The Knockout Queen
Rufi Thorpe, 2020
Knopf Doubleday
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780525656784
Summary
A dazzling and darkly comic novel of love, violence, and friendship in the California suburbs.
Bunny Lampert is the princess of North Shore—beautiful, tall, blond, with a rich real-estate-developer father and a swimming pool in her backyard.
Michael—with a ponytail down his back and a septum piercing—lives with his aunt in the cramped stucco cottage next door.
When Bunny catches Michael smoking in her yard, he discovers that her life is not as perfect as it seems. At six foot three, Bunny towers over their classmates. Even as she dreams of standing out and competing in the Olympics, she is desperate to fit in, to seem normal, and to get a boyfriend, all while hiding her father's escalating alcoholism.
Michael has secrets of his own. At home and at school Michael pretends to be straight, but at night he tries to understand himself by meeting men online for anonymous encounters that both thrill and scare him.
When Michael falls in love for the first time, a vicious strain of gossip circulates and a terrible, brutal act becomes the defining feature of both his and Bunny's futures—and of their friendship.
With storytelling as intoxicating as it is intelligent, Rufi Thorpe has created a tragic and unflinching portrait of identity, a fascinating examination of our struggles to exist in our bodies, and an excruciatingly beautiful story of two humans aching for connection. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—?
• Raised—Corona del Mar, California, USA
• Education—B.A., New School; M.F.A., University of Virginia
• Currently—lives outside of Los Angeles, California
Rufi Thorpe is an American writer, the author of three novels: The Knockout Queen (2020), Dear Fang, with Love (2016), and The Girls from Corona del Mar (2014), which was long listed for the 2014 International Dylan Thomas Prize and for the 2014 Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize.
Thorpe received her B.A. from the New School in New York City and her M.F.A. from the University of Virginia in 2009. Raised in Corona del Mar, the setting of her first novel, she married and returned to California where she currently lives outisde of Los Angeles with her husband and sons. (Adaoted from the publisher.)
Book Reviews
[F]ull of verve and… vibrant… . Thorpe inverts the more common tale of an impoverished sufferer who is momentarily saved or mourned by a richer, more stable friend. The result is revelatory.… Thorpe writes convincingly about the intricacies of teenage hierarchy and the endless varieties of torture that the young can inflict on one other.
Los Angeles Times
[An] electric portrait of adolescence.
Time
Through Michael’s clear-eyed gaze, Rufi Thorpe unfurls a coming-of-age tale that feels both fresh and familiar: a shrewd exploration of all the ways people find to pass on the hurt and anger they’ve been given and a tender, furious ode to the connections that somehow still endure, despite everything.
Entertainment Weekly
Thorpe’s fierce third novel observes the development of and challenges to an intense friendship between two outcasts at a Southern California high school…. Deeply realized and complex. The result cannily dissects the power and limits of adolescent friendship.
Publishers Weekly
Thorpe's coming-of-age tale set against a backdrop filled with hate and violence will captivate readers with its brutal honesty and unbreakable bonds of friendship. Recommended for fans of Emma Straub and Jami Attenberg. —Laura Jones, Indiana State Library, Indianapolis
Library Journal
Thorpe… writes with savage poignancy as she explores identity, adolescent friendship, and the insatiable longing for intimacy. Her novel is devastatingly honest, her characters vulnerable, and her readers will be spellbound.
Booklist
(Starred review) [A]n arrestingly original, darkly comic meditation on moral ambiguity.… There are no victims here and no heroes… , and the result is a novel both nauseatingly brutal and radically kind. Brilliantly off-kilter and vibrating with life.
Kirkus Reviews
(Starred review) With charismatic characters and a surprising and devastating storyline, The Knockout Queen is a moody and mordantly funny contemplation of the rigors of growing up that will leave readers reeling.
BookPage
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for THE KNOCKOUT QUEEN … then take off on your own:
1. How would you describe Bunny Lampert? What about her background and status defies the truth of her underlying life?
2. The same goes for Michael: how would you describe him? Do you feel differently about Michael by the end of the book? Has he grown, learned, changed?
3. (Follow-up to Question 2) How disturbing, if at all, do you find Michael's sex life? What do you think about his love for Anthony, more than three times Michael's age.
4. Ray Lampert becomes a third partner in Bunny and Michael's friendship. How would you describe him? Talk about the way he affects their relationship.
5. Even at 6-feet 3-inches and 200 pounds, Michael describes Bunny as outwardly happy and sure of herself. But he goes on to say that people find this "displeasing in a young woman." Why? What does he mean? Why would people take issue with Bunny? What does it say about gender roles and societal expectations?
