When We Danced on Water
Evan Fallenberg, 2011
HarperCollins
256 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062033321
Summary
At eighty-five, Teo is ready to retire from the bombast and romance of life as one of the world's most influential choreographers. But when he meets Vivi, a fortyish waitress at a Tel Aviv cafe, the fires of his youth flare back to life—his passion for a woman's touch, his long-buried anguish at his wartime experiences, and his complex engagement with dance.
Vivi's life will change, too, as the warmth of Teo's affection counterbalances her harrowing time as an Israeli soldier in an illicit relationship. For both, their investment in art, and indeed in life itself, will reawaken as the ghosts of their suppressed pasts—from Warsaw to Copenhagen, Berlin to Tel Aviv—cry out for forgiveness and healing.
With lustrous prose capturing the grit and fury of history and the breathtaking power of passion, When We Danced on Water is a compelling novel of intimacy and identity, art and ambition, and how love can truly transcend tragedy. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Cleveland, Ohio, USA
• Education—B.A., Georgetown University; M.F.A.,
Vermont College
• Awards—see below
• Currently—lives in Israel
Evan Fallenberg the author or two books: Light Fell (2008) and When We Danced on Water (2011).
Fallenberg's recent translations include Ron Leshem's Beaufort, Batya Gur's Murder in Jerusalem, Alon Hilu's Death of a Monk and The House of Dajani, and Meir Shalev's A Pigeon and a Boy, winner of the 2007 National Jewish Book Award for fiction and a finalist for the PEN Translation Prize. Fallenberg is an instructor in the Shaindy Rudoff Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Bar-Ilan University and heads his own Studio for Writers (and Readers) of English in the garden of his home. The recipient of a MacDowell Colony fellowship, Fallenberg is the father of two sons.
Fallenberg is a native of Cleveland, Ohio, a graduate of Georgetown University and the MFA program in creative writing at Vermont College. He has lived in Israel since 1985, where he writes, translates and teaches. His first novel, Light Fell, won the American Library Association's Barbara Gittings Stonewall Book Award for Literature and the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction, and was shortlisted for the National Jewish Book Award in fiction and a Lambda Literary Award for Debut Fiction. (From the author's website.)
Book Reviews
Quietly spectacular and emotionally satisfying...Fallenberg achieves the near-impossible, superbly crafting an altogether unique Holocaust story made plausible through utterly gripping realism.
Miami Herald
Lyrical...an enjoyable read...[Fallenberg is] sensitively attuned to the power of individual words. His fluid prose is carefully composed.
Jewish Post
Fallenberg's (Light Fell) precise prose moves fluidly between the delicate and the bold, much like the aging dancer whose story he tells with such elegance. At 84, Teo Levin commands the dancers performing his choreography in the Tel Aviv Ballet with an authority and vigor that belies his age. He looks forward to his daily arguments about devotion and passion with 42-year-old artist Vivi, the waitress at a cafe he frequents. Vivi, aimless in the years since she fled preunified Berlin, finds her focus with Teo, at last. In turn, she forces him to share the secrets he's locked away about a shocking six-year period he endured as a young man in Nazi Germany. Fallenberg gives voice to the miasma of grief that overwhelms Teo and Vivi and achieves resonance in his exploration of music as a visual and physical experience. The author also manages to spin mundane discussions of passion and obsession into a rich narrative, skirting sentimentality. His spare style sneaks up on the reader, enhancing the emotionality inherent in his subject.
Publishers Weekly
As their pasts are revealed, an unexpected blessing bears testament to the beauty and the sustainability of their unconventional relationship.
Booklist
Discussion Questions
1. Discuss Teo's arc as an artist, and Vivi's. Where do they intersect? In what way are their artistic paths similar/dissimilar?
2. The line between passion and obsession is an issue with which When We Danced on Water grapples on several levels. Discuss.
3. Teo is characterized as someone who delves deeply into one art, while Vivi opts for breadth. Do you identify with one of these characteristics more than the other?
