The Shack: Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity
William P. Young, 2008
Windblown Media
304 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780609414115
Summary
Mackenzie Allen Philips’ youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation, and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend.
Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—May 11, 1955
• Where—Grande Praire, Alberta, Canada
• Reared—West Paupua
• Education—B.A., Warner Pacific College
• Currently—lives in Gresham, Oregon, USA
William P. Young was born a Canadian and raised among a Stone Age tribe by his missionary parents in the highlands of former New Guinea. He suffered great loss as a child and young adult and now enjoys the "wastefulness of grace" with his family in the Pacific Northwest. (From the publisher.)
More
William P. Young is an American author, best known for The Shack, a Christian novel. Young initially printed just fifteen copies of his book for friends who encouraged him to have it published. Unable to find a publisher, Young published the book himself in 2007; word-of-mouth referrals eventually drove the book to number one on the New York Times trade paperback fiction best-seller list in June 2008.
In an interview with World Magazine's Susan Olasky, Young, who is no longer a member of a church, said that the institutional church...
doesn't work for those of us who are hurt and those of us who are damaged.... If God is a loving God and there's grace in this world and it doesn't work for those of us who didn't get dealt a very good hand in the deck, then why are we doing this?... Legalism within Christian or religious circles doesn't work very well for people who are good at it. And I wasn't very good at it.
An article in MacLean's Magazine in August 2008 indicated that Young, is a...
Canadian raised from birth by his missionary parents in Dutch New Guinea, Young was sexually abused by some of the people his parents preached to, as he was again back home, at a Christian boarding school. Young drifted through life as an adult, buoyed a little by his faith and a lot by his wife, Kim, keeping his secrets and building his shack: "the place we make to hide all our crap," he calls it. Until, at 38, he found himself at the nadir. "I had a three-month affair with one of my wife's best friends. That was it, that just blew my careful little religious world apart. I either had to get on my knees and deal with my wife's pain and anger or kill myself.
Young currently resides in Gresham, Oregon, with his wife and six children. (From Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
The Shack is a one of a kind invitation to journey to the very heart of God. Through my tears and cheers, I have been indeed transformed by the tender mercy with which William Paul Young opened the veil that too often separated me from God and from myself. With every page, the complicated do’s and don’t that distort a relationship into a religion were washed away as I understood Father, Son, and Holy Ghost for the first time in my life.
Patrick M. Roddy (producer, ABC News)
When the imagination of a writer and the passion of a theologian cross-fertilize the result is a novel on the order of The Shack. This book has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress did for his. It’s that good!
Eugene Peterson ( Professor Emeritus, Theology, Regent College, Vancouver, B.C.)
Finally! A guy-meets-God Novel that has literary integrity and spiritual daring. The Shack cuts through the cliches of both religion and bad writing to reveal something compelling and beautiful about life's integral dance with the Divine. This story reads like a prayer—like the best kind of prayer, filled with sweat and wonder and transparency and surprise. When I read it, I felt like I was fellowshipping with God. If you read one work of fiction this year, let this be it.
Mike Morrell - zoecarnate.com
You will be captivated by the creativity and imagination of the shack, and before you know it you’ll be experiencing god as never before. William young’s insights are not just captivating, they are biblically faithful and true. Don’t miss this transforming story of grace.
Greg Albrecht - Plain Truth Magazine
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 The Shack:
1. How did reading this book affect your faith? Does it change, challenge, strengthen your image of God? Why is God portrayed as a woman, what reasons does God give Mack?
2. Does God answer convincingly the reason for the trinity?
3. Does the idea of God a character in the book, or God's first-person voice, bother you...or does it work within the context of The Shack's story?
4. Why did God let Missy die? Do you think The Shack answers convincingly the central question of theodicy, the existence of evil—or why, if there is a God, bad things happen to good people?
5. What does The Shack say about forgiveness—toward the self or toward those who have wronged you.
6. Young has been criticized for advocating lawlessness (p. 122) ...or universalism (p. 225)? Do you think that is a fair or unfair criticism?
7. Many readers find the first 4 chapters of The Shack almost too painful to read. Could they have been written in a way that would be less painful—without changing the book's message?
8. Does the book's ultimate message satisfy you? Is it possible to let go of control and certainty in life? Is it possible to live only in the present?
(Questions by LitLovers; please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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The Paris Wife
Paula McLain, 2011
Random House
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780345521309
Summary
A deeply evocative story of ambition and betrayal, The Paris Wife captures a remarkable period of time and a love affair between two unforgettable people: Ernest Hemingway and his wife Hadley.
Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a quiet twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness—until she meets Ernest Hemingway and her life changes forever. Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for Paris, where they become the golden couple in a lively and volatile group—the fabled “Lost Generation”—that includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.
Though deeply in love, the Hemingways are ill prepared for the hard-drinking and fast-living life of Jazz Age Paris, which hardly values traditional notions of family and monogamy. Surrounded by beautiful women and competing egos, Ernest struggles to find the voice that will earn him a place in history, pouring all the richness and intensity of his life with Hadley and their circle of friends into the novel that will become The Sun Also Rises.
Hadley, meanwhile, strives to hold on to her sense of self as the demands of life with Ernest grow costly and her roles as wife, friend, and muse become more challenging. Despite their extraordinary bond, they eventually find themselves facing the ultimate crisis of their marriage—a deception that will lead to the unraveling of everything they’ve fought so hard for.
