The Song of Hartgrove Hall
Natasha Solomons, 2015
Penguin Publishing
416 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780147517593
Summary
A captivating novel that evokes the author’s The House at Tyneford
Natasha Solomons’s breathtaking new novel has it all: a love triangle, family obligations, and rediscovering joy in the face of grief, all set against the alluring backdrop of an English country estate perfect for fans of Downton Abbey
It's a terrible thing to covet your brother’s girl
New Year’s Eve, Dorset, England, 1946. Candles flicker, a gramophone scratches out a tune as guests dance and sip champagne—for one night Hartgrove Hall relives better days. Harry Fox-Talbot and his brothers have returned from World War II determined to save their once grand home from ruin.
But the arrival of beautiful Jewish wartime singer Edie Rose tangles the threads of love and duty, and leads to a devastating betrayal.
Fifty years later, now a celebrated composer, Fox reels from the death of his adored wife, Edie. Until his connection with his four-year old grandson—a music prodigy—propels him back into life, and ultimately to confront his past.
An enthralling novel about love and treachery, joy after grief, and a man forced to ask: is it ever too late to seek forgiveness? (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Natasha Solomons is a British screenwriter and author of several novels: The Song of Hartgrove (2015), The Gallery of Vanished Husbands (2013), The House at Tyneford (2011), and Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English (2010). She lives with her husband in Dorset, England. (From the publisher.)
See an interesting article on Solomon's dyslexia in London's Evening Standard.
Book Reviews
A delightful, moving, utterly believable family saga.
Times (UK)
[A] tender, lyrical novel of family and fame.
Sunday Express (UK)
Combines exceptional prose and absorbing story-telling with grace and beauty, and is still a page-turner.
Record (UK)
Solomon’s reliably lush prose holds its own.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Part East of Eden, part Far From the Madding Crowd, The Song of Hartgrove Hall finds Solomons hitting perfect pitch in this symphony—sometimes sweet, sometimes bitter, always entrancing—of life.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
A lush, historical story with plenty of romantic twists set against a musical backdrop.
Parkersburg News & Sentinel
The perfect mid-winter read, especially if you’re a Downton Abbey fan.... This novel spans decades, and includes a great British manor house and characters.... Whether you’re already a fan or a newcomer, this story will capture your mind and heart.
Washington Independent Review of Books
Solomons's engaging novel is the story of the three Fox-Talbot brothers, who return to their ancestral home after World War II to find their world in flux.... Devotees of television's Downton Abbey will be drawn in by this novel's historical detail and emotional story line. —Catherine Coyne, Mansfield P.L., MA
Library Journal
A composer looks back on [his] life.... The main source of suspense is how these reversals of fortune occurred. Despite a clichéd redemptive close, the principal characters are not sympathetic enough, nor does the love affair seem compelling enough, to make us care.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Hartgrove Hall is in and of itself an important character in the novel. How would you describe it? Discuss its many uses, both as a gathering space for personal and family functions and for the community. Do they change over time?
2. In the “A Note on Song Collecting” section that follows the novel’s conclusion, Solomons discusses the tradition of song collecting. How does song collecting relate to cultural identity? At which points does Fox feel an urgency to preserve history in The Song of Hartgrove Hall?
3. The theme of maternal loss is present throughout The Song of Hartgrove Hall. How does Fox seek out his mother’s memory? How do his daughters cope with the loss of their mother? When does Fox feel their grief most acutely?
4. On page 3 of the book, Fox reveals that “So many people think they knew [Edie]. The Little Nightingale. England’s perfect rose.” Why don’t these people actually know Edie? What aspects of her history and personality was Edie most hesitant to share? Why do you think she was able to confide in Fox?
5. Early in the novel it is revealed that Edie suffers from crippling stage fright,yet she performs consummately. Discuss the difference between her personal and professional identities and how they manifest in various social situations. Which version of herself is Edie most comfortable displaying? How does she transition between the two?
6. Discuss Fox’s role as a grandfather, both before and after discovering Robin’s piano acumen. Is he comfortable being a grandparent? how do memories of Edie help guide him as he assumes this role?
7. Who most influenced Fox’s career as a composer? When the music in his head stops after Edie’s death, what restores his musicality?
8. How is masculinity discussed within the novel? What type of masculinity does the General value? Is Fox’s idea of masculinity different? When does Fox feel insecure about himself?
9. Discuss Fox’s relationship with his daughters. How would you characterize their interactions? How does Fox’s relationship with Clara change after her divorce?
10. Compare Fox’s relationship with Jack to his relationship with George. What do the brothers have in common? After their decision to turn Hartgrove Hall into a working farm, how does their relationship change?