4. Time and place are very nearly characters in this book: 1920s Warsaw; pre-war Copenhagen and the Royal Danish Ballet; Berlin during World War II and in the 1980s; modern Tel Aviv. How did these settings affect your experience of reading When We Danced on Water?
5. In an early version of the novel, the scenes with Teo and Vivi together were written as a play (HE:, SHE:, stage directions instead of narration). Can you still feel something of that in the novel?
6. Did you find the writing about dance enriching or offputting?
7. Of all the main characters in this book (Teo, Vivi, Freddy, Margo, Nelly, Pincho) only Freddy is involved in a traditional family relationship. Discuss.
8. Do you consider Teo a victim of the Holocaust? Why/Why not?
9. In your opinion, who got more out of their relationship—Teo or Vivi?
10. On love: do you think that Freddy loved Teo? That Teo loved Freddy? That Teo loved Vivi? That Vivi loved Teo?
11. About Freddy, the writer Cynthia Ozick wrote that “together with all his ceaseless predatory impulses, many of them graphically and nightmarishly frightening, there is something rounded and human in Freddy: he is a complex villain.” Discuss.
12. Novels, like life, do not provide the ending to every aspect of every story and sub-plot. Of all the characters in When We Danced on Water, whose story-after-the-story most intrigues you?
13. Do you think this book has a happy ending? Why/Why not?
(Questions issued by publisher.)
Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments, with Recipes, Romances and Home Remedies
Laura Esquivel, 1989 (Eng. trans., 1992)
Knopf Doubleday
256 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780385420174
Summary
Earthy, magical, and utterly charming, this tale of family life in turn-of-the-century Mexico became a best-selling phenomenon with its winning blend of poignant romance and bittersweet wit.
The classic love story takes place on the De la Garza ranch, as the tyrannical owner, Mama Elena, chops onions at the kitchen table in her final days of pregnancy. While still in her mother's womb, her daughter to be weeps so violently she causes an early labor, and little Tita slips out amid the spices and fixings for noodle soup.
This early encounter with food soon becomes a way of life, and Tita grows up to be a master chef. She shares special points of her favorite preparations with listeners throughout the story. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—September 30, 1950
• Where—Mexico
• Education—N/A
• Awards—ABBY Award by American Booksellers
Association; 11 Ariel Awards by the Mexican
Academy of Motion Pictures (for the film)
• Currently—lives in Mexico
Laura Esquivel is a Mexican author making a noted contribution to Latin-American literature. She was born the third of four children of Julio Cesar Esquivel, a telegraph operator, and Josefa Valdes.
First novel
In her first novel Like Water for Chocolate (1989), Esquivel uses magical realism to combine the ordinary and the supernatural, similar to Isabel Allende. The novel, taking place during the revolution in early twentieth century Mexico, shows the importance of the kitchen in Esquivel's life. The book is divided into twelve sections, named after the months of the year, each section beginning with a Mexican recipe. The chapters outline the preparation of the dish and ties it to an event in the protagonist's life.
Esquivel believes that the kitchen is the most important part of the house and characterizes it as a source of knowledge and understanding that brings pleasure. The "title refers to a colloquial phrase used by the Spanish that means an extremity of feeling. It refers to a boiling point in terms of anger, passion and sexuality." The idea for the book came to Esquivel "while she was cooking the recipes of her mother and grandmother." Reportedly, Esquivel ...
used an episode from her own family to write her book. She had a great-aunt named Tita, who was forbidden to wed. Tita never did anything but care for her own mother. Soon after her mother died, so did Tita.
Like Water for Chocolate was developed into a film in 1994, becoming one of the largest grossing foreign films ever released in the US. Esquivel earned 11 Ariel Awards from the Mexican Academy of Motion Pictures.
Other writings
Esquivel's second novel, The Law of Love (1996), takes place in the twenty-third century Mexico City and combines romance and science fiction. Reportedly, "the theme of romantic love, particularly love thwarted, appears repeatedly throughout her novels, as does the setting in Mexico."
Between Two Fires (2000) featured essays on life, love, and food. Her 2006 novel, Malinche, "explores the life of a near mythic figure in Mexican history—the woman who served as Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortez's interpreter and mistress" as he fought to overthrow the Aztecs.
