Five Days
Douglas Kennedy, 2013
Atria Books
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781451666359
Summary
From the critically lauded, internationally bestselling author of The Moment comes a profoundly moving novel that explores how a single brief encounter can change one’s life.
Laura spends her days looking at other people’s potential calamities. She works in the radiography unit of a small hospital on the Maine coast, bearing constant witness to the fears of patient after frightened patient. In a job where finding nothing is always the best possible outcome, she is well versed in the random injustices of life, a truism that has lately been playing out in her marriage as well. Since being downsized, her husband, Dan, has become withdrawn, his emotional distance gradually corroding their relationship. With a son in college and a daughter soon due to leave home, Laura has begun to fear that the marital sounds of silence will only deepen once the nest is truly empty.
When an opportunity arises to attend a weekend medical conference in Boston, Laura jumps at this respite from home. While checking in, she meets a man as gray and uninspired as her drab hotel room. Richard is an outwardly dull, fiftysomething insurance salesman. But during a chance second encounter, Laura discovers him to be surprisingly complex and thoughtful, someone who, like herself, is grappling with the same big questions about decisions made and the human capacity for self-entrapment. As their conversation deepens and begins to veer into shared confessions, the overwhelming sense of personal and intimate connection arises. A transformative love affair begins. But can this potential, much-longed-for happiness be married to their own difficult personal circumstances? Can they upend their lives and embrace that most loaded of words: change?
A love story as clear-sighted and ruminative as it is affecting, Five Days will have you reflecting about the choices we all make that shape our destinies. Crafted with Kennedy’s trademark evocative prose and pitch-perfect in its depiction of the complex realities of modern life, it is a novel that speaks directly to the many contradictions of the human heart. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1955
• Where—New York, New York, USA
• Education—B.A., Bowdoin College; a year
at Trinity College, Dublin.
• Awards—Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres; Grand Prix du Figaro
• Currently—divides his betweeen London, Paris, Berlin, Montreal and Maine.
Douglas Kennedy, an American novelist, was born in Manhattan in 1955, the son of a commodities broker and a production assistant at NBC. He was educated at The Collegiate School and graduated magna cum laude from Bowdoin College in 1976. He also spent a year studying at Trinity College Dublin. He explained:
I was a history major. Retrospectively, I think the history major provides much better training for a novelist. So much of what I do in my own fiction is observational; is looking at behavior. By studying human history you really see how human folly endlessly repeats itself. In my work—in whatever form it takes—I am very much grappling with what it means to be American in this way.
In 1977, he returned to Dublin and started a co-operative theatre company with a friend. He was later hired to run the Abbey Theatre's second house, The Peacock. At the age of 28, he resigned from The Peacock to write full-time. After several radio plays for the BBC and one stage play, he decided to switch directions and wrote his first book, a narrative account of his travels in Egypt called Beyond the Pyramids, which published in 1988. Kennedy and his wife moved to London that year, where Kennedy expanded his journalistic work, and wrote for the Sunday Times, Sunday Telegraph, Listener, New Statesman, and the British editions of Esquire and GQ.
His 10 novels have been translated in 22 countries. His most recent novel Five Days was published in 2013. His 2011 novel The Moment became a #1 Bestseller in France, as did his 2010 novel, Leaving the World. He received the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2007. In November 2009, he received the first “Grand Prix du Figaro,” awarded by the newspaper Le Figaro.
Kennedy has two children, Max and Amelia. He divides his time between London, Paris, Berlin, Montreal and Maine. (From Wikipedia.)
Read an interview with the author in the Financial Times
Book Reviews
A gripping emotional rollercoaster, pressing so many buttons it’s likely to have readers examining their own what-might-have-beens.
Daily Mail (UK)
Laura Warren is a radiographic technician in Maine, trained to spot disease in others, but unable to determine the cause of her own sadness in the bumpy 11th novel from Kennedy.... [She] jumps at the opportunity for a weekend conference in Boston. There she meets Richard Copeland... [and the two] find in their shared loneliness a common longing to lead a better life together, if they can find the courage to change. While Laura and Richard’s quickly developing relationship is rarely believable, Laura’s confusion and fear are well drawn, and Kennedy ably raises questions about marriage, identity, and happiness.