11. Discuss the sojourn to Scotland that takes place in 1948. How is this trip restorative for Fox? How does he grow during this time?
12. The Song of Hartgrove Hall is a novel about grieving as much as it is one about healing. Discuss the intimate moments wherein Fox reveals his grief over Edie’s death to the reader. Is his sadness alleviated over time? How does his state of mind change throughout the novel?
13. Edie’s Jewish identity is revealed suddenly and cruelly to Fox by the General, but Fox does not discuss it with her directly for years. Why do you think he is hesitant to approach the topic? Does Fox seem accepting of her cultural heritage?
14. As the plot shifts between the past and the present, Solomons lowly reveals each character’s motivations. Who surprised you the most?
15. Recall the scene on page 196 in which Marcus reveals to Fox that he is dying. How does that conversation affect Fox? What actions does he take to ensure that his friend feels comforted during this time?
16. Edie and Fox’s relationship is a storied romance, yet it is borne out of deceit and manipulation. Did the revelation of their infidelities affect your understanding of each character?
17. Discuss Fox’s decision to reconcile with Jack. Why do you think he brought Robin with him to Florida? Were you surprised by how Jack received them? How did you interpret their last scene together?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
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Welcome to Night Vale
Joseph Fink, Jeffrey Cranor 2016
HarperCollins
416 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062351425
Summary
Located in a nameless desert somewhere in the great American Southwest, Night Vale is a small town where ghosts, angels, aliens, and government conspiracies are all commonplace parts of everyday life.
It is here that the lives of two women, with two mysteries, will converge.
Nineteen-year-old Night Vale pawn shop owner Jackie Fierro is given a paper marked "KING CITY" by a mysterious man in a tan jacket holding a deer skin suitcase. Everything about him and his paper unsettles her, especially the fact that she can't seem to get the paper to leave her hand, and that no one who meets this man can remember anything about him. Jackie is determined to uncover the mystery of King City and the man in the tan jacket before she herself unravels.
Night Vale PTA treasurer Diane Crayton's son, Josh, is moody and also a shape shifter. And lately Diane's started to see her son's father everywhere she goes, looking the same as the day he left years earlier, when they were both teenagers.
Josh, looking different every time Diane sees him, shows a stronger and stronger interest in his estranged father, leading to a disaster Diane can see coming, even as she is helpless to prevent it.
Diane's search to reconnect with her son and Jackie's search for her former routine life collide as they find themselves coming back to two words: "KING CITY." It is King City that holds the key to both of their mysteries, and their futures...if they can ever find it. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Joseph Fink created and co-writes the Welcome to Night Vale podcast and touring live show. In his mid-twenties he started Commonplace Books, a very small publishing company, producing two collections of short works which he edited and laid out at his office job when his boss wasn't looking.
Later Jeffrey approached Joseph with the idea of writing a play about time travel. They co-wrote and performed this play in the East Village in August of 2011. Soon afterwards, Joseph started brainstorming a new project he and Jeffrey could co-write and this led to the pilot episode of Welcome to Night Vale. He is from California but doesn't live there anymore. (He live in Brooklyn, New York City.)
Jeffrey Cranor co-writes—along with Joseph Fink—the hit podcast and touring live show Welcome to Night Vale. He also makes theater and dance. He has written more than 100 short plays with the New York Neo-Futurists, co-wrote and co-performed a two-man show (What the Time Traveler Will Tell Us) with Joseph, and collaborated with choreographer (also wife) Jillian Sweeney to create three full-length dance pieces: Imaginary Lines, This could be it, and Vulture-Wally. Jeffrey lives in New York State. (Author bios from the publisher.)
Book Reviews
The book is charming and absurd—think This American Life meets Alice in Wonderland.
Washington Post
Hypnotic and darkly funny.... Belongs to a particular strain of American gothic that encompasses The Twilight Zone, Stephen King and Twin Peaks, with a bit of Tremors thrown in.
Guardian (UK)
Fink and Cranor’s prose hints there’s an empathetic humanity underscoring their well of darkly fantastic situations.... [T]he book builds toward a satisfyingly strange exploration of the strange town’s intersection with an unsuspecting real world.
Los Angeles Times
As a companion piece, Welcome to Night Vale will be hard to resist. Though the book builds toward a satisfyingly strange exploration of the strange town’s intersection with an unsuspecting real world, its mysteries—like the richest conspiracy theories—don’t exist to be explained. They just provide a welcome escape.