Personal life
Esquivel was once married to actor and director Alfonso Arau. She currently lives in Mexico City. (Adapted from Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
Each chapter of screenwriter Esquivel's utterly charming interpretation of life in turn-of-the-century Mexico begins with a recipe—not surprisingly, since so much of the action of this exquisite first novel (a bestseller in Mexico) centers around the kitchen, the heart and soul of a traditional Mexican family. The youngest daughter of a well-born rancher, Tita has always known her destiny: to remain single and care for her aging mother. When she falls in love, her mother quickly scotches the liaison and tyrannically dictates that Tita's sister Rosaura must marry the luckless suitor, Pedro, in her place. But Tita has one weapon left—her cooking. Esquivel mischievously appropriates the techniques of magical realism to make Tita's contact with food sensual, instinctual and often explosive. Forced to make the cake for her sister's wedding, Tita pours her emotions into the task; each guest who samples a piece bursts into tears. Esquivel does a splendid job of describing the frustration, love and hope expressed through the most domestic and feminine of arts, family cooking, suggesting by implication the limited options available to Mexican women of this period. Tita's unrequited love for Pedro survives the Mexican Revolution the births of Rosaura and Pedro's children, even a proposal of marriage from an eligible doctor. In a poignant conclusion, Tita manages to break the bonds of tradition, if not for herself, then for future generations.
Publishers Weekly
Take one part Whitney Otto's How To Make an American Quilt (1991), add a smidgen of magical realism a la Garcia Marquez, follow up with several quixotic characters, garnish with love, and you'll have Like Water for Chocolate , a thoroughly enjoyable and quirky first novel by Mexican screenwriter Esquivel. Main character Tita is the youngest of three daughters born to Mama Elena, virago extraordinaire and owner of the de la Garza ranch. Tita falls in love with Pedro, but Mama Elena will not allow them to marry, since family tradition dictates that the youngest daughter remain at home to care for her mother. Instead, Mama Elena orchestrates the marriage of Pedro and her eldest daughter Rosaura and forces Tita to prepare the wedding dinner. What ensues is a poignant, funny story of love, life, and food which proves that all three are entwined and interdependent. Recommended for most collections. —Peggie Partello, Keene State Coll., N.H.
Library Journal
A first novel ("the number one bestseller in Mexico in 1990")—liberally sprinkled with recipes and homemade remedies—from screenwriter Esquivel. Set in turn-of-the-century Mexico, it tells the romantic tale of Tita De La Garza, the youngest of Mama Elena's three daughters, whose fate, dictated by family tradition, is to remain single so that she can take care of her mother in her old age. Tita has grown up under the tutelage of the spinster cook Nacha and has learned all the family recipes and remedies. When Pedro, Tita's admirer, asks for Tita's hand in marriage, her mother refuses permission, offering instead Tita's older sister, Rosaura. Pedro accepts, thinking it will be a way to stay close to his one true love. But Tita doesn't know his thinking and, crushed by what she sees as betrayal, she must make the wedding cake. Crying as she bakes, her tears mingle with the ingredients and unleash a wave of longing in everyone who eats a piece. It is just the beginning of the realization that Tita has special talents, both in the kitchen and beyond. As we witness the nurturing Tita's struggle to be true both to family tradition and to her own heart, we are steeped in elaborate recipes for dishes such as turkey mole with almonds and sesame seeds or quail with rose petals, in medicinal concoctions for ailments such as bad breath and gas, and in instructions on how to make ink or matches. Eventually, Tita must choose between marrying a loving, devoted doctor or saving herself for Pedro, her first true love. Her choice is revealed in a surprise last chapter. Playful in its flirtation with magical realism and engaging in its folkloric earthiness but, nonetheless, light, romantic fare.
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)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Like Water for Chocolate:
1. Talk about the three De La Garza sisters—Gertudis, Rosaura, and Tita. How do they differ from one another?
2. Do you consider Tita a strong or weak female heroine? Does she change by the end of the novel? If so, how? Or if not, why?