Publishers Weekly
Kennedy (The Moment) has a way with women, or at least with women characters.... He does this so well that the reader may double-check the author's name to see whether "he" isn't really "she." Laura, 42, married Dan Warren 23 years ago.... She is also the family's mainstay both financially and emotionally.... When Laura attends a work conference in Boston, she meets Richard, a married insurance salesman. Within a few days, the two recognize their unlikely but increasing connection. Finding in each other a mirror image of lost passion, sad marriages, broken dreams, self-doubt, and a corresponding regard for wordplay and art, they offer each other the bolstering and applause they so sorely lack at home. —Sheila M. Riley, Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Washington, DC
Library Journal
The prolific Kennedy explores his favored themes of mortality, love, and loss in this fluidly written tale. Deftly depicting how certain choices can unexpectedly narrow a life, instead of expanding it, he has much to say about the nature of happiness, the difficulty of change, and the great divide between obligation and desire.
Booklist
Two middle-aged, ordinary Mainers have an opportunity to alter their lives through love. Laura, a radiology technician in a small town, is a seasoned diagnostician of the benign or deadly menaces lurking within her patients, even if delivery of the good or bad news must be left to her supervising physician. The fact that she has sold herself short all her life has led to disappointments on every level.... When, at a conference in a Boston hotel, she meets, by chance, insurance salesman Richard, she soon sees the parallels in their lives.... As passionate embraces cinch the deal, it seems that these two lost souls have lucked into a second chance—but will they dare to take it? Despite pages of self-revelatory dialogue, Richard and Laura remain ciphers who may not command enough reader identification to make us care whether their future promises new love or merely a fresh hell. Despite some character underdevelopment, a fine tale of lives re-examined.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Why do you think Douglas Kennedy wrote Laura’s story as it happens in just five days? How would the novel be different if it weren’t limited to this time frame? What does it gain by the limitation?
2. Laura and Lucy “both read to find windows into our own dilemmas” (page 49). Do you choose books for the same reason? What book has recently spoken to you the most? Why?
3. How do Laura’s, Dan’s, and Richard’s relationships with their parents affect their lives? Their marriages? Does it change how they parent their own children?
4. Though there were problems already, Laura and Dan’s marriage went downhill when he lost his job. How does this financial pressure change their relationship? If Dan hadn’t been laid off, do you think they would have stayed married?
5. “That’s been one of the unwritten rules of our friendship: we tell each other everything we want to share. We ask advice and give it reciprocally. But we stop short of saying what we really feel about the other’s stuff” ( page 50). Do you think this is a good “rule” for friends to have? What would you have said to Laura if you were Lucy?
6. Is adultery really a betrayal of trust—or, in the case of Laura, a necessary way for her to begin to confront the empty sadness of her marriage?
7. Why wouldn’t Five Days be the same story if it were told from Richard’s point of view? Does Douglas Kennedy accurately capture the voice of Laura?
8. Both Richard and Laura spent most of their lives in Maine, in small towns with lots of gossip and not much financial opportunity. Could these characters come from any small town, spending a weekend in any big city? Why, or why not?
9. Ben and Billy seem to relate best to one parent. Is this always the case in family life?
10. Laura and Richard both dwell on what direction their lives might have taken if only Eric hadn’t died or Richard had left with Sarah. What is your “possible” life story?
11. Ben, Sally, Billy, and even Laura are in some ways defined by their first relationships. How does this theme play an important part of the novel?
12. Were you surprised by the outcome of Laura and Richard’s affair?
13. In the end, divorce seems to be accomplished without much legal melodrama, at least once the decision is made to end the marriage. How would this novel be different if the divorce were more contentious? Do you think this is an accurate portrayal?
14. Would Laura have had the strength to leave her marriage if she hadn’t met Richard? Why, or why not?
(Questions issued by publisher.)
The Best of Us
Sarah Pekkanen, 2013
Washington Square Press
338 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781451673517
Summary
An all-expense-paid week at a luxury villa in Jamaica—it’s the invitation of a lifetime for a group of old college friends.
All four women are desperate not just for a reunion, but for an escape: Tina is drowning under the demands of mothering four young children. Allie is shattered by the news that a genetic illness runs in her family. Savannah is carrying the secret of her husband’s infidelity. And, finally, there’s Pauline, who spares no expense to throw her wealthy husband an unforgettable thirty-fifth birthday celebration, hoping it will gloss over the cracks already splitting apart their new marriage.
Languid hours on a private beach, gourmet dinners, and late nights of drinking kick off an idyllic week for the women and their husbands. But as a powerful hurricane bears down on the island, turmoil swirls inside the villa, forcing each of the women to reevaluate everything she knows about her friends—and herself. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1967
• Where—New York, New York, USA
• Raised—Bethesda, Maryland
• Education—University of Wisconsin; University of Maryland
• Currently—lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland
Sarah Pekkanen was born in New York City, arriving so quickly that doctors had no time to give her mother painkillers. This was the last time Sarah ever arrived for anything earlier than expected. Her mother still harbors a slight grudge.