Detroit Free Press
The charms of Welcome to Night Vale are nearly impossible to quantify. That applies to the podcast, structured as community radio dispatches from a particularly surreal desert town, as well as this novel, written by the podcast’s co-creators, Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Longtime listeners and newcomers alike are likely to appreciate the ways in which Night Vale, as Fink puts it, “treats the absurd as normal and treats the normal as absurd.” What they might not foresee is the emotional wallop the novel delivers in its climactic chapters.
Austin Chronicle
This is a splendid, weird, moving novel…. It manages beautifully that trick of embracing the surreal in order to underscore and emphasize the real - not as allegory, but as affirmation of emotional truths that don’t conform to the neat and tidy boxes in which we’re encouraged to house them.
NPR.org
Though the book meanders a bit in the middle, the end is satisfying, with a surprising origin story for one of the characters.... This unusual experiment in format-shifting works surprisingly well.
Publishers Weekly
Fans of the podcast will enjoy learning more Night Vale lore, and fantasy readers may also enjoy, depending on how tolerant they are of non sequiturs. Others, though, may not find enough to sustain a novel of this length. —Kate Gray, Boston P.L., MA
Library Journal
(Starred review.) It's all pretty far out there on the weird-ometer, but the novel is definitely as addictive as its source material.... A delightfully bonkers media crossover that will make an incredible audiobook
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Questions have not yet been issued by the publisher... so use these LitLovers talking points to start a discussion for Welcome to Night Vale...then take off on your own:
1. These are are the choices—take your pick: This American Life meets Alice in Wonderland ... or Twiight Zone meets Twin Peaks ... or Neil Gaiman/Stephen King meets Lake Woebegon. Seriously. How would you describe Night Vale. (Have some fun.)
2. Since you've chosen to read this book, very likely you're already a fan of the Welcome to Night Vale podcast. How does the novel stack up against the audio show? If you haven't listened to the podcast series (you haven't?... Seriously...?), did you feel like a small ball in tall weeds, utterly lost? Or did you find the novel easy to follow?
3. In their podcast, and now in their novel, Fink and Cranor have created a self-contained world all unto itself. Describe that world—its weirdness, even scariness, its humor and downright absurdity. What made you laugh out loud: the toxic librarians, maybe...or the local paper editor who hatchets bloggers?
4. The writing about Danny is particulary charming. Danny is a shape-shifter; how does that trait play into adolescence angst when it comes to self-identity, attractiveness, and likeability?
5. What about Jackie and Diane? Are they well-developed as characters? Do you develop sympathy Talk about them individually and as a duo when the two decide, grudgingly, to work together.
6. And then there's Cecil and his radio show. Both Diane and Jackie find comfort in his radio show. How does he move the plot along? And as you discuss this, do not—absolutely do not—mention (or touch) the flamingos.
7. Were you surprised (creeped out?) toward the end of the book with its revelations about the nature of the town and its residents?
8. Talk about the ways in which Welcome to Night Vale uses—and satirizes—cosmic horror. Here's a good description of the genre, perfected by H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937), from an article in the UK's Guardian:
Alien horrors break through the thin delusion we call human perception with nasty results.... Cosmic horror is the realm not only of the unspoken, but the unspeakable; not only the invisible, but that which we refuse to see. It works by drawing out our unspoken anxieties and giving them monstrous form.
(Questions by LitLovers. Feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks..)
Two If by Sea
Jacquelyn Mitchard, 2016
Simon & Schuster
416 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781501115578
Summary
From the author of The Deep End of the Ocean comes an epic story of courage and devotion that spans three continents and the entire map of the human heart.
Just hours after his wife and her entire family perish in the Christmas Eve tsunami in Brisbane, American expat and former police officer Frank Mercy goes out to join his volunteer rescue unit and pulls a little boy from a submerged car, saving the child’s life with only seconds to spare.
In that moment, Frank’s own life is transformed.
Not quite knowing why, Frank sidesteps the law, when, instead of turning Ian over to the Red Cross, he takes the boy home to the Midwestern farm where he grew up. Not long into their journey, Frank begins to believe that Ian has an extraordinary, impossible telepathic gift; but his only wish is to protect the deeply frightened child.
As Frank struggles to start over, training horses as his father and grandfather did before him, he meets Claudia, a champion equestrian and someone with whom he can share his life—and his fears for Ian. Both of them know that it will be impossible to keep Ian’s gift a secret forever.
Already, ominous coincidences have put Frank’s police instincts on high alert, as strangers trespass the quiet life at the family farm.