6. Michael writes that "being true to yourself, even if it makes everyone hate you, even if it makes people want to kill you, is the most radical form of liberty." Talk about Michael's observation and what it means—not just for the characters in this novel, but for all of us as well.
7. One of the major themes of The Knockout Queen is shame. How does shame play out in the novel? What is it's toxic affect.
8. Many…if not most…if not all of us feel a sense of shame. Why is personal shame so prevalent? Talk about shame in your own life, if you carry that emotion. A frequent and rather glib piece of advice, which is meant kindly, is that we must learn to love ourselves. How does one do that? What are the steps one can take?
9. In what ways are Bunny and Michael flawed, sometimes, to the point of losing readers' sympathy? Do you care about one of the two more than the other? Finally, do you see Bunny as a tragic character, flaws and all?
10. The author writes powerfully about the world of teenagers, their hierarchies, and the cruelty they inflict on one another, particularly those who don't fit in. Does Trope overdo it? Or do you think her portrayal accurate? Why are adolescents sometimes so mean?
11. How does Thorpe depict the artifice of California life? Consider Anne Marie and her lollipops, perhaps the long rows of pristinely trimmed hedges in front of North Shore's homes, or say, Ray Lampert's billboards.
12. How might the story have differed had it been from Bunny's point of view?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
These Women
Ivy Pochoda, 2020
HarperCollins
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062656384
Summary
From the award-winning author of Wonder Valley and Visitation Street comes a serial killer story like you’ve never seen before—a literary thriller of female empowerment and social change.
In West Adams, a rapidly changing part of South Los Angeles, they’re referred to as “these women.”
These women on the corner … These women in the club … These women who won’t stop asking questions … These women who got what they deserved …
In her masterful new novel, Ivy Pochoda creates a kaleidoscope of loss, power, and hope featuring five very different women whose lives are steeped in danger and anguish. They’re connected by one man and his deadly obsession, though not all of them know that yet. There is…
- Dorian, still adrift after her daughter’s murder remains unsolved;
- Julianna, a young dancer nicknamed Jujubee, who lives hard and fast, resisting anyone trying to slow her down;
- Essie, a brilliant vice cop who sees a crime pattern emerging where no one else does;
- Marella, a daring performance artist whose work has long pushed boundaries but now puts her in peril;
- Anneke, a quiet woman who has turned a willfully blind eye to those around her for far too long.
The careful existence they have built for themselves starts to crumble when two murders rock their neighborhood.
Written with beauty and grit, tension and grace, These Women is a glorious display of storytelling, a once-in-a-generation novel. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—January 22, 1977
• Where—Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
• Education—B.A., Harvard College; M.F.A. Bennington College
• Currently—lives in Los Angeles, California
Ivy Pochoda is the American author of four novels: These Women (2020) Wonder Valley (2017), The Visitation (2013) and The Art of Disappearing (2009)
Pochoda grew up in Brooklyn, New York, in a house filled with books. She has a BA from Harvard College in English and Classical Greek with a focus on dramatic literature, and an MFA from Bennington College in fiction.
During her college years at Harvard, Pochoda played squash, leading the school to national championships in all four of her years on the team. She was named Ivy League Rookie of the Year, Player of the Year, and was a four-time All-American and First Team all-Ivy. In May 2013, she was inducted into the Harvard Hall of Fame.
After graduation in 1998, Pochoda played squash professionally, joining The Women's International Squash Players Association full-time. She reached a career-high world ranking of 38th in March 1999 and continued playing professionally until 2007.
In 2009, she published her first novel (The Art of Disappearing) and become the James Merrill House writer-in-residence at Bennington College, where she also obtained her Masters in 2011.
Ivy currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Justin Nowell. (From the publisher and Wikipedia. Retrieved 5/27/2020.)
Book Reviews
Flawless…. Razor-sharp…. These Women is at first glance a conventional murder mystery constructed on that sturdy old tripod of serial killer, murdered women and dogged female detective. But each of those elements is freshly minted here thanks to the psychological depth granted each character and the graceful twists of Ms. Pochoda’s cunning yet unfussy plot….
Wall Street Journal
These Women is a gritty murder mystery with a feminist twist. Ivy Pochoda’s LA-set noir is the perfect summer read.
Oprah Magazine
Pochoda turns grief, suffering and loss into art, crafting a literary thriller that is no less compelling for its deep emotional resonance.
Vogue
Puts a feminist spin on the serial killer story, giving voice to five very different women living on the dangerous fringes of Los Angeles, and gradually threading their connection to a man with a deadly obsession.
Entertainment Weekly
(Starred review) Without sacrificing narrative drive, Pochoda lets her story unfold organically and impressionistically, through the eyes of her distinctive female characters…. This deep dive into the lives of women… makes them vividly unforgettable.