Sarah’s family moved to Bethesda, Maryland, where Sarah, along with a co-author, wrote a book entitled “Miscellaneous Tales and Poems.” Shockingly, publishers did not leap upon this literary masterpiece. Sarah sent a sternly-worded letter to publishers asking them to respond to her manuscript. Sarah no longer favors Raggedy Ann stationery, although she is sure it impressed top New York publishers.
Sarah’s parents were hauled into her elementary school to see first-hand the shocking condition of her desk. Sarah’s parents stared, open-mouthed, at the crumpled pieces of paper, broken pencils, and old notebooks crowding Sarah’s desk. Sarah’s organization skills have since improved. Slightly.
After college, Sarah began work as a journalist, covering Capitol Hill. Unfortunately, Sarah could not understand the thick drawls of the U.S. Senators from Alabama, resulting in many unintentional misquotes. Sarah was groped by one octogenarian politician, sumo-bumped off a subway car by Ted Kennedy, and unsuccessfully sued by the chief of staff to a corrupt U.S. Congresswoman. Sarah also worked briefly as an on-air correspondent for e! Entertainment Network, until the e! producers realized that Capitol Hill wasn’t, by any stretch of the imagination, what one might call sexy.
Sarah married Glenn Reynolds, completing her rebellion against her father, who told her never to become a writer or marry a lawyer.
Sarah took a job at Gannett New Service/USAToday, covering Capitol Hill. Sarah was assigned to cover the White House Correspondents Dinner and rode in the Presidential motorcade to the dinner. Sarah convinced a White House aide to let her stick her head out of the limousine moon-roof during the ride and wave to onlookers. Later, her triumph was tempered by the fact that bouncers would not allow her into the Vanity Fair after-party. Sarah attempted entry three times in case the bouncers were just kidding.
Sarah took a job writing features for the Baltimore Sun, and interviewed the actor who played Greg Brady. She refrained from asking if he really made out with Marcia, but just barely.
Sarah and Glenn’s son Jackson was born. He arrived too quickly for Sarah to receive painkillers, and Sarah was pretty sure she saw her mother smirking. When Glenn put a loving hand on Sarah’s shoulder during the throes of labor, Sarah decided the most expedient way to get Glenn to remove his hand was to bite it, hard. She was proved right.
Twenty months later, Sarah and Glenn’s son Will was born. Three weeks later, Sarah and Glenn moved into a new home and renovated the kitchen. Two weeks later, Glenn caught pneumonia and simultaneously started a new job. Ten days after the kitchen renovation was complete, the kitchen caught on fire, and Sarah, Glenn and family moved to a hotel while renovation began anew. Sarah and Glenn decided to work on their "timing" issues.
Having left her journalism job to chase around the ever-active Jack and Will, Sarah started writing a column for Bethesda Magazine and began work on a novel. She did not write it on Raggedy Ann stationery.
Her first book, The Opposite of Me, came out in 2010 and her second, Skiping, a Beat in 2011. Those were followed by These Girls in 2012, The Best of Me in 2013, and Catching Air in 2014.
Sarah gave birth to a bouncing baby boy, Dylan, and gets a little weepy every time she contemplates her good luck. (Adapted from the author's website.)
Book Reviews
Pekkanen offers a conversational writing style and a knack for making readers care about her characters… a refreshing look at the importance of female friendship.
Washington Post
A perfect book to cozy up with on a rainy day.
Marie Claire
It's just the book to banish the last of your winter blues.
People
Reading this BFF-getaway-gone-wrong novel is like vacay without leaving the couch.
Glamour
A perfect beach read, it's also a perfect weekend book. Get out a few chocolates and a glass of wine and prepare to make some new friends.
Examiner.com
(Starred review.) Pekkanen (The Opposite of Me) sparkles with her latest, a touching tale of college friends whose happily ever afters aren’t as perfect as they might have once expected.... All are granted a brief respite while enjoying perfect beaches, lazy days, and late-night cocktails, but an approaching hurricane will soon test everyone’s mettle—and loyalty. Lovably flawed, realistic characters and a fast-paced story make this a deeply enjoyable page-turner.
Publishers Weekly
Fans of Jennifer Weiner and Emily Giffin will strongly appreciate this rising star in women's fiction.