The fight to keep Ian safe from a sinister group who want him back takes readers from the ravaged shores of Brisbane to the middle of America to a quaint English village. Even as Frank and Claudia dare to hope for new love, it becomes clear that they can never let Ian go, no matter what the cost.
A suspenseful novel on a grand scale, Two If by Sea is about the best and worst in people, and the possibility of heroism and even magic in ordinary life. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—December 10, 1956
• Where—Chicago, Illinois, USA
• Education—University of Illinois (no degree)
• Currently—lives in Brewster, Massachusetts
Jacquelyn Mitchard is an American journalist and novelist. She is the author more than 25 books for adults, teens, and children. She is best known for The Deep End of the Ocean, which on September 17, 1996, was the first selection for Oprah's Book Club.
Background
Born and raised in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, Mitchard's father was a plumber, from Newfoundland, Canada, and her mother a hardware store clerk, a competitive horsewoman, and a member of the Lac du Flambeau Chippewa Cree tribe.
Journalism
Mitchard studied creative writing for three semesters under Mark Costello (author of The Murphy Stories) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 1979, she became a newspaper reporter, eventually achieving a position as lifestyle columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper. Her weekly column, "The Rest of Us: Dispatches from the Mother Ship," appeared in 125 newspapers nationwide until she retired it in 2007.
Mitchard is also a contributing editor for More (magazine) and is featured regularly in Reader's Digest, Good Housekeeping, Hallmark, Real Simple and other publications. Her nonfiction work includes the 1986 memoir Mother Less Child and essays in more than 30 anthologies.
In 1980, Mitchard married Dan Allegretti, a reporter for The Capital Times; the couple had three children and a daughter from Allegretti's previous marriage. In 1993, after 13 years of marriage, Allegretti died of cancer. He was only 45.
Books
The idea for a novel first came to Mitchard in a dream in the summer of 1993, and after her husband died, she began writing what would become The Deep End of the Ocean. All the while, Mitchard continued to work—as a freelance writer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and in a part-time job in public relations for the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Deep End was published in 1996. Bolstered by being featured by Oprah, the novel sold close to 3 million copies by May of 1998. It was listed on the New York Times Bestseller for 29 weeks—13 of those as #1. The book was adapted to film in 1999, starring Michelle Pfeiffer.
All of Mitchard's other novels have been bestsellers and garnered critical acclaim—particularly for The Most Wanted, Cage of Stars and The Breakdown Lane. The Most Wanted was nominated for Britain's Orange Prize for Fiction, and Cage of Stars for Britain's Spread The Word Prize.
In 2004 Mitchard entered the field for young readers. That year she published two books—Baby Bat's Lullaby (a picture book) and Starring Prima! The Mouse of the Ballet Jolie (a middle-school book). In 2005 she released Rosalie, My Rosalie: The Tale of a Duckling (middle-school), and in 2007 she issued Ready, Set, School! (a second picture book).
Personal life
Mitchard and local thespian J. Patrick performed together in the theatre play Love Letters by A.R. Gurney at the Performing Arts Center at Oregon High School in 1999. She performed as Mrs. Cratchit in the CTM production of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.
Mitchard lives in Brewster, Massachusetts on Cape Cod with her husband, Christopher Brent, and their children.
In 2011, Mitchard wrote that she and her husband had lost millions of dollars and most of their possessions to investment advisor Trevor Cook, who was convicted of operating a Ponzi Scheme.
One Writer's Place
Hoping to create a place for women and men in disadvantaged circumstances created by divorce or widowhood, in 2007 Mitchard founded One Writer's Place, a residence dedicated to healing through creativity. Though a successful endeavor, One Writer's Place was closed in the spring of 2011.
Adult and young adult fiction
1996 - The Deep End of the Ocean 1998 - The Most Wanted 2001 - A Theory of Relativity 2003 - Christmas, Present 2003 - Twelve Times Blessed 2005 - The Breakdown Lane 2006 - Age of Stars |
2007 - Still Summer 2007 - Now You See Her 2008 - All We Know of Heaven 2009 - No Time to Wave Goodbye 2011 - Second Nature: A Love Story 2013 - What We Lost In the Dark 2016 - Two If by Sea |
(Author bio adapted fom Wikipedia. Retrieved 3/24/2016.)
Book Reviews
Bestselling author Jacquelyn Mitchard (The Deep End of the Ocean) balances love and loss in her new novel, Two If By Sea. It is a sweet story of one man’s road to recovery and the challenges he faces to protect the people he loves…It’s a universal adventure full of emotion and quite a bit of intrigue.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
[C]ombines elements of science fiction and suspense with a heartfelt meditation on family and grief, to mixed results.... Mitchard’s usual strong characters and emotionally resonant prose are evident here, but a few predictable twists and a shoehorned-in love interest drag things down.