A heartbreaking portrayal of love and torn loyalty, The Paris Wife is all the more poignant because we know that, in the end, Hemingway wrote that he would rather have died than fallen in love with anyone but Hadley. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1965
• Where— Fresno, California, USA
• Education—M.F.A., University of Michigan
• Currently—lives in Cleveland, Ohio
Paula McLain is an American author best known for her novel, The Paris Wife, a fictionalized account of Ernest Hemingway's first marriage. That work became a long-time New York Times bestseller. Her 2015 novel centering on female aviator Beryl Markham was released to excellent reviews in 2015.
McLain has also published two collections of poetry in 1999 and 2005, a memoir about growing up in the foster system in 2003, and the novel A Ticket to Ride in 2008.
McLain was born in Fresno, California. Her mother vanished when she was four, and her father was in and out of jail, leaving McLain and her two sisters (one older, one younger) to move in and out of various foster homes for the next fourteen years. It was an ordeal described in her memoir, Like Family: Growing Up in Other People's Houses.
When she aged out of the system, McLain supported herself by working in various jobs before discovering she could write. Eventually, she received an MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan and has been a resident of Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony as well as the recipient of fellowships from the Ohio Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.
She lives in Cleveland with her family. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 8/19/2015.)
Book Reviews
McLain's novel not only gives Hadley a voice, but one that seems authentic and admirable.... A certain amount of bravery is required in writing a novel that channels a giant of American literature. Yet McLain pulls it off convincingly, conveying Hemingway's interior life and his profound struggles. She makes a compelling case that Hadley was a crucial (and long-lasting) influence on Hemingway's writing life: a partner as well as a cheerleader. She also revisits, with remarkable detail, a singular era in history, one that would produce some of the greatest literary works of the 20th century.
Newsday
Novelist and memoirist Paula McLain traces the life of Hadley Hemingway, first wife of Ernest Hemingway, in this evocative novel set largely in Paris in the Jazz Age.
Christian Science Monitor
Written much in the style of Nancy Horan's Loving Frank ... Paula McLain's fictional account of Hemingway's first marriage beautifully captures the sense of despair and faint hope that pervaded the era and their marriage.
Associated Press
Engrossing and heartbreaking.... McLain is masterful at mining Hadley's confusion and pain, her crushing realization that she cannot fight for a love that has already disappeared.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
McLain smartly explores Hadley's ambivalence about her role as supportive wife to a budding genius.... Women and book groups are going to eat up this novel.
USA Today
By making the ordinary come to life, McLain has written a beautiful portrait of being in Paris in the glittering 1920s—as a wife and one's own woman.... McLain's vivid, clear-voiced novel is a conjecture, an act of imaginary autobiography on the part of the author. Yet her biographical and geographical research is so deep, and her empathy for the real Hadley Richardson so forthright (without being intrusively femme partisan), that the account reads as very real indeed.
Entertainment Weely
Told in the voice of Ernest Hemingway’s first wife, The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain, is a richly imagined portrait of bohemian 1920s Paris, and of America literature’s original bad boy.
Town & Country
Written much in the style of Nancy Horan's Loving Frank ... Paula McLain's fictional account of Hemingway's first marriage beautifully captures the sense of despair and faint hope that pervaded the era and their marriage.
Elle
McLain offers a vivid addition to the complex-woman-behind-the-legendary-man genre, bringing Ernest Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley Richardson, to life.... The heart of the story—Ernest and Hadley's relationship—gets an honest reckoning, most notably the waves of elation and despair that pull them apart.
Publishers Weekly
Though eventually a woman scorned, Hadley is able to acknowledge without rancor or bitterness that "Hem" had "helped me to see what I really was and what I could do." Much more than a woman-behind-the-man homage, this beautifully crafted tale is an unsentimental tribute to a woman who acted with grace and strength as her marriage crumbled. —Margaret Flanagan
Booklist
Discussion Questions
1. In many ways, Hadley's girlhood in St. Louis was a difficult and repressive experience. How do her early years prepare her to meet and fall in love with Ernest? What does life with Ernest offer her that she hasn't encountered before? What are the risks?
2. Hadley and Ernest don't get a lot of encouragement from their friends and family when they decided to marry. What seems to draw the two together? What are some of the strengths of their initial attraction and partnership? The challenges?
3. The Ernest Hemingway we meet in The Paris Wife—through Hadley's eyes—is in many ways different from the ways we imagine him when faced with the largeness of his later persona. What do you see as his character strengths? Can you see what Hadley saw in him?
4. The Hemingways spontaneously opt for Paris over Rome when they get key advice from Sherwood Anderson. What was life like for them when they first arrived? How did Hadley's initial feelings about Paris differ from Ernest's and why?
5. Throughout The Paris Wife, Hadley refers to herself as "Victorian" as opposed to "modern." What are some of the
ways she doesn't feel like she fits into life in bohemian Paris? How does this impact her relationship with Ernest? Her self-esteem? What are some of the ways Hadley's "old-fashioned" quality can be seen as a strength and not a weakness?
6. Hadley and Ernest's marriage survived for many years in Jazz-Age Paris, an environment that had very little patience for monogamy and other traditional values. What in their relationship seems to sustain them? How does their marriage differ from those around them? Pound's and Shakespeare's? Scott and Zelda's?