Library Journal
To celebrate her billionaire husband's 35th birthday, Pauline has arranged the party of a lifetime. With his best friends from college (and their spouses) at a no-expenses-spared resort in Jamaica, what could possibly go wrong? Well, everything.... Pekkanen details every menu, catalogs each event's luxuries and narrates each woman's inner turmoil. The men, even the birthday boy, are merely props for the women's troubles—that is, until Gary's sudden arrival and a Category-2 hurricane begins bearing down on the group. Another tale of female friendships conquering all, wrapped in luxury and faux danger.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Which of the women in The Best of Us did you most identify with, and why?
2. Discuss the four marriages that are depicted in The Best of Us. What kinds of adjectives would you use to describe each of them? Do any of your past or current relationships have similarities to one or more of these marriages? Which marriage seems the strongest and the most appealing to you?
3. What do you think each woman learns from her time in Jamaica? How does the trip change each of them?
4. At several points in the novel, Gio makes jabs at Dwight and the way that his financial success is on display during the vacation. Allie suggests that Gio’s ability to provide for his family might be a sensitive point for him, saying, “Everyone has different emotional triggers, and even if they don’t make sense to the rest of us, it’s important to respect them” (p. 109). What is this moment in the novel saying about both Allie and Gio? And do you agree with Allie’s assessment?
5. Savannah has many, many witty lines over the course of the novel. Did you have a favorite? She also doesn’t hesitate to say exactly what she is thinking, which contrasts with the personalities of “peacemakers” like Allie. Which woman are you more like, and has there ever been a time when you’ve slipped into the other’s role?
6. As Allie faces the possibility of a fatal illness, she begins to second-guess many aspects of her life, including her relationship with Ryan. She wonders: “Had she been mistaking her husband’s passivity for agreeableness all these years?” (p. 171). How did you interpret Ryan’s easygoing nature? What do you think this quote is saying about the behavior patterns that couples fall into over time?
7. Tina is devastated when she realizes she forgot to call her kids on the first night they all arrive in Jamaica—and then wonders why Gio hadn’t remembered either. How are their parenting styles shown to differ throughout the novel? How do you think one’s role as a parent affects one’s role in a marriage?
8. There are many characters in The Best of Us who look for forgiveness at some point during the narrative. What do you think the novel is saying about the role of second chances in marriages and close friendships? Should they be freely given? And can romantic or platonic love ever truly be unconditional?
9. Which aspect of the trip to Jamaica sounded the most appealing to you? However, as relaxing as a vacation can be, The Best of Us illustrates that it can also be an occasion for stress. Did this resonate with you? Why do you think this happens?
10. Since Savannah, Allie, and Tina were all close friends in college, Pauline is less comfortable with them, and sometimes appears to be standoffish. Did your opinion of Pauline change over the course of the novel?
11. After learning that Dwight has cheated on her, Pauline thinks, “He violated my trust, but what I did was even worse. I never truly trusted him in the first place” (p. 329). Do you agree with this?
12. “Didn’t all marriages carry thousands of hurts? Didn’t husbands and wives injure each other all the time, leaving wounds both big and small, with snapped words or forgotten anniversaries or emotional buttons deliberately pushed? But thousands of kindnesses existed in marriages, too. The important thing was that the kindnesses triumphed over the hurts” (p. 334). Do you agree with this assessment of marriage? If you had to pick one mantra or saying that defined a successful romantic relationship to you, what would it be?
(Questions issued by publisher.)
Claiming Jeremiah
Missy B. Salick, 2013
Self-published
204 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780989150804
Summary
On the same night that twenty four-year-old Jordyn Sims has a miscarriage, her sister-in-law Tori Sims conceives a child. Nine months later, Tori, a long term heroin addict, abandons her two-hour-old drug addicted newborn Jeremiah, in a hospital stairwell.
Jordyn receives the news and pursues foster adoption. However, Oscar, Tori's possessive drug-addicted boyfriend, is not about to give Jeremiah up so easily.
While in confrontation with Tori and Oscar, Jordyn seeks help from the Administration of Children Services (ACS), only to discover she is faced with a maze of departments regulations, legalities and overworked social workers. Jordyn, however, remains strong and continues to push through the uphill battle, even after she discovers she's pregnant.
With all odds against her adoption of Jeremiah, and her pregnancy at high risk from increasing stress, will Jordyn win this tough battle, or will her world crumble before her? (From the author.)