3. Describe the matriarch of the family, Mama Elena. Does the revelation later in the book about her own history alter your opinion of her?
4. What about Nacha? Both she and Mama Elena represent maternal figures for Tita. How do their maternal qualities differ?
5. What role does tradition play in this book? Is it always a negative role, as exemplified by Mama Elena? What might the author be suggesting about family or cultural customs in general?
6. Discuss the magical properties of food and cooking in this book. In what way is food a central metaphor in the novel—what does it represent? How does Tita use food—as a weapon? Or does she use it for solace, seduction, or healing? Is her use of it unwitting or purposeful? How does food affect the actions of various characters?
7. What does the title of the book refer to—and what is its thematic significance? How does the title relate to the internal passions of characters?
8. Follow-up to Question 7: Discuss the images of heat and fire (as a symbol of desire) found throughout the novel. How does heat affect different characters? Are heat and fire sources of strength...or destruction?
9. Different characters are plagued with illnesses in Like Water for Chocolate. What is the significance—psychological or symbolic or spiritual—of those physical ailments?
10. What role do spirits (ghosts) play in the novel?
11. Talk about what happens when Tita finally stands up to her mother's ghost.
12. Compare the two male figures—Pedro and John Brown. What is each of the men's relationship with Tita? Why does she make the choice she does?
13. What do Tita's and Pedro's deaths suggest about love? About their love in particular?
14. What is the significance of the narrator's identity. What does it mean that she is the one who tells the story?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
The Owl and Moon Cafe
Jo-Ann Mapson, 2006
Simon & Schuster, Inc.
356 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780743266413
Summary
After losing her teaching position at the local university, Mariah Moon will do anything to keep her gifted twelve-year-old daughter, Lindsay, in a prestigious private school—which means moving in with her mother and grandmother in an apartment above The Owl & Moon Cafe.
When her mother, Allegra, is diagnosed with leukemia, Mariah rises to the challenge of running the cafe: mastering her mother's famous fudge and chatting up customers—including a man who might just reawaken her heart. Meanwhile, Lindsay's controversial entry in a major national science contest creates a minor maelstrom in the cosseted Monterey Bay community. And Allegra, with one last great love affair in her, will revisit a man she loved so many years ago, and disclose the biggest secret of the Moon family: the identity of Mariah's father.
Will the Moon women recognize this as the moment to do away with their family history of dubiously fathered children, and learn to forgive others and themselves in order to move forward? In her poignant new novel, bestselling author Jo-Ann Mapson explores the complexities of love and family with the keen eye and stylistic grace that have made her books perennial favoritese. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Fullerton, California, USA
• Education—B.A., California State University,
Long Beach; M.F.A., Vermont College
• Currently—lives in Sante Fe, New Mexico
Jo-Ann Mapson is the author of ten works of fiction, set mainly in the American Southwest. She was born and raised in Southern California, and now lives in Anchorage, Alaska.
Jo-Ann Mapson’s novels include series books—Hank & Chloe; Loving Chloe; Bad Girl Creek; Along Came Mary; Goodbye, Earl, as well as stand-alone novels. Their subject matter concerns women, friendship, love and child rearing and their families. An example of this is the 1996 novel, Shadow Ranch, which focuses on the women of the "Carpenter Clan" and the so-called curse which effects all members of the family over several generations. It shows the women overcoming the problems by love, dedication and a focus on the Carpenter Clan.
Her second novel, Blue Rodeo, was made into a CBS movie for television starring Ann-Margret and Kris Kristofferson. The Owl & Moon Cafe was published in 2006, and Solomon's Oak in 2010.
Mapson attended Johnston College at the University of Redlands, graduated with a B.A. in English/Creative Writing from California State University Long Beach, and received her M.F.A. in both Poetry and Prose from Vermont College in 1992.
She has taught English and Creative Writing at Orange Coast College, University of California Irvine extension, California State University Fullerton extension, Matanuska-Susitna College and now teaches in the M.F.A. Program in Writing at the University of Alaska Anchorage. She is also a graduate advisor for Prescott College’s MAP Program.