7. Most of The Paris Wife is written in Hadley's voice, but a few select passages come to us from Ernest's point of view. What impact does getting Ernest's perspective have on our understanding of their marriage? How does it affect your ability to understand him and his motivations in general?
8. What was the role of literary spouses in 1920's Paris? How is Hadley challenged and restricted by her gender? Would those restrictions have changed if she had been an artist and not merely a "wife"?
9. At one point, Ezra Pound warns Hadley that it would be a dire mistake to let parenthood change Ernest. Is there a nugget of truth behind his concern? What are some of the ways Ernest is changed by Bumby's birth? What about Hadley? What does motherhood bring to her life, for better or worse?
10. One of the most wrenching scenes in the book is when Hadley loses a valise containing all of Ernest's work to date. What kind of turning point does this mark for the Hemingway's marriage? Do you think Ernest ever forgives her?
11. When the couple moves to Toronto to have Bumby, Ernest tries his best to stick it out with a regular "nine-to-five" reporter's job, and yet he ultimately finds this impossible. Why is life in Toronto so difficult for Ernest? Why does Hadley agree to go back to Paris earlier than they planned, even though she doesn't know how they'll make it financially? How does she benefit from supporting his decision to make a go at writing only fiction?
12. Hadley and Ernest had similar upbringings in many ways. What are the parallels, and how do these affect the choices Hadley makes as a wife and mother?
13. In The Paris Wife, when Ernest receives his contract for In Our Time, Hadley says, "He would never again be unknown. We would never again be this happy." How did fame affect Ernest and his relationship with Hadley?
14. The Sun Also Rises is drawn from the Hemingways' real-life experiences with bullfighting in Spain. Ernest and his friends are clearly present in the book, but Hadley is not. Why? In what ways do you think Hadley is instrumental to the book regardless, and to Ernest's career in general?
15. How does the time and place—Paris in the 20's—affect Ernest and Hadley's marriage? What impact does the war, for instance, have on the choices and behavior of the expatriate artists surrounding the Hemingways? Do you see Ernest changing in response to the world around him? How, and how does Hadley feel about those changes?
16. What was the nature of the relationship between Hadley and Pauline Pfeiffer? Were they legitimately friends? How do you see Pauline taking advantage of her intimate position in the Hemingway's life? Do you think Hadley is naive for not suspecting Pauline of having designs on Ernest earlier? Why or why not?
17. It seems as if Ernest tries to make his marriage work even after Pauline arrives on the scene. What would Hadley it have cost Hadley to stick it out with Ernest no matter what? Is there a way she could have fought harder for her marriage?
18. In many ways, Hadley is a very different person at the end of the novel than the girl who encounters Ernest by chance at a party. How do you understand her trajectory and transformation? Are there any ways she essentially doesn't change?
19.When Hemingway's biographer Carlos Baker interviewed Hadley Richardson near the end of her life, he expected her to b e bitter, and yet she persisted in describing Ernest as a "prince." How can she have continued to love and admire him after the way he hurt her?
20. Ernest Hemingway spent the last months of his life tenderly reliving his first marriage in the pages his memoir, A Moveable Feast. In fact, it was the last thing he wrote before his death. Do you think he realized what he'd truly lost with Hadley?
(Questions issued by publisher.)
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Funny in Farsi
Firoozeh Dumas, 2003
Random House
208 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780812968378
Summary
In 1972, when she was seven, Firoozeh Dumas and her family moved from Iran to Southern California, arriving with no firsthand knowledge of this country beyond her father’s glowing memories of his graduate school years here. More family soon followed, and the clan has been here ever since.
Funny in Farsi chronicles the American journey of Dumas’s wonderfully engaging family: her engineer father, a sweetly quixotic dreamer who first sought riches on Bowling for Dollars and in Las Vegas, and later lost his job during the Iranian revolution; her elegant mother, who never fully mastered English (nor cared to); her uncle, who combated the effects of American fast food with an army of miraculous American weight-loss gadgets; and Firoozeh herself, who as a girl changed her name to Julie, and who encountered a second wave of culture shock when she met and married a Frenchman, becoming part of a one-couple melting pot.
In a series of deftly drawn scenes, we watch the family grapple with American English (hot dogs and hush puppies?—a complete mystery), American traditions (Thanksgiving turkey?—an even greater mystery, since it tastes like nothing), and American culture (Firoozeh’s parents laugh uproariously at Bob Hope on television, although they don’t get the jokes even when she translates them into Farsi).
Above all, this is an unforgettable story of identity, discovery, and the power of family love. It is a book that will leave us all laughing—without an accent. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1965
• Where—Abadan, Iran
• Reared—in Tehran, Iran, and Whittier, California, USA
• Education—University of California, Berkeley
• Currently—lives in northern California
Firoozeh Dumas was born in Abadan, Iran. At the age of seven, Dumas and her family moved to Whittier, California. She later moved back to Iran and lived in Tehran and Ahvaz. However, she once again immigrated to the United States; first to Whittier, then to Newport Beach, California.
Kazem, her father, dominates many of her stories throughout her 2004 memoir Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America. She takes pride in her Iranian heritage, but at the same time, mocks her dad's fascination with "freebies" at Costco and television shows like Bowling for Dollars.
Growing up, Dumas struggled to mix with her American classmates, who knew nothing about Iran. She also retells firsthand experiences of prejudice and racism from being Iranian in America during the Iranian Revolution. However, throughout hardships, she emphasizes the significance of family strength and love in her life.