Author Bio
Missy B. Salick is a new author who has written her first novel, Claiming Jeremiah. Her fictional memoir on foster adoption has been drawing a hefty buzz, with both online and paperback released in 2013 (May 4 for paperback). The novel is small in size, but contains a powerful message. "Children in foster care need a place to call home." Salick, a foster care advocate, wrote this book based on her personal journey of foster adopting her four-year-old son.
Before self-publishing, Claiming Jeremiah, Salick spent several years as a freelance business writer for Fortune 500 companies including, Shearman & Sterling, KPMG, Deloitte and many more. She also had a stint with song ghost writing. Salick's experience in the entertainment industry stems from working with entertainment companies and media including Violator, MBK, Village Voice and more. As the founder of J.J. Autumn Publishing, her publishing company is geared towards highlighting urban fiction dedicated to special causes and community awareness projects.
When Missy is not promoting foster adoption, she can be found volunteering at Junior Achievement, being a Big Sister and counseling young girls through Journal Writing or helping to save the Polar Bears with WWF. (From the author.)
Book Reviews
Missy is a talented writer with a keen social conscience. She’s an advocate for foster adoption, and in this capacity, has written a gripping, entertaining, and informative bookabout the foster and adoption processes. She writes in a manner where the distinctive voices of each character are not only colorful but interesting. I recommend Missy as an author, a speaker, and an informed and experienced advocate.
Dr. Margaret Brito - Louverture Arts Facilitator
We’ve all heard stories or seen made-for-television movies about dealing with children going through the adoption an exceptional piece, written by a prolific author. She was able to write in a manner that the distinctive voices of each character were not only colorful but interesting. Claiming Jeremiah is astounding, both entertaining and informative. Missy Salick writes in a style that allows the reader to connect with the characters and share the emotional roller coaster ride through the adoption process. I would recommend this book to novice and seasoned readers alike. It is a story worth reading.
J. Tremble, Author, Foster Advocate - Life-Changing Books
Discussion Questions
1. For much of the novel, Jordyn tends to be very strong-minded about what she wants even after Julian disagrees. Do you think she is being fair to him or their relationship?
2. In what ways do you think Tori’s path would have been altered if her brother, Julian, would have stayed in New York?
3. Do you think Julian should have had a stronger voice in expressing his beliefs?
4. Jordyn’s family was not thrilled about her bringing Jeremiah into her life—did they go too far with their comments? What would have been your reaction if your family had said those things to you?
5. Do you feel Tori has any type of resentment toward her brother because of how their mother puts him on a pedestal? Do you think their mother loves Tori as much as she loves Julian or less? Does her love for Tori seem non-existent because of Tori’s constant mishaps?
6. Should Jordyn have stopped fighting for Jeremiah after she learned of her pregnancy? Should she have stopped after her first health scare?
7. What do you think about Oscar’s character and his actions toward Tori’s? At any point and time do you think he cared for her?
8. After Jordyn spilled her secret to the women in her family, were they able to understand her more? Or do you think they still looked at her the same?
9. From the early stages of the story, what do you think was at the root of the reason Jordyn chose to foster and then adopt Jeremiah? Was it just to prevent Jeremiah from heading to foster care or was there an ulterior motive?
10. Mr. Henderson seems to have a certain view of the foster care system that led him to make his final decision. Do you think he made the right choice? Or is he just another caseworker who has given up hope?
11. Do you think Oscar’s actions toward the end of the story are justifiable? Was he right in the sense that Jeremiah won’t understand his ethnic background and its culture being raised in a middle-class lifestyle?
12. Jordyn evidently has a lot of emotional issues related to how her mother was not a strong maternal figure when Jordyn was growing up. Do you think the birth of her child and having Jeremiah will heal those scars?
13. After reading Claiming Jeremiah, what are your views on the foster care system? Do you believe the system works (as-is) or is designed to run as a business, without taking into account the welfare of the children at stake? If you could fix the system, what would you change?
(Questions kindly provided by author.)
Fly Away
Kristin Hannah, 2013
St. Martin's Press
416 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780312577216
Summary
Once, a long time ago, I walked down a night-darkened road called Firefly Lane, all alone, on the worst night of my life, and I found a kindred spirit. That was our beginning. More than thirty years ago. TullyandKate. You and me against the world. Best friends forever. But stories end, don’t they? You lose the people you love and you have to find a way to go on. . . .
Tully Hart has always been larger than life, a woman fueled by big dreams and driven by memories of a painful past. She thinks she can overcome anything until her best friend, Kate Ryan, dies. Tully tries to fulfill her deathbed promise to Kate—to be there for Kate’s children—but Tully knows nothing about family or motherhood or taking care of people.
