many ways, Driftless seems to be a novel of oppositions—between the dairy corporation and the farmers, the Amish and the other residents, or a caregiver and a caretaker. What are some of the other oppositions in the book?
4. When July first arrives on the outskirts of Words, he observes that “the dead forever change the living.” How does this assertion relate to July’s experience? Is a statement like this more true in a small town like Words?
5. During Winnie’s epiphany, she realizes that “boundaries did not exist. Where she left off and something else began could not be established.” Is this notion and/or experience of unity displayed elsewhere in the book?
6. Early in the book, Winnie is told that “religion is irrelevant to the modern world.” Do you agree? In this book, is religion a source for wisdom, naïveté, or a combination of the two?
7. Both Winnie and Gail are described as being “chosen”—Winnie through her epiphany; Gail because of the song she writes. What does the parallel between these two characters tell you about them? Are there other characters who are similarly paired?
8. Driftless is a collection of stories from many different characters. Do you think any one of the characters is particularly important or central? What is the effect of having many speakers narrate the story?
9. Grahm is forced to trust Cora’s instincts when they lose their children in the snowstorm. In what way does that decision influence the rest of their story? Are there other characters who must trust in something beyond their control?
10. Words is described as a town “attached more firmly to the past than to the present.” Some of the inhabitants of Words do seem firmly rooted in their history, but many of them also seem to be escaping their past. What role does the past play in Driftless?
11. Words, Wisconsin, is said to be named for Elias Words, the explorer who founded the town. Yet the name Words may also be metaphorical. What role does language play in the book? Which characters are good with words, and which are not? How does this affect their stories?
12. Rusty’s attitudes toward the Amish seem out of line with his own neighbors’ attitudes. Are his concerns justified? If Rusty’s attitude has changed by the end of the novel, to what would you attribute that change?
13. In this book, corporations seem to be corrupt, and the government is little help. The most radical response to this problem is Moe Ridge’s militia. His speech at the end of the book convinces some, but not all, of the characters to join his cause. What do you think of Moe?
14. The cougar July spots at the beginning of the book is an unfamiliar presence to the residents of Words. Are there other external forces facing Words? What do you think the future holds for the town?
15. After his death, revelations about July lead some of his friends to suspect that they didn’t really know him, and yet a number of characters considered July a good friend. In retrospect, was July a good friend to the other characters in the novel?
(Questions issued by publisher.)
Snapper
Brian Kimberling, 2013
Knopf Doubleday
224 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780307908056
Summary
A great, hilarious new voice in fiction: the poignant, all-too-human recollections of an affable bird researcher in the Indiana backwater as he goes through a disastrous yet heartening love affair with the place and its people.
Nathan Lochmueller studies birds, earning just enough money to live on. He drives a glitter-festooned truck, the Gypsy Moth, and he is in love with Lola, a woman so free-spirited and mysterious she can break a man’s heart with a sigh or a shrug.
Around them swirls a remarkable cast of characters: the proprietor of Fast Eddie’s Burgers & Beer, the genius behind “Thong Thursdays”; Uncle Dart, a Texan who brings his swagger to Indiana with profound and nearly devastating results; a snapping turtle with a taste for thumbs; a German shepherd who howls backup vocals; and the very charismatic state of Indiana itself.
And at the center of it all is Nathan, creeping through the forest to observe the birds he loves and coming to terms with the accidental turns his life has taken. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Raised—Evansville, Indiana
• Education—B.A., Indiana University; M.A., Bath
Spa University
• Currently—lives in England
Brian Kimberling grew up in southern Indiana and spent two years working as a professional birdwatcher before living in the Czech Republic, Turkey, Mexico, and now England. He received an MA in creative writing from Bath Spa University in 2010. Snapper (2013) is his debut novel. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Mr. Kimberling grew up in the Hoosier state, and the book captures the place with wry humor, affection for its woodlands and exasperation with its provincialism.
New York Times
Reading Brian Kimberling's debut novel, Snapper, is a fascinating and disorienting experience…Like Indiana's leaves, the colors of Kimberling's book are vivid, often startling, and so myriad that it's sometimes difficult to focus on all of them…[Nathan] Lochmueller is a wanderer at heart, and his tales of southern Indiana flit from event to event and character to character like the songbirds he studies.
Jennifer Miller - Washington Post
Poignant as well as thought-provoking—a delightful departure from the ordinary.... It’s quite a feat, to keep readers reading on the strength of laughter. Kimberling...turns the trick effortlessly.