Dumas is a wife and mother. She often visits schools and churches (as for example in November 2008 at the Forum at Grace Cathedral) to discuss her book and conduct book talks. As a result of Funny in Farsi's success, Firoozeh Dumas was nominated for the Thurber Prize for American Humor. Not only was she the first Iranian author to be nominated, she was also the first Asian author to hold such an honor.
Firoozeh became a hot topic when she challenged Ayaan Hirsi Ali to a debate on women in Islam.
Funny in Farsi was a finalist for both the PEN/USA Award in 2004 and the Thurber Prize for American Humor, and has been adopted in junior high, high school and college curricula throughout the nation. It has been selected for common reading programs at several universities including: California State Bakersfield, California State University at Sacramento, Fairmont State University in West Virginia, Gallaudet University, Salisbury University, University of Wisconsin–La Crosse and the University of Wisconsin–Madison
She is also the author of Laughing Without An Accent (2008), which is a memoir containing a few stories about her childhood, but mostly stories about her adventures as an adult. (Adapted from the publisher and Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
What’s charming beyond the humor of this memoir is that it remains affectionate even in the weakest, most tenuous moments for the culture. It’s the brilliance of true sophistication at work.
Los Angeles Times Book Review
Firoozeh Dumas' family left Iran permanently in 1976, and missed the seismic shifts back home. In Funny In Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian In America, Dumas remembers how in 1977 her parents accepted an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., to welcome the Shah. Undeterred by a threatening note slipped under their hotel-room door ("Dear Brainwashed Cowards, You are nothing but puppets of the corrupt Shah . . ."), the family finally reassessed the trip after demonstrators attacked Iranians on a lawn near the White House with nail-studded sticks. Their response? To take the first flight back to California.
Kate Taylor - New Yorker
This lighthearted memoir chronicles the author's move from Iran to America in 1971 at age seven, the antics of her extended family and her eventual marriage to a Frenchman. The best parts will make readers laugh out loud, as when she arrives in Newport Beach, Calif., "a place where one's tan is a legitimate topic of conversation." She is particularly good making gentle fun of her father, who loves Disneyland and once competed on the game show Bowling for Dollars. Many of the book's jokes, though, are groan inducing, as in, "the only culture that my father was interested in was the kind in yogurt." And the book is off-kilter structurally. After beginning with a string of amusing anecdotes from her family's first years stateside, one five-page chapter lurches from seventh grade in California to an ever so brief mention of the Iranian revolution, and then back to California, college and meeting her husband. In addition, while politics are understandably not Dumas's topic, the way she skates over the subject can seem disingenuous. Following the revolution, did her father really turn down the jobs offered to him in Iran only because "none were within his field of interest"? Despite unevenness, Dumas's first book remains a warm, witty and sometimes poignant look at cross-cultural misunderstanding and family life. Immigrants from anywhere are likely to identify with her chronicle of adapting to America.
Publishers Weekly
Dumas, who first came to America from Iran as a young girl in 1972, recounts many anecdotes about her family's adjustment to this country in a light, humorous style. Detailed here are her uncle's encounter with all-American fast food (with disastrous consequences for his waistline) and her father's penchant for pursuing freebies wherever he could find them. Though the tone stays gentle, Dumas also includes darker episodes, such as her father's inability to find a job during the Iran hostage crisis and her family's nearly being beaten by protesters when they are in Washington, DC, to welcome the shah. Dumas also provides a few glimpses of middle-class life in prerevolutionary Iran, where her father enjoyed watching American Westerns as a boy and her uncle was a successful doctor. Today, as Middle Easterners in the United States are subject to racial profiling, stereotyping, and sometimes violence, this book provides a valuable glimpse into the immigrant experiences of one very entertaining family. Recommended for public libraries. —Debra Moore, Cerritos Coll., Norwalk, CA
Library Journal
Dumas has a unique perspective on American culture, and she effortlessly balances the comedy of her family's misadventures with the more serious prejudices they face. —Kristine Huntley
Booklist
Light-as-air essays about an immigrant childhood in California. In 1972, Dumas s father, an employee of the Iranian National Oil Company, which had landed a two-year consulting contract with an American firm, came to the US and brought along the entire family. Although the adventure in their new country begins with the author and her mother getting lost after elementary-school orientation, the Dumases rapidly embrace their new home: Las Vegas becomes their default vacation destination, and they spend every Christmas watching Bob Hope. The author has the usual problems of a stranger in a strange land—nobody can pronounce her name or has any awareness of her homeland—but Dumas tosses in some new ones as well: the communal showers at sleep-away camp (she doesn t bathe for a week) and the disappointment when her father fails to qualify as a contestant on Bowling for Dollars. But these trials pale in comparison to the family s difficulties during the hostage crisis. As vendors begin selling T-shirts that read "Iranians go Home," Dumas s father loses his job and his pension and is forced to sell all the family's belongings. After the crisis ends, he does find a new job, at half his previous salary, but nothing mars his love for his adopted country; Dumas recounts his thoughts on US citizens who shirk their civic duties: "They need to be sent for six months to a nondemocratic country. Then they'll vote." At all times, no matter how heavy the subject matter, Dumas keeps her tone light. Even a disastrous trip to Washington, D.C., to welcome the Shah, complete with death threats from protestors, is played for laughs. Warm and engaging, despite some creaky prose.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. How does Firoozeh feel on her first day of elementary school when her mother cannot locate Iran on a map? What kinds of assumptions might her fellow classmates make about Firoozeh’s inability to speak English, her unusual Persian name, and her mother accompanying her to school? To what extent do you think language barriers are to blame for cultural misunderstandings?