Sixteen-year-old Marah Ryan is devastated by her mother’s death. Her father, Johnny, strives to hold the family together, but even with his best efforts, Marah becomes unreachable in her grief. Nothing and no one seems to matter to her...until she falls in love with a young man who makes her smile again and leads her into his dangerous, shadowy world.
Dorothy Hart—the woman who once called herself Cloud—is at the center of Tully’s tragic past. She repeatedly abandoned her daughter, Tully, as a child, but now she comes back, drawn to her daughter’s side at a time when Tully is most alone. At long last, Dorothy must face her darkest fear: Only by revealing the ugly secrets of her past can she hope to become the mother her daughter needs.
A single, tragic choice and a middle-of-the-night phone call will bring these women together and set them on a poignant, powerful journey of redemption. Each has lost her way, and they will need each one another—and maybe a miracle—to transform their lives.
An emotionally complex, heart-wrenching novel about love, motherhood, loss, and new beginnings, Fly Away reminds us that where there is life, there is hope, and where there is love, there is forgiveness. Told with her trademark powerful storytelling and illuminating prose, Kristin Hannah reveals why she is one of the most beloved writers of our day. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—September, 1960
• Where—Southern California, USA
• Reared—Western Washington State
• Education—J.D., from a school in Washington (state)
• Awards—Awards—Golden Heart Award; Maggie Award; National Reader's Choice
• Currently—lives in Bainbridge Island, Washington
In her words
I was born in September 1960 in Southern California and grew up at the beach, making sand castles and playing in the surf. When I was eight years old, my father drove us to Western Washington where we called home.
After working in a trendy advertising agency, I decided to go to law school. "But you're going to be a writer" are the prophetic words I will never forget from my mother. I was in my third-and final-year of law school and my mom was in the hospital, facing the end of her long battle with cancer. I was shocked to discover that she believed I would become a writer. For the next few months, we collaborated on the worst, most clichéd historical romance ever written.
After my mom's death, I packed up all those bits and pieces of paper we'd collected and put them in a box in the back of my closet. I got married and continued practicing law.
Then I found out I was pregnant, but was on bed rest for five months. By the time I'd read every book in the house and started asking my husband for cereal boxes to read, I knew I was a goner. That's when my darling husband reminded me of the book I'd started with my mom. I pulled out the boxes of research material, dusted them off and began writing. By the time my son was born, I'd finished a first draft and found an obsession.
The rejections came, of course, and they stung for a while, but each one really just spurred me to try harder, work more. In 1990, I got "the call," and in that moment, I went from a young mother with a cooler-than-average hobby to a professional writer, and I've never looked back. In all the years between then and now, I have never lost my love of, or my enthusiasm for, telling stories. I am truly blessed to be a wife, a mother, and a writer. (From the author's website .)
Book Reviews
Prolific novelist Hannah revisits the characters...of her bestselling Firefly Lane in this slow-paced but largely well-executed sequel. Tully Hart, the famous 50-year-old former host of the talk show The Girlfriend, isn’t dealing well with the recent death of her best friend Kate, whose daughter, Marah, has run away.... Told in a shopworn form—turns and flashbacks from the perspectives of Marah, Johnny, and Tully—the plot is unnecessarily repetitive,...but fans will appreciate the depth of character as they wade toward a neatly tied-up and heart-warming denouement.
Publishers Weekly
Hannah's enthralling and touching sequel to Firefly Lane continues the tale of Tully and Kate's poignant friendship and the journey they still share even in death. Once Kate dies....[Tullly]...quickly finds herself following in her mother's footsteps of addiction.... Verdict: A moving read about mothers and daughters, families, friends, second chances, love, heartbreak, faith, grieving, and healing. Tissues required. —Anne M. Miskewitch, Chicago P.L.
Library Journal
When we last left Kate and Tully,...the friendship was on rocky ground. Now Kate has died of cancer, and Tully, whose once-stellar TV talk show career is in free fall, is wracked with guilt.... Tully's long-estranged mother, Dorothy, aka Cloud...details for the first time the abusive childhood...that led to her life as a junkie lowlife and punching bag for trailer-trash men. Although powerful, Cloud's largely peripheral story deflects focus away from the main conflict, as if Hannah was loath to tackle the intractable thicket in which she mired her main characters. Unrelenting gloom relieved only occasionally by wrenching trauma; somehow, though, Hannah's storytelling chops keep the pages turning even as readers begin to resent being drawn into this masochistic morass.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. First, a show of hands: Who among you has read Firefly Lane? For those who have not: Do you wish you had read it before this follow-up novel? Or does Fly Away stand on its own? Discuss your reasons. This might be a good time to fill the haven’t-reads in on some plot points—no spoilers!—from Firefly Lane as well.