Seattle Times
Brian Kimberling’s Snapper is a phenomenal book, quietly profound and as entertaining as any book I’ve read in the past five years.... Kimberling articulates, better than anyone I’ve read, the sorrow that arises from trying to find the magic of one’s youth with the original ingredients.
Weston Cutter - Minneapolis Star Tribune
This kind of small-town adolescence is uniquely American, and it’s a lifestyle that’s rapidly vanishing. Brian Kimberling perfectly captures this experience in his debut novel, Snapper.... Kimberling writes about all of this in a voice part John Audubon, part Holden Caulfield but uniquely his own. The book’s pace is leisurely, the mood is sometimes melancholy, and readers will finish the final page feeling thoroughly satisfied. CNN.com
[A] hilarious debut novel. (10 Titles to Pick Up Now)
Oprah Magazine
Brian Kimberling's debut novel, Snapper, is a lovely, loose-limbed collection of stories about an aimless ornithologist.
First Reads - NPR.com
[C]atchy, well-written debut novel. Nathan Lochmueller, a recent philosophy graduate, takes a low-paying job as a songbird researcher at his alma mater, Indiana University, during the mid-1990s.... Nathan, past 30 and still aimless, pins his hopes on a lead to work at a Vermont raptor hospital, but his love-hate relationship with Indiana makes it difficult to move away.... [An] accomplished, ironic Midwest coming-of-age tale.
Publishers Weekly
When a publicist says that a book is punch-in-the-gut-affecting and she wants to scream it from the rooftops, I sit up and listen. Now I'm sold on this debut. The topic might seem improbable—Nathan Lochmueller is a bird researcher in southern Indiana—but...the characters immediately attract.
Library Journal
In those awkward, drifting, post-college years, when many young men find themselves working behind a counter, Nathan Lochmueller learns he has a gift for tracking songbirds.... Told with precise and memorable prose in beautifully rendered, time-shifted vignettes, Snapper richly evokes the emotions of coming to adulthood.... Kimberling writes gracefully about absurdity, showing a rich feeling for the whole range of human tragicomedy. A delightful debut.
Booklist
A sad-sack ornithologist navigates the wilds of southern Indiana and its quirky denizens. Kimberling's debut is a collection of linked stories narrated by Nathan Lochmueller, a smart but mostly luckless man who stumbles into a job monitoring bird patterns.... This book has enough of a story arc that the fact that it's not a full-fledged novel is somewhat frustrating...a more intricately structured tale could give his character more resonance. A well-turned debut that airdrops its characters into an appealingly offbeat milieu.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. The book opens with “I got my job by accident.” How does this set the tone of the book? Does it describe the path of Nathan’s life? How does this idea apply to the secondary characters in the book?
2. Snapper revolves around birdwatching. What part do animals play in the book? How do animals help to move the story and define the characters? In what way are they characters themselves?
3. Several of the stories feature Lola. Is Nathan’s infatuation with Lola affected by her unavailability? Does Nathan love Lola? How do Nathan’s other relationships compare to his with Lola?
4. How does Nathan treat his relationships? Does he have trouble committing to anything? To anyone? Is he better on his own or with someone?
5. Does the book portray men and women with mutual respect? Does one gender have more control or power than the other or are they equal?
6. Kimberling references Peter Taylor, a loyal Tennessee native, and Nathan is clearly from Indiana. How much are the main characters defined by their home states? If Dart and Loretta represent Texas, then how do they differ from the characters from Indiana? Is it significant that Nathan’s mother is from Texas and his father is from Indiana?
7. The author also references to Katherine Anne Porter, whose writing deals with topics like justice, betrayal, and the unforgiving nature of humans. How are these topics handled in the story?
8. Uncle Dart squares off with the Klan yet displays his own prejudices. Is this solely to bother Nathan? At what point is a joke to be taken seriously? Or is it simply wrong to joke about certain topics? Where do you believe the boundaries are?
9. Nathan claims to “wax wroth with Darcy” yet seldom speaks with anger or indignity. Does he believe he has stronger convictions than he shows? Does he take an active or passive approach? How does his taste in literature match his ideals and represent his values?
10. This book deals with tolerance on many different levels and on many topics. How much can be overlooked? Lola does not hide the fact that she has multiple lovers. How forgiving are we due to love, or lust? Dart and Loretta return to Texas. How much can we be expected to accept from our family?