2. Firoozeh’s parents don’t speak English fluently, and their efforts to do so often lead to embarrassment, especially for their children. Why doesn’t Firoozeh do more to encourage her parents to learn English? To what extent can you relate to the experience of being embarrassed by your family?
3. How would you characterize the role of television in Firoozeh’s family? Why does television’s visual medium connect her relatives to American products and attitudes in ways that their language cannot?
4. How does Firoozeh’s experience at Disneyland, where she is encouraged to communicate with another missing child in her native Persian, expose Western biases about people who don’t speak English fluently? How do you feel about “racial profiling,” or making assumptions about someone’s ethnicity based on their appearance and accent? On what past occasions have you experienced or carried out racial profiling, and how do you feel about it now, in light of Firoozeh’s encounter?
5. How did the experiences of Firoozeh and her family in America compare to how their friends who arrived after the Iranian Revolution and the hostage crisis were treated? Why are immigrants whose native countries are in conflict with their adopted country sometimes subjected to mistreatment and–in some cases–discrimination or abuse? What does this all-too-common phenomenon suggest about the intersection of patriotism and xenophobia?
6. Firoozeh’s husband, François, experiences life as an American immigrant much differently than does Firoozeh. What do you think accounts for Americans’ biases in their attitudes toward immigrants from different countries? To what extent are these biases grounded in stereotypes about the immigrants’ native countries?
7. How does Firoozeh’s experience of sleepaway camp highlight the social isolation she experiences as someone who is perceived by others as “different”? How does her decision not to bathe the entire two weeks contribute to her loneliness? To what extent can you relate to her feeling of being “invisible” at camp?
8. What does Firoozeh’s decision to take an American name suggest about her feelings toward her adopted country? What might her name change to Julie suggest about her identity as an immigrant? How does her dual identity (and her ability to speak English without any discernable accent) enable her to see how Americans really feel about Iran?
9. Firoozeh’s father, Kazem, is grateful for his opportunity to vote as a naturalized American citizen. Why might being able to vote make someone feel especially connected with one’s community or country? Based on the information about Iran you have learned from Funny in Farsi, how do the political rights of Iranian citizens compare to the political rights of American citizens?
10. How is the Thanksgiving meal at Firoozeh’s house a metaphor for her American assimilation? To what extent might eating another culture’s traditional cuisine enable one to better understand its people?
11. How did the promise of education in America change Kazem’s life forever? To what extent does education seem to hold the same opportunities for both immigrants from foreign countries and native citizens?
12.How does Firoozeh’s interaction with her many relatives compare to your involvement with your extended family? To what extent is the notion of one’s family defined differently by each culture? How might one measure the importance of the family in American society?
13. How does Firoozeh’s experience of violence during the Shah’s visit with President Carter in 1977 affect her? How do you think Firoozeh is able to reconcile this experience of violence and racial hatred with her appreciation for all that America offers her family?
14. How does Firoozeh’s engagement to François, a French Catholic, affect her relationship with her parents? To what extent does her mother’s reaction to the news reflect her acceptance of the changing realities of contemporary life in America? Are mixed marriages (ethnic, religious, racial, etc.) accepted or considered controversial in your community, and why?
15. How does Firoozeh’s use of humor to describe her experiences as an Iranian immigrant in America enable you to appreciate the more confusing or mystifying aspects of American culture? How would the experience of reading this book differ for you if it were told from a more serious perspective? Of the many humorous moments detailed by Firoozeh Dumas, which was most memorable for you, and why?
(Questions issued by publisher.)
The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb
Melanie Benjamin, 2011
Random House
448 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780385344159
Summary
In her national bestseller Alice I Have Been, Melanie Benjamin imagined the life of the woman who inspired Alice in Wonderland. Now, in this jubilant new novel, Benjamin shines a dazzling spotlight on another fascinating female figure whose story has never fully been told: a woman who became a nineteenth century icon and inspiration—and whose most daunting limitation became her greatest strength.
Never would I allow my size to define me. Instead, I would define it.
She was only two-foot eight-inches tall, but her legend reaches out to us more than a century later. As a child, Mercy Lavinia “Vinnie” Bump was encouraged to live a life hidden away from the public. Instead, she reached out to the immortal impresario P. T. Barnum, married the tiny superstar General Tom Thumb in the wedding of the century, and transformed into the world’s most unexpected celebrity.
Here, in Vinnie’s singular and spirited voice, is her amazing adventure—from a showboat “freak” revue where she endured jeering mobs to her fateful meeting with the two men who would change her life: P. T. Barnum and Charles Stratton, AKA Tom Thumb. Their wedding would captivate the nation, preempt coverage of the Civil War, and usher them into the White House and the company of presidents and queens. But Vinnie’s fame would also endanger the person she prized most: her similarly-sized sister, Minnie, a gentle soul unable to escape the glare of Vinnie’s spotlight.