Her former writing students (now published) include: Christina Adams, Judy Alexander, Earlene Fowler, Judi Hendricks, Joyce Weatherford.
Her papers are being collected in Boston University’s Twentieth Century Authors Archive in “The Jo-Ann Mapson Collection.” (From Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
Mapson takes a break from her Bad Girl Creek series with this touching novel that chronicles the lives of four generations of women living under one roof. When sociology professor Mariah Moon loses her job, she and her Carl Sagan–loving genius 12-year-old daughter, Lindsay, move into the apartment shared by Mariah's hippie mom, Allegra, and staunchly Catholic grandmother, Bess. All four pitch in to run the family restaurant downstairs, where Mariah locks eyes with the charming Fergus Applecross, who's set to leave their California town of Pacific Grove and return to Scotland in a few months. Mariah takes a chance on him, to Allegra's delight and Lindsay's consternation. Allegra, meanwhile, is diagnosed with leukemia, but rediscovers the long-lost love of her life at the doctor's office. Lindsay, watching her grandmother struggle with both her illness and trying to cover the cost of medication, concocts a science project that involves growing marijuana (for medicinal applications, of course). Initially, the characters are pulled straight from central casting, but after a slow start, they become as complex and fascinating as the situations they find themselves in.
Publishers Weekly
With her trademark style of combining humor with heartache, Mapson again excels at building a community of strong, empathic women. —Carol Haggas
Booklist
Four generations of strong-minded women battle each other, their individual insecurities and life's many ups and downs in this overstuffed latest from Mapson (Goodbye, Earl, 2004, etc.). The author gives her characters plenty of obstacles to overcome before the mostly happy ending.... What saves the story is the characters: broadly drawn, but utterly human, full of querulous life and irritatingly believable. The author loves the people she creates and draws in readers to share her affection. Profound it ain't, but immensely readable and very charming in its own messy, undisciplined way.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Which female character did you most identify with and why?
2. What role does Theodora the dog play in the story?
3. Do you think the Moon women's lives would have turned out differently if Gammy Bess had told them the truth about her pregnancy earlier, or are they bound to repeat family history?
4. Mariah is in a love/hate relationship with her mom, Allegra. How does this affect Mariah's relationship with Lindsay?
5. Suppose your child was gifted and the school wanted her to skip grades. What are some reasons to do that, and what are some reasons not to? How does a mom know when to take risks like that?
6. Pacific Grove is a real place. Have you visited it? Does the story make you want to see it, or move there? Where does someone over the age of forty find the courage to move to a totally new town?
7. What is the one pastry that you cannot turn down? Mine is almond filled croissants.
(Questions courtesy of the author.)
The Snow Child
Eowyn Ivey, 2012
Little, Brown & Co.
400 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780316175678
Summary
Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel.
Childless, they are drifting apart—he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season's first snowfall, they build a child out of snow.
The next morning the snow child is gone—but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees.
This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness.
As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in this beautiful, violent place things are rarely as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—February 07, 1973
• Where—Alaska
• Education—B.A., Western Washington University
• Currently—lives in Alaska
Eowyn (A-o-win) LeMay Ivey was raised in Alaska and continues to live there with her husband and two daughters. Her mother named her after a character from J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.
Eowyn works at the independent bookstore Fireside Books where she plays matchmaker between readers and books. The Snow Child, her debut novel, appeared in 2012; her second, To the Bright Edge of the World, was published in 2016. Her short fiction appears in the anthology Cold Flashes, University of Alaska Press 2010, and the North Pacific Rim literary journal Cirque.
Prior to her career as a bookseller and novelist, Eowyn worked for nearly a decade as an award-winning reporter at the Frontiersman newspaper. Her weekly articles about her outdoor adventures earned her the Best Non-Daily Columnist award from the Alaska Press Club. Her articles and photographs have been published in the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Magazine, and other publications.
Eowyn earned her BA in journalism and creative writing through Western Washington University's honors program and studied creative nonfiction in University of Alaska Anchorage's graduate program. She is a contributor to the blog 49Writers and a founding member of Alaska's first statewide writing center.