11. Nathan parts ways with John at the end of chapter IV. Why do long friendships end or fail to be rekindled? Darren is obviously not an ideal roommate, but is allowed to stay until he hurts Nathan. When does the line get crossed with friends?
12. What can be taken from Nathan’s encounter with Maud and Ernie? Why were they offended? They welcome all to their diner. Are they choosing to turn a blind eye unless forced to do otherwise?
13. Nathan has encounters with veterans. Once in the woods, and another in the vet center. Compare the two encounters with each other and with Nathan`s experience in Outward Bound. How do these three experiences complement each other? How do they differ?
14. Have you tried, a la Ernest Hemingway, to write a story in six words? How long does a story need to be? Is this a story collection or a novel? What is the difference? How important is a plotline in telling a story? Is it more satisfying to have one or more enjoyable to be free of the bounds of the structure?
15. Lola has clearly changed in Nathan’s eyes later in the story. How has she changed? How has Nathan changed? Do they have the same values now as in their youth?
16. Nathan compares headlights and traffic lights to his patch of woods. He laments, “Oh, people. My people” (page 210). Would Nathan and Shane as young men stop to pick up an older Nathan waving his arms in the middle of the road?
17. How do these stories follow the tradition of American folk tales? How do they not?
18. The last chapter is titled “Elegy.” To whom or what does this refer?
19. Why is the book entitled Snapper?
(Questions issued by publisher.)
Jewelweed
David Rhodes, 2013
Milkweed Editions
448 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781571311009
Summary
With his 2008 novel Driftless, "the best work of fiction to come out of the Midwest in many years" (Alan Cheuse, NPR), Rhodes brought Words, Wisconsin, to life in a way that resonated with readers across America.
Now, with Jewelweed, this beloved author returns to the Driftless Region, and introduces a cast of characters who all find themselves struggling to find a new sense of belonging in the present moment—sometimes with the help of peach preserves or mashed potato pie.
After serving time for a conviction, Blake Bookchester returns home, enthralled by the philosophy of Spinoza and yearning for the woman he loves. Having agitated for his release, Reverend Winifred Helm slowly comes to understand that she is no longer fulfilled by the ministry.
Winnie’s precocious son, August, and his best friend, Ivan, befriend a hermit and roam the woods in search of the elusive Wild Boy. And Danielle Workhouse, Ivan’s single mother and Blake’s former lover, struggles to do right by her son. These and other inhabitants of Words—all flawed, deeply human, and ultimately universal—approach the future with a combination of hope and trepidation, increasingly mindful of the importance of community to their individual lives.
Rich with a sense of empathy and wonder, Jewelweed offers a vision in which the ordinary becomes mythical, and the seemingly mundane is transformed into revelatory beauty. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1946
• Raised—outside Des Moines, Iowa, USA
• Education—B.A., Marlboro College; M.F.A., Iowa
Writers' Workshop
• Currently—lives in Wonewoc, Wisconsin
David Rhodes is an American novelist. He has published five books—Jewelweed in 2013 and before that Driftless in 2008. Both books, along with Rock Island Line before them, take place in the fictional small town of Word, Wisconsin.
Rhodes grew up outside Des Moines, Iowa. As a young man, he worked in fields, hospitals, and factories across the state. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Marlboro College in 1969 and a Master of Fine Arts degree from The Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1971. Soon after, he published three acclaimed novels: The Last Fair Deal Going Down (1972), The Easter House (1974), and Rock Island Line (1975).
In 1976, a motorcycle accident left Rhodes partially paralyzed. In 2008, he returned to the literary scene with Driftless, a novel hailed as “the best work of fiction to come out of the Midwest in many years” (Alan Cheuse). He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2010, to support the writing of Jewelweed, published three years later.
Rhodes lives with his wife, Edna, in rural Wonewoc, Wisconsin. (Adapted from the pubisher and Wikipedia. Retrieved 6/4/2013.)
Book Reviews
I liked Driftless, but his emotionally rich new novel, Jewelweed, a sequel of sorts, is even better. The novel emits frequent solar flares of surprise and wonder.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
[A] deeply moving meditation on the resonance of each individual life on a small Wisconsin town.