A barnstorming novel of the Gilded Age, and of a woman’s public triumphs and personal tragedies, The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb is the irresistible epic of a heroine who conquered the country with a heart as big as her dreams—and whose story will surely win over yours. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Aka—Melanie Hauser
• Birth—November 24. 1962
• Where—Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
• Education—Indiana University (Purdue University at
Indianapolis)
• Currently—lives near Chicago, Illinois
Melanie Benjamin is the pen name of American writer, Melanie Hauser (nee Miller). Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, Melanie is one of three children. Her brother Michael Miller is a published non-fiction author and musician. Melanie attended Indiana University—Purdue University at Indianapolis then married Dennis Hauser in 1988; they presently reside in the Chicago, Illinois area with their two sons.
Early writing
As Melanie Hauser, she published short stories in the In Posse Review and The Adirondack Review. Her short story "Prodigy on Ice" won the 2001 "Now Hear This" short story competition that was part of a WBEZ (Chicago Public Radio) program called Stories on Stage, where short stories were performed and broadcast.
When Melanie sold her first of two contemporary novels, she had to add Lynne to her name (Melanie Lynne Hauser) to distinguish her from the published sports journalist Melanie Hauser.
The first of Melanie's contemporary novels, Confessions of Super Mom was published in 2005; the sequel Super Mom Saves the World came out in 2007. In addition to her two contemporary novels, Melanie also contributed an essay to the anthology IT'S A BOY and maintained a popular mom blog called The Refrigerator Door.
Fictional biographies
Under the pen name Melanie Benjamin (a combination of her first name and her son's first name), she shifted genres to historical fiction. Her third novel, Alice I Have Been, was inspired by Alice Liddell Hargreaves's life (the real-life Alice of Alice in Wonderland). Published in 2010, Alice I Have Been was a national bestseller and reached the extended list of The New York Times Best Seller list.
In 2011, Benjamin fictionalized another historical female. Her novel The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb focuses on the life of Lavinia Warren Bump, a proportionate dwarf featured in P.T. Barnum's shows.
Her third fictionalized biography, The Aviator's Wife, was released in 2013 and centers on Anne Morrow Lindbergh, wife of famed aviator, Charles Lindberg. (From Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
Benjamin…knows how to combine research and readability. And she's given Vinnie such dignity and courage…that her heroine commands attention from the first page.
Washington Post
Mercy Lavinia "Vinnie" Warren Bump, the diminutive wife of Gen. Tom Thumb, narrates her life story in this vivaciousfictionalized autobiography that takes her from a small New Englandtown to a seedy Mississippi showboat and eventuallyinto the entourage of the impresario P.T. Barnum. Born withproportionate dwarfism, Vinnie, a "perfect woman in miniature," rejects a career as a schoolteacher in favor of showbusiness, eventually finding an intellectual soul mate in Barnum andinternational fame that leads her into the opulence of New Yorksociety and meetings with heads of state from theWhite House to Europe and India. Benjamin (Alice I HaveBeen) centers the latter half of her tale around Vinnie and Barnum'sodd-couple friendship and touchy businessrelationship, sometimes glossing frustratingly over Vinnie'sown adventures—a three-year tour of Australia and Asia isgiven only a few pages—and leaving the last 40 yearsof her life untold. But the smart and unyieldingly ladylikeVinnie emerges as an effervescent narrator with a love of life and a grand story worth the price of admission.
Publishers Weekly
This follow-up to Benjamin's Alice I Have Been is loosely based on the life of Lavinia "Vinnie" Warren Bump, who married world-famous "little person" Charles Stratton (aka Gen. Tom Thumb). Benjamin tells Vinnie's story from her upbringing in a modest but proud Massachusetts family to her early forays into show business on a seedy riverboat to her eventual fame and fortune as one of P.T. Barnum's popular attractions. In an essentially arranged marriage, she reserves her emotional intimacy for Barnum and her sister Minnie, with tragic results. Verdict: Vinnie's first-person narration grabs you from the opening pages, providing hints of the absorbing and entertaining story to come. The novel is also a delightful cavalcade of late 19th-century Americana, as you travel with Vinnie up and down the Mississippi, head westward via the expanding railroad, and hobnob with New York's rich and famous. Those interested in "behind the scenes" of show business will be equally entranced. —Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, Univ. of Minnesota Lib., Minneapolis
Library Journal
Discussion Questions
1. What are the parallels between Vinnie's celebrity and the definition of celebrity today?
2. Why did Vinnie determine to only communicate her optimism—what was she trying to hide behind, or hide from herself, by choosing not to dwell on the many obstacles in her way?Why did Vinnie go along with Barnum's humbug concerning the infant?
3. Which is the true love story of the book—the story of Vinnie and Barnum, Vinnie and Charles, Vinnie and Minnie, or Vinnie and the public?
4. Why do you think the notion of the Tom Thumb wedding so swept the nation that, even today, there are reenactments with children?
5. What was the most interesting historical fact in the book for you? Which was the most startling?
6. Sylvia points out a photograph in the window of a store. It's of PT Barnum. "Really?" I was surprised and, I confess, a little disappointed; the man in the photograph looked so very...ordinary. Curly hair parted on the side, a wide forehead, a somewhat bulbous nose, an unremarkable smile. He resembled any man I might have passed in the street; he certainly did not resemble a world-famous impresario. Colonel Wood, I had to admit, looked much more the part than did this man (p. 78). Vinnie is used to people making immediate assumptions about her based on her appearance. What assumptions, though, does Vinnie make about people for the same reasons? Are pre-conceived notions about people something that is ingrained in us?