Publishers Weekly
[H]eartbreaker.... Frank Mercy [loses] his wife and all her family in Brisbane's Christmas Eve "inland tsunami." During the flooding, he's managed to rescue a little boy named Ian and breaks the rules by taking him back to his family home in America's Midwest.
Library Journal
A gripping new family drama… Mitchard deftly weaves together domestic drama with taut suspense as she builds to a heart-stopping climax…Mitchard explores new territory in this unusual and suspenseful tale.
Booklist
After losing his wife and unborn son in a tsunami in Australia, an expat horse trainer adopts a psychic 3-year-old.... A troubled protagonist, beset by disaster and malefaction, is touched by magic as he develops new emotional connections.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. What if there really were a child with Ian’s gift? What would the people who love such a child owe him? To protect him from those who would use him and let him have an ordinary life? to develop his gifts and learn to share them? What would such a child owe the world? How would you protect someone with abilities like Ian’s? Evaluate Frank’s approach and Julia Madrigal’s.
2. There are many different types of families in Two If by Sea: for example, Tura and Cedric; the Donovan clan; Frank’s family; and Claudia, her sisters, and her widowed father. How does each character draw what he or she needs from their biological family—or the family he or she creates?
3. Jacquelyn Mitchard uses beautiful language to describe the magical relationships that can exist between people and animals, especially horses. Why is it important to the novel that Frank is a horse trainer? What do the horse farms and the community around them add to the novel? How do the relationships with animals add to our understanding of Ian’s abilities and the power and vulnerability that come with them?
4. Were you surprised by Frank’s decision to take Ian? How do you explain this? Can there ever be a time when doing something that is wrong in the eyes of the world be the only right choice?
5. In the aftermath of the tsunami, Frank thinks: “Life was not a statement of choice in the fucking good earth or whatever Cedric had said. Life was as random as a pair of dice with ten sides.” Is Frank right? Or is Cedric? Why or why not? Do you think by the end of the book that Frank would still feel that way?
6. Do you believe that Ian has supernatural powers? Or do you believe that Ian is no more than an especially charismatic little boy? How does your understanding of Ian’s skills change throughout the course of the novel? How does it change when more of the boy’s history is revealed?
7. When Ian talks for the first time at Eden’s wedding, how does that moment function as a turning point? How does it affect Frank? At what points do the words Ian says to Frank cause him to take the next step at every critical point in their relationship?
8. Consider the following passage, as Frank proposes to Claudia: “Love can make people cruel. Love can make people weak. Love doesn’t always stay the same. And sometimes it goes dark, like a star that gets extinguished and just leaves the memory of its light.” Despite its cruelties and pitfalls, why is love worth the trouble? Why does Frank ask Claudia to love him, despite all the challenges he faces?
9. Has Frank fully experienced his grief when he asks Claudia to marry him? Why or why not? When, if ever, does Frank come to terms with his feelings for his dead wife?
10. Two if By Sea considers parenthood from every possible angle and in every possible iteration. Discuss how each character approaches the idea of parenthood. What does the power and responsibility of parenthood mean to Frank? To Claudia? To Hope? To Eden and Marty? Even to Glory Bee? What is Mitchard (who has nine children of her own, both through birth and adoption) asking the reader to consider about the bonds between parents and their children, the bonds of blood and those of choice?
11. What is the significance of the novel’s title?
12. Why are the relationships Ian and Colin forge in Britain ultimately so important? Why does Frank feel safe enough to let the boys out alone?
13. Frank’s mother says about leaving their farm: “It’s as if I’m not leaving home, Frank, it’s leaving me.” There are strong themes of finding a sense of home and family throughout Two If by Sea. Which qualities create a sense of home for each character? What creates a sense of family? Are they same thing? Why or why not?
14. The book starts with Frank seeing the wave “that would sweep away the center of his life in the minutes after midnight, and, by the time the sun rose, send surging into his arms the seed of his life to come.” How did tragedy make way for what would come next in Frank’s life? How did tragedy inform the lives of other characters? If there is a message about human existence behind the author’s insistence in seeing the “next wave,” what is it?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
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Arcadia
Iain Pears, 2016
KnopfDoubleday
528 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781101946824
Summary
Three interlocking worlds. Four people looking for answers. But who controls the future—or the past?
In 1960s Oxford, Professor Henry Lytten is attempting to write a fantasy novel that forgoes the magic of his predecessors, J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. He finds an unlikely confidante in his quick-witted, inquisitive young neighbor Rosie.