Wisconsin State Journal
Jewelweed is a novel of forgiveness, a generous ode to the spirit’s indefatigable longing for love.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
There’s a benevolent sort of rural American magical realism in Rhodes’s latest ensemble novel, set in the Driftless region of southeast Wisconsin, where recently paroled Blake Bookchester returns from prison after serving over 10 years for drug trafficking. In the oddly isolated town of Words, Wis., Blake haltingly reintegrates himself into a vividly real landscape.... Rhodes sometimes bear[s] down too hard to make the point that actions and words of this size and simplicity have profound redemptive qualities.
Publishers Weekly
The novel is filled with vibrant, skillfully drawn characters whose lives will surprise readers.... Rhodes also has important things to say about humble, hardworking Americans at odds with contemporary American culture, which he finds predatory, corporate, and soulless. Verdict: An impressive and emotionally gratifying novel. —Patrick Sullivan, Manchester Community Coll., CT
Library Journal
[A] rhapsodic, many-faceted novel of profound dilemmas, survival, and gratitude.... Rhodes portrays his smart, searching, kind characters with extraordinary dimension as each wrestles with what it means to be good and do good.
Booklist
Discussion Questions
1. Did the justice system fail Blake? Was his prison sentence an appropriate length? Can he escape that part of his past? How do the other characters view the prison system? Does Jewelweed make a larger commentary on prisons?
2. How does the Midwestern landscape affect the story? Is there a “Midwestern” voice at play? Would you know Jewelweed takes place in the Midwest if it wasn’t specified? What makes something “Midwestern”?
3. Food is a key element in Jewelweed. Beginning with the breakfast pie Nate eats in the first chapter, food, taste and smell all seem critical to this story. What are some other instances where food is central to the narrative? How has food played an important role in your life? How is memory connected to food?
4. Early in the novel, Winnie considers “how she might know herself better” (35). In what ways are the other characters trying to know themselves better? Are any characters avoiding selfreflection? Which characters are the most successful?
5. The characters in Jewelweed all seem to be yearning for freedom. Freedom looks different for each of the characters, but can the concept be distilled? Do any of the characters find the freedom they seek?
6. There are glimpses of the fantastic throughout Jewelweed—the giant turtle that evades capture, the Wild Boy’s ability to be largely unseen, the extraordinarily lifelike statues Lester Mortal creates and then burns as a way of letting go of parts of his past. Much of the novel is imbued with a subtle sense of magic despite its grounding in a rural landscape. How does Rhodes make the ordinary seem extraordinary? Does his writing style evoke the fantastic, or does the content? Is it some combination form and content?
7. What function does the Wild Boy serve? When the details of the Wild Boy are fleshed out as Jewelweed comes to a close, does your opinion of Lester Mortal change?
8. At one point Blake says to Jacob, “do you ever think maybe there are some things you weren’t supposed to get over? Things that would take you the rest of your life to work through?” (209) What hasn’t Blake gotten over? Is this notion universal? What have other characters been unable to let go of?
9. Why do Ivan and August have such a strong bond? How does August’s worldview impact his relationship with other characters?
10. Faith is a central theme in Jewelweed—religious and otherwise. How does Winnie’s faith evolve throughout the course of the book? Do you think the characters are trying “to find the sacred in the ordinary”? (284) How does Rhodes create the sacred through language?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
Tomorrow There Will be Apricots
Jessica Soffer, 2013
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
317 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780547759265
Summary
This is a story about accepting the people we love—the people we have to love and the people we choose to love, the families we’re given and the families we make. It’s the story of two women adrift in New York, a widow and an almost-orphan, each searching for someone she’s lost. It’s the story of how, even in moments of grief and darkness, there are joys waiting nearby.
Lorca spends her life poring over cookbooks, making croissants and chocolat chaud, seeking out rare ingredients, all to earn the love of her distracted chef of a mother, who is now packing her off to boarding school. In one last effort to prove herself indispensable, Lorca resolves to track down the recipe for her mother’s ideal meal, an obscure Middle Eastern dish called masgouf.
Victoria, grappling with her husband’s death, has been dreaming of the daughter they gave up forty years ago. An Iraqi Jewish immigrant who used to run a restaurant, she starts teaching cooking lessons; Lorca signs up.