7. What do you think it means to live one's life in the public eye, as Vinnie and Charles did? How would you react to being scrutinized by the press for your every action? Compare how you may have felt in Vinnie's day compared to today's twenty-four hour news and gossip cycle.
8. For Vinnie, what do you think was the best part of being famous? What was the worst?
9. Toward the end of her stage career, Vinnie asks herself, "had I ever been simply Lavinia Warren Stratton? To anyone--even myself?" (p. 363) Do you think Vinnie chose this life for herself, or did she essentially hop on a ride and couldn't get off? Was the price she had to pay for her fame and fortune her own chosen identity?
(Questions issued by publisher.)
top of page (summary)
Would I Lie to You?
Trisha R. Thomas, 2004
Crown Publishing
304 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781400049035
Summary
Spirited, successful Venus Johnston is back—in the long-awaited sequel to Nappily Ever After.
Venus feels history repeating itself, and she’s not loving it. She ended a relationship with Clint because he couldn’t commit, cut off her long, processed hair, and started on a new path with a new boyfriend. But she’s been with Airic for more than two years, and they still haven’t set a wedding date. When a temporary project takes her to Los Angeles, Venus welcomes the opportunity to spend some time with her family in California and to see if a little absence makes Airic’s heart grow fonder.
But in L.A., savvy, ambitious Venus runs head-on into a new complication—the equally savvy and ambitious Jake Parsons, a former rap star turned clothing designer. Jake’s as suave as he is successful, and ten years her junior. Venus’s job is to create a marketing campaign for his urban wear. Jake’s job, it seems, is to distract her from her long-distance romance with Airic.
When Venus’s mother is diagnosed with breast cancer, her entire world seems to crumble. Everything she thought would make her happy—her new look, her successful career, her fiance—can’t fix the sadness and emptiness she feels. But before she throws in the towel, she’s offered one more chance, a chance for change, for growth, and maybe even for a new love. Will she take it? Or give in to the notion that her life will always be close but no cigar? Moving, romantic and inspiring, Would I Lie to You? is one woman’s happy, lighthearted story of giving in instead of giving up. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1966
• Where—San Diego, California, USA
• Education—California State University, Los Angeles
• Awards—Finalist: Gold Pen Best New Fiction Writer; NAACP
Image Award; Essence Magazine Story Teller of the Year
• Currently—lives in Riverside, California
Trisha R. Thomas was born in San Diego, California, and now lives in Riverside, happily ever after, with her husband and two children. She is the author of six novels, including Nappily Ever After (2000), Roadrunner (2002), Would I Lie to You? (2004) Nappily Married (2007), Nappily Faithful (2008), and Nappily in Bloom (2009). (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Venus is a likable heroine: She has an interesting job assisting corporations with multicultural marketing, she is refreshingly bright, and her love interest—one of three, actually—is an ex-rapper turned clothing mogul.
Susan Coll - Washington Post
A soulful, romantic story that will make the reader fall in love with love again.
Black Issues Book Review
Thomas's enjoyable but flawed novel continues the story of Venus Johnston, begun in Nappily Ever After. Now 36, Venus has become the director of a Washington, D.C., marketing firm. Sent to Los Angeles to revive JPWear, the clothing brand of former rap artist Jake Parson, Venus is surprised by her powerful instant attraction to Jake. She works hard to ignore her emotions, especially because her long-time fiance, Airic, a self-made businessman, awaits her return to D.C. Jake, attracted to Venus and undeterred by her engagement, begins to weaken her resolve, until the sudden hospitalization of Venus's mother forces her to step back and carefully examine her own life. It also brings her into contact with her old flame Dr. Clint Fairchild, allowing her to express her long-held anger at their sudden breakup. She remains ambivalent about Jake's role in her life until her best friend visits Los Angeles with the disturbing news that Airic is under investigation for securities fraud. With her successful project nearly complete, Venus decides to return to Washington—more out of duty than love, though she won't admit it. Airic's case is favorably resolved, but Venus decides to end their relationship, even though she is pregnant with his child. Jake, still on the West Coast, has stayed in close touch with Venus; finally, he can be hers—but will he want to make a life with Venus and another man's child? Readers may be distracted by the plethora of bit players, and too much is crammed into the final few pages. Nonetheless, Thomas's new novel will please her fans and perhaps win new ones as well. Though a sequel, this novel easily stands alone, and compares favorably to others in the genre. Look for Thomas's numbers to rise.