One day, while chasing Lytten’s cat, Rosie encounters a doorway in his cellar. She steps through and finds herself in an idyllic, pastoral land where Storytellers are revered above all others. There she meets a young man who is about to embark on a quest of his own—and may be the one chance Rosie has of returning home.
These breathtaking adventures ultimately intertwine with the story of an eccentric psychomathematician whose breakthrough discovery will affect all of these different lives and worlds.
Dazzlingly inventive and deeply satisfying, Arcadia tests the boundaries of storytelling and asks: If the past can change the future, then might the future also indelibly alter the past? (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—January 1, 1955
• Where—Coventry, England, UK
• Education—Ph.D., Oxford University
• Awards—Martin Beck Award (Sweden)
• Currently—lives in Oxford, England
Iain Pears is an English art historian, novelist, and journalist. He was educated at Warwick School, Warwick, Wadham College and Wolfson College, Oxford.
Before writing, he worked as a reporter for the BBC, Channel 4 (UK) and ZDF (Germany) and correspondent for Reuters from 1982 to 1990 in Italy, France, UK, and US. In 1987 he became a Getty Fellow in the Arts and Humanities at Yale University.
Pears first came to international prominence with his best selling book An Instance of the Fingerpost (1997), which was translated into several languages. All told, he has published some dozen books—seven in the Jonathan Argyll series (1991-2000) featuring detective art historian Argyll who works with the (fictitious) Italian Art Squad.
In his stand alone novels, Pears is known for experimenting with different narrative structures, presenting four consecutive versions of the same events in An Instance of the Fingerpost, three stories interleaved in The Dream of Scipio (2002), three stories told in reverse chronological order in Stone's Fall (2009), and allowing the reader to switch between multiple narratives in the electronic book version of Arcadia (2015).
Pears currently lives with his wife and children in Oxford. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 2/22/2016.)
Book Reviews
Every so often you read a novel to which the best critical response is simply "Wow!," followed by a sigh of pleasure. Eighteen years ago I felt this way about Iain Pears’s intricate historical mystery An Instance of the Fingerpost. The book dazzled for many of the usual reasons—fascinating characters, a richly presented fictive world, polished writing, lively dialogue, a serious engagement with ideas about life and morality—but, more unusually, it was also a masterpiece of plot construction. All this is again true, and then some, of Mr. Pears’s Arcadia.
Michael Dirda - Wall Street Journal
[Pears] is a master at creating structurally intricate novels.... As Pears steadily builds his multiplicity of stories, his orchestrations become something far more ambitious, a calculated and at times quite droll assault on the very nature of narrative itself.
Steve Donoghue - Washington Post
A complex romp through time and genres...that intertwines 10 major characters over several centuries, with allusions abounding to Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Shakespeare, and a raft of others.... [It’s] fun to puzzle out how all the strands fit together.
Patricia Hagen - Minneapolis Star Tribune
A fantastical extravaganza.... A complex time-travelling, world-hopping caper with insistently epic stakes.
Steven Poole - Guardian (UK)
Pears’s prose is a pleasure to read.... A dream of perfection in beautiful language.... A compelling narrative; switching from one [storyline] to another means we are constantly in a state of suspense.... I was entirely captured.
Marion Halligan - Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
A many-layered narrative in which real and imagined worlds continually collide.... Aficionados of fantasy fiction will find plenty here to relish.
Max Davidson - Mail on Sunday (UK)
The most striking thing about Pears’s writing—his plots and ideas are complex, but his style is simple and clear.... Fantastic fun and, in spite of its complexity, a swift read.
Bryan Applebaum - Sunday Times (UK)
Not so much a novel as a cornucopia of narratives.... As a novelist, Iain Pears doesn’t repeat himself, and he gives with a generous hand.
Andrew Taylor - Spectator (UK)
Extremely clever but, better than that, immensely entertaining.... Pears almost seamlessly merges genres of fantasy, sci-fi, spy thriller, romance, and more.
Jaine Blackman - Oxford Times (UK)
[A] clever, well-constructed story. Living in an environmentally ravaged future governed by a technocratic so-called Scientific Government, the "psychomathematician" Angela Meerson builds a machine that could in theory access the resources of a parallel universe.... A fun, immersive, genre-bending ride.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) This complex, entertaining tale...involves time travel, British spies betraying one another, and apocalyptic scenarios.... [A] diverse group of characters and multiple worlds...[creates] an impressive and quite enjoyable mystery fantasy. —James Coan, SUNY at Oneonta Lib.