Together, they make cardamom pistachio cookies, baklava, kubba with squash. They also begin to suspect they are connected by more than their love of food. Soon, though, they must reckon with the past, the future, and the truth—whatever it might be. Bukra fil mish mish, the Arabic saying goes. Tomorrow, apricots may bloom. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Jessica Soffer earned her MFA at Hunter College, where she was a Hertog Fellow. Her work has appeared in Granta, Vogue and the New York Times, among other publications. Her father, a painter and sculptor, emigrated from Iraq to the US in the late 1940s. She teaches fiction at Connecticut College and lives in New York City. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
This first novel by Jessica Soffer is a work of beauty in words. There is no dead wood in this story; not a word is indispensable. Ms. Soffer is a master artist painting the hidden hues of the human soul. Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots is an intelligent work in the vein of Azar Nafisi where the humanity of the characters transcends cultural or national differences and illustrates commonalities."
New York Journal of Books
Soffer's breathtaking prose interweaves delectable descriptions of food with a profoundly redemptive story about loss, self-discovery, and acceptance.
Oprah Magazine
Teenage Lorca, who has been cutting herself since she was six, still can’t win the attention she craves from her beautiful and inaccessible mother, and so she concocts an impossible scheme to save herself from being sent to boarding school: She’ll re-create the best dinner her mother ever ate, featuring an Iraqi dish called masgouf that here is as fraught with significance as Babette’s feast. Lorca is a diligent dreamer, enlisting the help of a bookstore clerk named Blot and cooking lessons from a grieving Iraqi widow. But in this novel of shifting point of views, you want to linger longest with Lorca; both her shortcomings and her desires are so identifiable you can’t help but root for her.
Vogue.com
[A] poignant story of love, acceptance and memory in the unusual pairing of an Iraqi Jewish widow haunted by the daughter she had given away four decades before and a young teen-age girl who yearns to bring satisfaction to her mother by learning to make a dish she seemed to yearn for. The two meet improbably and feed off of each other’s hopes and desires, as well as a over a mouth-watering menu of Iraqi culinary specialties. Beautifully written with a deep understanding of both woman and girl, the book is a first novel for Jessica Soffer, daughter of an Iraqi Jewish artist, whose imagination and versatility bode well for her future."
Moment Magazine
What makes a family? Where do we find our sustenance? Jessica Soffer examines the often debated questions with artful storytelling. She calls on all of our senses to consider the age old issue of nature vs. nurture. But food, laden with history and culture, the legendary path to the heart, is the medium. Mix in a very needy cast of characters and the recipe for a good tale is perfected.
Jewish Book World
Eighth-grader Lorca has been self-harming since she was six years old, lately to deal with pain she feels due to her distant mother [and]...absent father.... Lorca starts taking cooking lessons from Victoria, an Iraqi Jewish woman mourning the recent death of her husband.... Narrated in turn by Lorca and Victoria, with a few appearances from the late [husband], the novel shows their emotional bond developing as each faces uncomfortable truths. While the plot is thin and the prose dense, there are moments of charm and an ending that reveals the story to be more tightly wound than it appears.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) This powerful debut sheds light on the meaning and power of family, whether its members are blood-related or "created" by nonrelatives. Food is what strengthens relationships here.... However, it is not just the love of food but understanding and acceptance that help to make this such a lovely novel.... [A] charming book, which is as hopeful as its title. —Andrea Tarr, Corona P.L., CA
Library Journal
Told in Victoria and Lorca's alternating first-person voices, the character driven novel… offers fully realized, multidimensional characters who invite empathy and compassion.
Booklist
A delectable tale of the families we choose...indeed, we root for all of Soffer’s rich and complex characters.
BookPage
An unhappy teen and a shellshocked widow make a vital connection, though not the one they initially think, in Soffer's somber debut.... The plot twists are too obvious and the characters too predictable for the tentatively hopeful ending to be very persuasive. Well-written and atmospheric, but overdetermined and relentlessly grim.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. When the novel opens, Lorca has just been suspended from school for cutting herself. Why do you think she stole her mother’s paring knife? What is the significance of her doing so?
2. On page 3, Nancy says to Lorca, “I’m a good mother.” It isn’t the only time this sentiment appears in the novel. What is the subtext of this conversation? Discuss the impression you have of these two women as the novel opens and discuss how this impression changes or doesn’t throughout the novel.
3. Why does Lorca’s mother leave New Hampshire and her marriage to return to New York City? She says, “It’s what I have to do for myself…for women everywhere.” (Page 11) Identify elements of the themes of women’s liberation and feminism in the novel.