Publishers Weekly
Venus Johnston picks up where she left off after ending her relationship with Clint. Although she supported him while he attended medical school, he wouldn't commit to marriage.... Readers who enjoyed Thomas' Nappily Ever After (2000) will enjoy this sequel. —Vanessa Bush
Booklist
Venus Johnston is back-and she's gotta make up her mind. After she quit fussing with her processed hair and chopped it all off in Nappily Ever After (2000), Venus dumped pediatrician Clint and met Airic, a handsome, workaholic dot-com entrepreneur putting together his first IPO. He sure looks like Mr. Right, and they've been together for two years, but they just can't seem to set a date for the wedding. Well, whatever, she's 36 and that's not old enough to worry about being an old maid, not these days. Venus ignores her mama's unsubtle nagging—especially the suggestion about freezing some eggs just in case. When a new man enters her life, Venus is flummoxed. Ex-rapper turned clothing designer Jake Parsons ain't so special—except for his deep, phone-sex voice, gentlemanly manners, good looks, style, and immense personal fortune. She feels a little guilty daydreaming about Jake when Airic works so hard and seems so devoted—but when it comes right down to it, he just won't commit. Hired to freshen up the JPWear line, Venus spends a lot of time with Jake, fighting the powerful attraction he has. She just can't cheat on Airic, not after the way Clint cheated on her, but .... And her mother's diagnosis of breast cancer teaches Venus the hard truth that life is sometimes a lot shorter than we want it to be. When she finds out she's pregnant, however, Airic isn't happy at all. Relegated to a greeting-card relationship with his two kids by a difficult ex-wife, he still doesn't want to marry, and he doesn't want to be just a checkbook daddy, either. Vowing to go it alone, Venus gives birth to a girl, Mya. Will Jake want her and another man's baby? Happy ending awaits, with a can-I-get-a-witness choir backing up her one and only as he pledges eternal love. Briskly written sequel, very likable heroine.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. The novel opens with Venus' recurring nightmare: she is abandoned on her wedding day when Clint is lured away by a glamorous actress who tells him, "You know you need a real woman, someone who's going to love you and take care of you and put you first at all times." Is Venus afraid that she is truly incapable of putting someone first, or merely afraid that Clint thinks so? Why do you think this dream features Clint rather than Airic as the groom?
2. Venus does not hesitate to take the job in LosAngeles, and, in fact, is packed and ready to roll when she springs the news on Airic. However, she is irritated that Airic does not put up a fight. He is "a little too excited for her taste.…Part of her wanted him to throw drama, plead for her to stay, maybe even pout a little. What would it hurt to show that he cared, needed her? He didn't always have to be so understanding, so mature." What does this double standard tell you about Venus? Would she have cancelled her plans if Airic had begged her to?
3. How much of Jake's allure is due to the fact that he is a refreshing, baggage-free distraction from Venus' family crisis? How does Thomas set up tension with her descriptions of Jake? Are you surprised to find him a trustworthy, loveable character by the end?
4. Venus is deeply conflicted about her career: "What was she doing here in Los Angeles? She'd asked herself that question numerous times. Her answer always straight from the pages of Essence, O, and New Woman…unleashing her career potential, setting goals and overcoming fears. She was, after all, the Millennium woman…Underneath it all, she simply wanted to be loved...A husband, a baby, a home with a cuddly little dog." Is Thomas suggesting that some women are pressured by the media to strive for career success against their own gut instincts? To what extent do you think magazines like Essence and O affect women's ideas, both positively and negatively, about what they should be doing with their lives?
5. How do you explain Venus' fury at her mother's doctor? Are her feelings directed at the illness itself? The medical field for being inadequate to the task? Her mother for being mortal, or possibly passing a flawed gene on to her? Is any of this emotion aimed at Clint?
6. Alienated from her parents and confused about her men, Venus ends up relying on the kindness of strangers. Who helps her in unexpected ways? What point do you think Thomas is making with these encounters?
7. What is the significance of Venus' memory about her college boyfriend, Tony, and the tumultuous end of their relationship? What fears about herself does this memory dredge up?
8. When Jake turns on the charm during their first meeting, Venus acknowledges, "the fun was always in the chase." When she feels overwhelmed by his ardor, she admits, "She was used to doing the chasing, being the one who wanted more than she would ever receive." And when she is late to visit her mother at the hospital, she berates herself: "Always a step behind…a true sign that she was never going to catch whatever she was chasing." Discuss Venus' obsession with "the chase." Is she able to let go of this cat-and-mouse mentality in the end?
9. Venus tells Jake, "I learned a long time ago not to blame others for my unhappiness, or happiness for that matter. Either way it's my responsibility." Has she internalized this lesson? Where do you see examples of her having achieved this clarity?
10. Henry and Wendy offer Venus clashing advice about her relationship. Henry insists that liking someone (Jake, for instance) takes precedence over loyalty or even love. He tells her that "life is full of risk and danger but living is much more fun," and urges her to "start taking some chances or you gonna end up unhappy and alone." Wendy urges her to stay loyal to Airic. "You'd give up a man you've known and loved for someone who just happened to be there to pick up the pieces when you were vulnerable?…[Airic] was there for you…Now you have to stick by him." Both Henry and Wendy claim to be happily married. Whose advice do you agree with?
11. When Venus confronts Airic about his agonizing secret, she turns the conversation toward herself, rather than comfort him: "I wanted to finally be right, to finally be the person that someone could count on, through thick and thin. I wanted to be that person for you, Airic…Conviction, forgiveness, compassion, whatever it's called. I thought you saw that in me. I thought you loved me the same way I loved you. I thought you trusted me." Is Venus being fair? Is she honestly feeling injured here, or has this situation merely provided her with an easy "out" from the relationship?
12. After all her hard work on the JPWear account, Venus capitulates to "the dynamic duo" during their last meeting in LA, but not until she has a temper tantrum and balls out Legend. This is not her first loss of control in a professional setting. How do you feel about Venus abandoning her career ambitions so quickly, and in such a firestorm?
13. Discuss Airic's assessment: "Most people saw what they wanted instead of what was really there. Venus was most people."
14. Venus is delighted by the sabotage wedding that closes the novel. Is this what she has needed all along in order to make a decision—a forced, public accounting of her own feelings? How would the novel have been different if Venus had freely chosen the timing and circumstance of her wedding?
(Questions issued by publisher.)