2. When we first see Tully in Fly Away, she is a wreck. Why do you think she’s still so destroyed by her best friend’s death? How did losing Kate contribute to Tully’s loss of her own sense of self? And do you believe that one person can really be the glue that holds a whole life together?
3. In Firefly Lane, a dying Kate said these words to Tully: “You’re afraid of love, but you’ve got so much of it to give.” Is that true of the Tully we see in Fly Away? Is giving—or finding or receiving—love a choice that Tully can just make or break? Why can’t Tully believe in love?
4. Kate was deeply loved by her family. How do Johnny, Marah, the twins, and Margie cope with her loss? How does each character find a way to heal? Do they help or hinder each other? Do their struggles feel real to you as a reader? You may choose to share your own personal experiences if doing so seems relevant or even helpful.
5. At Kate’s funeral, Johnny had “pushed through the crowd [and] passed several people, all of whom murmured some variation of the same useless words—sorry, suffering over, better place.” What is the language of loss? How do we talk about death in everyday life? How do the characters do so in Fly Away?
6. A better place. Where is Kate in the world of this novel? How do her loved ones look for signs of her—and how does she find a way to reach them? Again, talk about what feels real to you as a reader. What narrative devices did the author use to bring the more mystical elements of life, death, and life-after-death to the novel? Did Fly Away succeed in making you ...believe? 7. In Fly Away, the dark truth about Dorothy’s past comes to light. “How could she explain to her daughter what she’d never been able to understand for herself? All her life she had tried to protect Tully from the truth ...It was too late to undo all that damage now.” Do you believe that’s true? Is it ever too late to tell the people you love about your past? Do you forgive Dorothy for Tully’s abandonment? Do you understand why it happened?
8. “I wanted to become a woman the whole world admired,” says Tully. “Without [fame] who would I be? Just a girl with no family who was easy to leave behind and put aside.” Even though Tully enjoyed great success as a celebrity journalist, she had to pay a price: Her downfall unfolded on a national stage. Take a moment to talk about Tully’s public persona versus her private one. How did being famous help Tully during her times of need? How did it hurt her? Do you believe that being a celebrity and being loved by strangers can truly make you happy?
9. Take the question above to another level: Why do we invest so much interest in celebrity culture? What passes for entertainment in the age of reality television? How do you think Tully, and Tully’s celebrity, fits into the world as you see it now? Did Tully’s fame and fortune contribute to her fall?
10. Fly Away is a novel about love and loss, family and friendship, and everything in between. It’s also about the pursuit of the American Dream, offering glimpses into key events, trends, and cultural mores in our country’s history. What did being—and becoming—American mean to Dorothy’s Ukrainian parents? To Rafe Montoya? Talk about some of the cultural highlights (and lowlights) that are woven into Fly Away—from the freewheeling sixties and the Vietnam War to the material-girl eighties up to the present day. How does each character embrace or reject the so-called values of his or her era? What risks and benefits are involved?
11. Paxton and Marah. Rafe and Dorothy. Romeo and Juliet. “It seemed so romantic at first,” Marah thinks. “All that ‘us against them.’” What is it about love that’s forbidden that is so attractive to the characters in Fly Away? Why is the theme of ill-fated love so well represented in literature in general? Why do we love stories about love’s triumph over—everything?
12. If you could ask the author anything about Fly Away—clarification on a plot point, a detail about a particular character, scenes from the cutting-room floor—what would it be? (You may choose to contact Kristin via Facebook, and ask her!)
(Questions issued by publisher.)
The Humanity Project
Jean Thompson, 2013
Blue Rider Press
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780142180907
Summary
After surviving a shooting at her high school, Linnea is packed off to live with her estranged father, Art, who doesn’t quite understand how he has suddenly become responsible for raising a sullen adolescent girl.
Art’s neighbor, Christie, is a nurse distracted by an eccentric patient, Mrs. Foster, who has given Christie the reins to her Humanity Project, a bizarre and well-endowed charity fund.
Just as mysteriously, no one seems to know where Conner, the Fosters’ handyman, goes after work, but he has become the one person Linnea can confide in, perhaps because his own home life is a war zone: his father has suffered an injury and become addicted to painkillers.
As these characters and many more hurtle toward their fates, the Humanity Project is born: Can you indeed pay someone to be good? At what price?