4. Many characters in the novel suffer from repressed feelings and thoughts, especially Lorca, Nancy, Victoria, and Joseph. Discuss these characters. How do they repress their feelings, and what are the consequences of this?
5. What first gives rise to Lorca’s plan to make her mother masgouf? What does the dish come to represent to Lorca? What does it represent to Nancy, and to Victoria?
6. Compare and contrast the two primary “couples” of the novel: Victoria and Joseph; Nancy and Lorca. How are their relationships similar and how are they different? What parallels can you draw between their respective struggles and suffering? Victoria thinks many times that she has been difficult to love—do you think she’s right? What about Nancy, who seems to attract more love than she can, or wants, to deal with?
7. This novel explores some family dynamics that can be difficult to look at head-on. Discuss the various families, particularly with regard to how people show love and find happiness (or at least attempt to).
8. Lorca hurts herself repeatedly throughout the novel but sometimes tries to repress her urges. Why do you think she starts to resist, and why do you think she ultimately gives in each time? What do you think it means to Lorca to discover her mother may also have been a self-mutilator? Why is this revelation important for your understanding of these two characters?
9. On page 53, Aunt Lou tells Lorca of her mother, “Someone didn’t love her enough. How about cutting her a little slack?” Similarly, Victoria shares on page 72 that she had been nothing to her own family. Victoria gave up her daughter for adoption, while Nancy herself was adopted. Discuss the effect that generations of neglect and the perpetuation of withheld love has on the characters in this novel. Do you think the circumstances justify these characters’ behavior? Do you feel sympathy for them? Why or why not?
10. How does the author use details about Victoria’s and Joseph’s Jewish traditions to show their alienness? Do you think the story would have been significantly different if Victoria and Joseph had been an American couple? What does their history have to do with the events of the novel?
11. None of the relationships in this book are simple. A “third wheel” infringes upon several: Aunt Lou constantly inserts herself between Lorca and Nancy; Dottie constantly inserts herself between Victoria and Joseph; and in a way, Lorca’s self-esteem and self-mutilation get between her and Blot. How do these outside influences adversely or positively affect the primary relationships they orbit? Do you think any relationship truly exists independent of any other? Support your opinion using examples from the novel.
12. When Lorca first arrives at Victoria’s apartment for her cooking class, what does she do that captures Victoria’s heart? In what ways are the two women similar? How do they help heal each other, beginning at this first class?
13. When Victoria talks about giving up her daughter on page 157, she says, “Something, anything, was worlds better than all the nothing that had been.” What is shifting for Victoria in this moment? Who else in the novel might also have said this?
14. Though a minor character, Blot has a tremendous effect on Lorca and suffers from his own painful family history. What do you think he sees in Lorca that she can’t see about herself? Why do you think he takes on her quest for the owners of The Shohet and His Wife so readily?
15. Many characters in the novel keep secrets from one another. How does Joseph’s secret change the contours of his and Victoria’s relationship when she first discovers that he’s been keeping something from her? What about the secrets Lorca keeps from Blot?
16. Did you believe Victoria and Lorca were truly related? Why or why not? If you did, at what point did you begin to suspect the truth? What clues were there that Victoria may have been wrong about Joseph’s secret? When did you begin to suspect the truth about Dottie?
17. From both Joseph’s and Victoria’s perspectives, why does Joseph have his affair with Dottie? What brings him back to Victoria? What would you do in his situation? How do two people driven so far apart by circumstances and choices find a way back to one another? What do you think the author might say to this?
18. Aunt Lou both insinuates and flat-out tells Lorca that she will never earn her mother’s love with her behavior. She harangues her on pages 190 to 191, pointing out that “everything you do is about her…You don’t do anything because you’re afraid you’ll miss her.” Do you think Aunt Lou is right? Why or why not?
19. One could argue that Lorca’s self-mutilation is a way for her to transmute the pain of her mother’s rejection into pleasure, however brief; to feel herself real despite her mother’s disregard. What is it that finally prompts Lorca to get angry at Nancy? What allows her to start healing from a lifetime of pain?
20. A kind of desperate hunger weaves its way throughout the story. Identify and discuss the different characters and what each truly hungers for. Do you think anyone has his or her hunger satisfied by the end of the novel? Why or why not?
21. The novel’s title comes from the Arabic saying, “Bukra fil mish mish.” Tomorrow, apricots may bloom. What does the saying mean, and why do you think the author chose it?
(Questions issued by publisher.)