The Snow Child is informed by Eowyn's life in Alaska. Her husband is a fishery biologist with the state of Alaska. While they both work outside of the home, they are also raising their daughters in the rural, largely subsistence lifestyle in which they were both raised.
As a family, they harvest salmon and wild berries, keep a vegetable garden, turkeys and chickens, and they hunt caribou, moose, and bear for meat. Because they don't have a well and live outside any public water system, they haul water each week for their holding tank and gather rainwater for their animals and garden. Their primary source of home heat is a woodstove, and they harvest and cut their own wood.
These activities are important to Eowyn's day-to-day life as well as the rhythm of her year. (From the author's website.)
Book Reviews
The best thing about The Snow Child—what sets it apart from genre fiction and keeps you reading—is the way Ivey declines to lay her cards on the table. Are we dealing with fantasy or reality here?... She is a careful, matter-of-fact writer, who, thankfully, doesn't resort to unnecessary poetics or artificial ratcheting-up of tension. This leaves your imagination free to hare off down as many trails as you like.
Carrie O'Grady - Guardian (UK)
Here's a modern retelling of the Russian fairy tale about a girl, made from snow by a childless couple, who comes to life. Or perhaps not modern—the setting is 1920s Alaska—but that only proves the timelessness of the tale and of this lovely book. Unable to start a family, middle-aged Jack and Mabel have come to the wilderness to start over, leaving behind an easier life back east. Anxious that they won't outlast one wretched winter, they distract themselves by building a snow girl and wrap her in a scarf. The snow girl and the scarf are gone the next morning, but Jack spies a real child in the woods. Soon Jack and Mabel have developed a tentative relationship with the free-spirited Faina, as she finally admits to being called. Is she indeed a "snow fairy," a "wilderness pixie" magicked out of the cold? Or a wild child who knows better than anyone how to survive in the rugged north? Even as Faina embodies a natural order that cannot be tamed, the neighborly George and Esther show Jack and Mabel (and the rest of us) how important community is for survival. Verdict: A fluid, absorbing, beautifully executed debut novel; highly recommended. —Barbara Hoffert
Library Journal
A couple struggling to settle in the Alaskan wilderness is heartened by the arrival of the child of their dreams—or are they literally dreaming her? Jack and Mabel, the protagonists of Ivey's assured debut, are a couple in their early 50s who take advantage of cheap land to build a homestead in Alaska in the 1920s. But the work is backbreaking, the winters are brutally cold and their isolation only reminds them of their childlessness. There's a glimmer of sunshine, however, in the presence of a mysterious girl who lurks near their cabin. Though she's initially skittish, in time she becomes a fixture in the couple's lives. Ivey takes her time in clarifying whether or not the girl, Faina, is real or not, and there are good reasons to believe she's a figment of Jack and Mabel's imaginations: She's a conveniently helpful good-luck charm for them in their search for food, none of their neighbors seem to have seen the girl and she can't help but remind Mabel of fairy tales she heard in her youth about a snow child. The mystery of Faina's provenance, along with the way she brightens the couple's lives, gives the novel's early chapters a slightly magical-realist cast. Yet as Faina's identity grows clearer, the narrative also becomes a more earthbound portrait of the Alaskan wilderness and a study of the hard work involved in building a family. Ivey's style is spare and straightforward, in keeping with the novel's setting, and she offers enough granular detail about hunting and farming to avoid familiar pieties about the Last Frontier. The book's tone throughout has a lovely push and pull—Alaska's punishing landscape and rough-hewn residents pitted against Faina's charmed appearances—and the ending is both surprising and earned. A fine first novel that enlivens familiar themes of parenthood and battles against nature.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. When Mabel first arrives in Alaska, it seems a bleak and lonely place to her. Does her sense of the land change over time? If so, how?
2. Why are Jack and Mabel emotionally estranged from each other in the beginning of the novel, and how are they able to overcome that?
3. How do Esther Benson and Mabel differ in temperament, and how does their friendship change Mabel?
4. The first time Garrett sees Faina in person is when he spies her killing a wild swan. What is the significance of this scene?