Library Journal
Pears darts from one [alternate future] to the other...[with] plenty of metacommentary on the art of storytelling, science fiction...the destruction wrought by greed, and other weighty matters. A head-scratcher but an ambitious pleasure. When puzzled, press on: Pears' yarn is worth the effort.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Where does the title of the book come from? What is Arcadia, and why do you think the author chose this title for the novel? How might the title serve as a clue that suggests or otherwise echoes the major themes of the text?
2. What is Anterwold? Why does Henry Lytten write about this place, and what characteristics does he give it? What are some of his major influences in the creation of this world?
3. Consider what the book has to say about the subject of history and our past. Angela is trying to find out how easy—or difficult—it is to change the course of history. What does she determine? What does the book suggest about the relationship between the past and the future?
4. How many points of view are represented in the book? Who are the narrators of the stories contained within the novel, and how does the shifting perspective affect your interpretation of the story? Does any one point of view seem to stand out from all the rest?
5. Consider the theme of morality. Can readers easily identify who is "good" and who is "bad"? What do the intentions and motives of certain characters—Oldmanter, or Angela, or Alex Chang, for instance—reveal to us about their nature? Does the book present a particular vision of morality? Discuss.
6. Evaluate setting. What settings does Pears employ in Arcadia? Does any one setting stand out from all the rest? What themes does each setting help to reveal or reinforce?
7. Consider utopia and dystopia as a motif in the book. How would the various characters in Arcadia define utopia? Would their definitions be consistent with one another? Which character or group of characters do you think is correct about creating a society that "works," as Henry Lytten would say?
8. Evaluate the theme of time. How is time represented or defined within the book, and what does this indicate about the relationship between past and present as well as cause and effect? Why does Angela believe that elderly people with dementia or Alzheimer’s are more in tune with the true nature of time?
9. Consider representations of status or social class in the book. How is status or class determined amongst the different groups of characters? What allows a character to achieve a high rank in each time and place? Does there seem to be social mobility in any of these places? If so, what allows or causes characters to shift positions?
10. Examine the theme of loyalty in the book. What examples of loyalty or disloyalty are depicted therein? To what are the characters faithful? Does the loyalty of the characters shift or remain consistent? Does Pears’s overall treatment of loyalty propose anything about human nature?
11. What does the novel suggest about identity? Are the characters easily identified in the various storylines? Is the identity of any particular character surprising, and if so, why? Does the book suggest whether identity is a static or fluid state? What seems to determine or shape the identity of the characters?
12. How does Arcadia uphold or otherwise defy traditional notions of genre? Is the book easily categorized? Explain. What genres are represented therein?
13. Evaluate the theme of storytelling. What is the role of the storyteller within the novel, and how are the storytellers treated in each time and place? What might this suggest about the purpose of storytelling?
14. How many stories does Arcadia contain? What stories influence Henry Lytten’s tale, and what stories influence Arcadia as a whole? What do these influences indicate about literary discourse and the relationships amongst texts?
15. In Arcadia, minor characters are revealed as major characters and major characters become minor ones, depending on which storyline a reader focuses on. What are some examples of this, and what might this convey about our own relationships to one another?
16. What is the Devil’s Handwriting? Who wants to find it and what do they want to do with it? Why is it significant to those who want to get their hands on it? Is it recovered? What does it ultimately reveal?
17. Consider the treatment of colonization and the treatment of indigenous peoples as a theme of the book. What does the novel suggest about this topic? How does Pears tackle the idea of the foreign in the novel?
18. Who are the Renegades, and what are some of their beliefs? Why do the elite scientists hope to contain them? Which group do you identify with more, in terms of what they wish to uphold and accomplish?
19. The author has revealed in interviews that Arcadia was conceived and written with the help of software. Discuss the role of technology in the formation and arrangement of the book. Do you think that the use of technology in the creation of this book was a success? Why or why not?
20. Evaluate the final chapter of the novel. Were you surprised at the conclusion? Explain. How does the conclusion relate to the overall structure of the book and the major themes of Arcadia?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
The Two-Family House
Lynda Cohen Loigman, 2016
St. Martin's Press
304 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781250076922
Summary
Brooklyn, 1947: In the midst of a blizzard, in a two-family brownstone, two babies are born, minutes apart.
The mothers are sisters by marriage: dutiful, quiet Rose, who wants nothing more than to please her difficult husband; and warm, generous Helen, the exhausted mother of four rambunctious boys who seem to need her less and less each day.
Raising their families side by side, supporting one another, Rose and Helen share an impenetrable bond forged before and during that dramatic winter night. When the storm passes, life seems to return to normal; but as the years progress, small cracks start to appear and the once deep friendship between the two women begins to unravel. No one knows why, and no one can stop it.