Thompson proves herself at the height of her powers in The Humanity Project, crafting emotionally suspenseful and thoroughly entertaining characters, in which we inevitably see ourselves. Set against the backdrop of current events and cultural calamity, it is at once a multifaceted ensemble drama and a deftly observant story of our twenty-first-century society. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Jean Thompson is the author of The Humanity Project (2013), The Year We Left Home (2012), the acclaimed short fiction collections Do Not Deny Me (2009) and Throw Like a Girl (2007), the novel City Boy (2004); the short story collection Who Do You Love (1999), a National Book Award finalist for fiction; and the novel Wide Blue Yonder (2002), a New York Times Notable Book and Chicago Tribune Best Fiction selection.
Her short fiction has been published in many magazines and journals, including The New Yorker, and been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories and Pushcart Prize. Jean's work has been praised by Elle magazine as "bracing and wildly intelligent writing that explores the nature of love in all its hidden and manifest dimensions."
Jean's other books include the short story collections The Gasoline Wars and Little Face, and the novels My Wisdom and The Woman Driver.
She has been the recipient of Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, among other accolades, and taught creative writing at the University of Illinois—Champaign/ Urbana, Reed College, Northwestern University, and many other colleges and universities. (From the author's website.)
Book Reviews
Thompson's thoughtful new novel ponders the sins we commit in the name of love and our capacity for compassion.... Thompson asks what can we actually do to change the lives of others, and investigates the value of good intentions, finding answers in the emotional lives of richly-drawn characters who do what they must–and what they think they must—in order to help the ones they love.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) Thompson achieves exceptional clarity and force in this instantly addictive, tectonically shifting novel. As always, her affection and compassion for her characters draw you in close, as does her imaginative crafting of precarious situations and moments of sheer astonishment.... Thompson is at her tender and scathing best in this tale of yearning, paradox, and hope.
Booklist
(Starred review.) [T]his book isn't preachy, and Thompson has a knack for rendering characters who are emotionally fluid.... Thompson caps the story with a smart twist ending that undoes many of the certainties the reader arrived at in the preceding pages. A rare case of a novel getting it both ways: A formal, tightly constructed narrative that accommodates the mess of everyday lives.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. The novel opens with a brief chapter set in italics, and other similar passages are interspersed throughout the novel. Although the italicized section at the end of the book is clearly Linnea’s, who did you think was speaking in these earlier sections? What kind of voice does it seem to be?
2. What brings Conner and Linnea together? Linnea refers to it as either a "desperate friendship or peculiar courtship." What do they give to each other?
3. Does Linnea's arrival change Art? How so? What compels him to reach out to Beata and invite her to lunch?
4. Beata asks Art what he’d like to be doing in ten years, and tells him that she wants "to be entirely new…new work, new house. Everything new and amazing." What do you make of this? What does it tell the reader about Beata? What does Art’s reaction to this comment tell you about him?
5. We get to know the characters both through the sections they narrate, and by the opinions and responses of other characters. Were there some characters you believed more than others? Was it interesting to pick out the discrepancies between different characters’ points of view?
6 A reviewer of the book writes that it "vividly, insistently poses questions we should be asking." What, in your view, are the questions it asks? (Suzanne Berne, The New York Times Book Review)
7. Several characters wonder aloud what "The Humanity Project" means, or even what "humanity" means. Does the novel have an answer to this question? What is the purpose of the project? Is it actually definable? Does it succeed in any way?
8. Towards the end of the novel, Christie wonders: "What if she were to allow herself to feel everything she really felt…why fight against her every instinct and impulse, bend herself into some impossible and hobbled shape, hold herself back with every step?" Why do you think it has "taken her so long to even ask" these questions?
9. What does the book have to say about virtue? What is it, and what is it not? Does the novel make a judgment at all?
10. Consider the parent-child relationships depicted in the novel: Linnea and Art, Conner and Sean, Leslie and Mrs. Foster, "Laurie" and the shooter. What kind of picture of parenthood does the book paint? Linnea says that she can understand why her mother chose her husband over her child. Do you believe her?
11. Can you understand Linnea’s impulse to change her name and find a new identity? Why does she lie to Connor about what happened to Megan?
12. Discuss Christie ("Nursie") and Sean’s reunion. Christie thinks, "how strange to be so remembered and so touched, in so much forlorn darkness." This line closes the main action of the novel. Would you consider it a hopeful end? Would you agree with Christie that "to be alive is to be, in spite of everything, hopeful?"
(Questions issued by the publisher.)