5. In what ways does Faina represent the Alaska wilderness?
6. Jack and Mabel?s only child is stillborn. How does this affect Mabel?s relationship with Faina?
7. When Jack is injured, Esther and Garret move to their farm to help them. How does this alter Jack and Mabel?s relationship?
8. Much of Jack and Mabel?s sorrow comes from not having a family of their own, and yet they leave their extended family behind to move to Alaska. By the end of the novel, has their sense of family changed? Who would they consider a part of their family?
9. Death comes in many forms in The Snow Child, including Mabel giving birth to a stillborn infant, Jack shooting a moose, Faina slaying a swan, the fox killing a wild bird, Jack and Mabel slaughtering their chickens, and Garrett shooting the fox. Why is this one of the themes of the book and what is the author trying to say about death?
10. What do you believe happened to Faina in the end? Who was she?
(Questions issued by publisher.)
Another Piece of My Heart
Jane Green, 2012
St. Martin's Press
400 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780312591823
Summary
Jane Green’s most emotional and powerful novel yet: a story that explores the complications of a woman marrying into a ready-made family, and the true meaning of motherhood.
Andi has spent much of her adult life looking for the perfect man, and at thirty-seven, she's finally found him. Ethan—divorced with two daughters, Emily and Sophia—is a devoted father and even better husband. Always hoping one day she would be a mother, Andi embraces the girls like they were her own. But in Emily’s eyes, Andi is an obstacle to her father’s love, and Emily will do whatever it takes to break her down. When the dynamics between the two escalate, they threaten everything Andi believes about love, family, and motherhood—leaving both women standing at a crossroad in their lives…and in their hearts.
Another Piece of My Heart is a novel that illuminates the nuances and truths about relationships and is Jane Green at her absolute best. (From the publisher.)
Read an excerpt.
Author Bio
• Birth—May 31, 1968
• Where—London, England, UK
• Education—University of Wales
• Currently—lives in Westport, Connecticut, USA
Jane Green is the pen name of Jane Green Warburg, an English author of women's novels. Together with Helen Fielding she is considered a founder of the genre known as chick lit.
Green was born in London, England. She attended the University of Wales, Aberystwyth and worked as a journalist throughout her twenties, writing women's features for the Daily Express, Daily Mail, Cosmopolitan and others. At 27 she published her first book, Straight Talking, which went straight on to the Bestseller lists, and launched her career as "the queen of chick lit".
Frequent themes in her most recent books, include cooking, class wars, children, infidelity, and female friendships. She says she does not write about her life, but is inspired by the themes of her life.
She is the author of more than 15 novels, several (The Beach House, Second Chance, and Dune Road) having been listed on the New York Times bestseller list. Her other novels Another Piece of My Heart (2012), Family Pictures (2013), and Tempting Fate (2014) received wide acclaim.
In addition to novels, she has taught at writers conferences, and writes for various publications including the Sunday Times, Parade magazine, Wowowow.com, and Huffington Post.
Green now lives in Connecticut with her second husband, Ian Warburg, six children, two dogs and three cats. Actively philanthropic, her foremost charities are The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp (Paul Newman's camp for children with life-threatening illnesses), Bethel Recovery Center, and various breast cancer charities. She is also a supporter of the Westport Public Library, and the Westport Country Playhouse. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 4/20/2014.)
Book Reviews
In New York Times bestseller Green’s latest (after Promises to Keep), Andi faces the difficult decision of remaining in a marriage that is being ripped apart by husband Ethan’s rebellious teen daughter, Emily. Though the wedding happened five years ago, Emily hasn’t accepted her father’s remarrying and repeatedly starts fights at home that have brought Andi to the breaking point. Emily’s rage is further fueled by drinking, drugs, and reckless casual sex, so her pregnancy comes less as a surprise than as the final straw for this floundering family. Andi’s love for Ethan and his younger daughter, Sophia, coupled with her desire for a big family and her identity as a mother, have kept Andi in the marriage, but each day Emily tears away another piece of Andi’s heart. Andi can’t break through her own upbringing and generational ties to understand what’s behind Emily’s backlashes and bad choices. Though Andi and Emily are both highly self-involved, making it difficult to like either of them, Green finds honesty in their alternating voices.