One misguided choice; one moment of tragedy.
Heartbreak wars with happiness and almost, but not quite, wins. Moving and evocative, Lynda Cohen Loigman's debut novel The Two-Family House is a heart-wrenching, gripping multigenerational story, woven around the deepest of secrets. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1968-69
• Raised—Longmeadow, Massachusetts, USA
• Education—B.A., Harvard University; J.D., Columbia University
• Currently—llives in Chappaqua, New York
Lynda Cohen Loigman's 2016 debut novel, The Two-Family House, takes place in Brooklyn, a place to which she feels a strong connection—for two reasons. First, the New York borough was once her mother's home; second, it is the setting for her favorite childhood novel, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, a book that has cast a spell over Lynda from the time she was 10. "No other book I knew offered the same vivid characters or richness of setting. I must have read it fifty times," she said during an interview on Tall Poppy Writers.
Loigman grew up in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. She received a B.A. in English and American Literature from Harvard College and a J.D. from Columbia Law School. She is now a student of the Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College, and lives with her husband and two children in Chappaqua, New York. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
It’s hard to believe The Two-Family House is Lynda Cohen Loigman’s debut novel. A richly textured, complex, yet entirely believable story.... As compelling as the story line are the characters that Loigman has drawn here. None is wholly likable nor entirely worthy of scorn. All are achingly human, tragically flawed and immediately recognizable. We watch them change and grow as the novel spans more than 20 years....engrossing from beginning to end.
Associated Press
Where Loigman excels is in capturing the time period—1950s Brooklyn.... Loigman nails the way family members, especially parents and children, inadvertently pierce one another with careless comments or subtle looks. As the story unfolds, we are reminded of how a split-second decision can reverberate for decades, even for generations.... [T]he real strength of Loigman’s debut effort is her characters, to whom you find your loyalty shifting as the story unfolds.
Jerusalem Post
Peeling back the layers that surround an irreversible, life-altering secret, this novel weaves a complex and heartbreaking story about lies and love, forgiveness and family. Written from alternating perspectives of the different family members over more than two decades, the deeply developed voices will bring tears and awe, settling snugly into the heart and mind. It’s a reminder that love is always forgiving.
Romance Times Reviews
[E]ngrossing.... Loigman's use of shifting perspectives allows readers to witness first-hand...secrets and the insidious lies that cover them up. This historical family drama has a dark underbelly, but Loigman's decision to let the reader in on the secret allows the setting and mood of the novel take over as the characters move haltingly toward redemption and peace.
Publishers Weekly
In her first novel, Loigman uses complex characters to deconstruct the anatomy of family relationships and expose deep-rooted emotions, delivering a moving story of love, loss, and sacrifice.
Booklist
The Two-Family House takes you on a tour of dysfunction and deep and abiding love in a way that reflects the entanglements that come with a close-living family.... [I]ts examination of generations of a family with their own high expectations to live up to resonates on several different levels.... [T]his very literary tale actually gives readers so much more than it may seem at first.
Book Reporter
A debut novel explores the intertwining lives of two Brooklyn families.... That Loigman mistakes clamor for vigor is unfortunate. She had the beginnings of a powerful work here. This compelling novel strains beneath its own aspirations and never quite comes to life.
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 start a discussion for The Two-Family House...then take off on your own:
1. Talk about the personalities of the two sisters-in-law, Helen and Rose. At what point after the birth of the babies do cracks begin to appear in their relationship?
2. Discuss the husband/brothers, Mort and Abe. How are they different, and how do their parenting styles differ? Is it only Mort's wishes that drive the plot?
3. Talk about that fateful night, the night of the snowstorm and two births. What do you think of the decision that was made? Do you understand the motivation behind it? Could anyone have foreseen the consequences?
4. This book is very much about secrets and the lies that cover them up. Was there any point over the years when the secrets could have been laid bare, allowing the truth to emerge?
5. The story is told through shifting perspectives. What do the differing points of view bring to the reading experience? And why are only Judith and Natalie, of all the children, given voice in the novel?
6. Natalie tells Helen that although Helen couldn't save Teddy, "you did save me." What does she mean, and who else achieves redemption?
7. Whom do you identify with most closely in the novel? Does your loyalty shift as the story progresses?
8. Readers are in the position of knowing the secret from the onset. How does this knowledge affect your experience of reading The Two-Family House? What if readers had been kept in the dark like most of the characters—what difference would that make in how you read the novel?
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher. In the meantime use these, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)