Publishers Weekly
In her latest, Green (Promises To Keep; Dune Road) takes a clear-eyed look at our idealized notions of love, family, and motherhood. Marriage-minded Andi, at the age of 37, finally meets the man of her dreams. Ethan is divorced with two daughters, but Andi is thrilled to become part of Emily and Sophia's lives. Through her own immaturities and insecurities, Emily works hard to drive a wedge between her stepmother and father, causing resentments within the family. Matters intensify when the teenaged Emily becomes pregnant, and Andi realizes that the chances of having her own child are dwindling as Ethan's desire wanes. How can Andi put her own wishes and dreams aside while enduring Emily's vitriol? Verdict: Green is at her finest with this compelling novel. Deeper, more complicated, and more ambitious than her previous books, it will keep readers on edge as they wait to see how these tense family dynamics play out. —Anne M. Miskewitch, Chicago P.L.
Library Journal
Green (Promises to Keep, 2010, etc.) ramps up the emotional stakes by presenting both Andi and Emily's points of view, even as her prose is a bit on the dull and repetitive side. Topical family melodrama.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Jane Green’s novel, Another Piece of My Heart, opens with an anonymous quote: “Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have.” What exactly does this mean? How does it apply to Andi? To Emily? To other characters in the book? Would you say the quote applies to your life? How?
2. As the novel so vividly portrays, being part of a blended family can be extremely challenging. What are some of the mistakes Andi and Ethan make? What should they have done differently? What are some of the challenges that you and your own family have faced together?
3. From the beginning, Ethan’s younger daughter, Sophia, is very accepting of Andi, while his adolescent daughter, Emily, is resentful and rude. When it comes to dealing with big issues like divorce and second marriages, do you think it’s harder for younger children or for teenagers? How is it different, and why?
4. After five years of living together as a family, Andi still feels uncomfortable confronting or disciplining Emily—mostly because Ethan is a defensive dad. Do you think most parents are overprotective and blind to their children’s faults? Do you believe “it takes a village” to raise a child—or it’s none of your business? Have you ever given and/or received child-rearing advice? How did it go?
5. The author describes the relationship between Andi and Emily as “a pendulum swinging from love to hate.” Have you experienced anything like that in your own family? Is it normal or acceptable for teenagers to “hate” their parents or stepparents? Should you simply wait for the child to “grow out of it” or try to deal actively with the problem? How?
6. Andi’s neighbors tell her that “Ethan feels constantly guilty” about his divorce and its impact on his children—which is why he lets Emily get away with so much bad behavior. Emily, in turn, seems to take advantage of his guilt. Have you ever felt guilty over something that affects your family? Have you ever felt manipulated by a loved one?
7. Andi notices some dramatic differences between the home she grew up in and the family she married into—especially when it comes to setting “boundaries” with children. Do you think parenting has changed in recent years? Are parents more lenient today? Are children more spoiled? Would you raise a child the same way you were raised, or would you do it differently?
8. After Ethan tells Andi that he doesn’t want to adopt a child, he feels her pull away from him, as if “a switch has been flicked” in their relationship. Is he justified in his feelings on the subject of adoption, or is he being selfish? Is Andi justified in her feelings? What sort of things can change the way you feel about a loved one?
9. Nearly halfway through the book, the author begins to write some of the chapters from Emily’s first-person point of view. Why? How does each character’s point of view play a role in the story? Which character’s point of view do you relate to the most? Which character do you relate to the least?
10. Andi, Brooke, and Emily represent three types of mothers. How are they different? How are they alike? Does Emily have the right to call herself Cal’s “mother” after leaving him with Andi for three years? Do you think Andi has a legal right to have full custody? And, at some point in the future, do you think Emily should be able to get her child back?
11. What does it mean to be a “real mother”?
(Questions issued by publisher.)
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