Publishers Weekly
Laced with grief and rage, racism and sexism, this edgy urban drama centers upon a serial killer's obsession that targets women of color living a lifestyle that garners little sympathy. Pochoda stuns with this disquieting literary thriller… complex, intense, and enthralling. —Gloria Drake, Oswego P.L. Dist., IL
Library Journal
With raw, visceral prose, Pochoda vividly evokes L.A.'s distinctive cityscape and the burdens and threats women face there.
Booklist
This seamy thriller is loaded with feminist intentions…, a quick dip into women’s boxing, and more. Unsurprisingly for Pochoda, the strongest character is the LA neighborhood itself. Gritty, sometimes cheesy, very on-the-nose with its message—but satisfying as a murder mystery.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to start a discussion for THESE WOMEN … then take off on your own:
1. Ivy Pochoda tells her story through a series on interlocking novellas. Why might she have chosen such a structure? What was your experience reading These Women? Would you have preferred to have a straight forward, or single, point of view?
2. Take time to describe each of the women, and talk about their strengths, flaws, and how all of them are connected.
3. (Follow-up to Question 2) Of the five women--Dorian, Julianna, Essie, Marella, and Anneke—is there one who generates more sympathy than others?
4. Anneke insists on the maintenance order: "Preserve order and order will be reflected in you." How does Anneke follow that motto in her life. First of all, what does she mean? Do you agree with her? What about the other women? And you: how do you see the need for order in your life?
5. Underlying the narrative is a cultural sense that the women deserve what they get—their deaths are "irrelevant." Essie's precinct even goes so far as to suggest that the killer is a "dissatisfied" customer. How do you answer the insidious belief that their way of life makes them less worthy.
6. Were you surprised at the identity of the killer?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Shakespeare for Squirrels
Christopher Moore, 2020
HarperCollins
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062434029
Summary
Shakespeare meets Dashiell Hammett in this wildly entertaining murder mystery from Christopher Moore—an uproarious, hardboiled take on the Bard’s most performed play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Set adrift by his pirate crew, Pocket of Dog Snogging—last seen in The Serpent of Venice—washes up on the sun-bleached shores of Greece, where he hopes to dazzle the Duke with his comedic brilliance and become his trusted fool.
But the island is in turmoil.
Egeus, the Duke’s minister, is furious that his daughter Hermia is determined to marry Demetrius, instead of Lysander, the man he has chosen for her. The Duke decrees that if, by the time of the wedding, Hermia still refuses to marry Lysander, she shall be executed… or consigned to a nunnery.
Pocket, being Pocket, cannot help but point out that this decree is complete bollocks, and that the Duke is an egregious weasel for having even suggested it. Irritated by the fool’s impudence, the Duke orders his death.
With the Duke’s guards in pursuit, Pocket makes a daring escape. He soon stumbles into the wooded realm of the fairy king Oberon, who, as luck would have it, is short a fool. His jester Robin Goodfellow—the mischievous sprite better known as Puck—was found dead. Murdered.
Oberon makes Pocket an offer he can’t refuse: he will make Pocket his fool and have his death sentence lifted if Pocket finds out who killed Robin Goodfellow.
But as anyone who is even vaguely aware of the Bard’s most performed play ever will know, nearly every character has a motive for wanting the mischievous sprite dead.
With too many suspects and too little time, Pocket must work his own kind of magic to find the truth, save his neck, and ensure that all ends well.
A rollicking tale of love, magic, madness, and murder, Shakespeare for Squirrels is a Midsummer Night’s noir—a wicked and brilliantly funny good time conjured by the singular imagination of Christopher Moore. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—August 5, 1958
• Where—Toledo, Ohio, USA
• Education—Ohio State Univ., Brooks Inst. of Photography
• Awards—Quill Award, 2005 and 2006
• Currently—Hawaii and San Francisco, California
A 100-year-old ex-seminarian and a demon set off together on a psychotic road trip...
Christ's wisecracking childhood pal is brought back from the dead to chronicle the Messiah's "missing years"...
A mild-mannered thrift shop owner takes a job harvesting souls for the Grim Reaper...
Whence come these wonderfully weird scenarios? From the fertile imagination of Christopher Moore, a cheerfully demented writer whose absurdist fiction has earned him comparisons to master satirists like Kurt Vonnegut, Terry Pratchett, and Douglas Adams.
Ever since his ingenious debut, 1992's Practical Demonkeeping and his 2002 Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff , Moore has attracted an avid cult following. But, over the years, as his stories have become more multi-dimensional and his characters more morally complex, his fan base has expanded to include legions of enthusiastic general readers and appreciative critics.
Asked where his colorful characters come from, Moore points to his checkered job resume. Before becoming a writer, he worked at various times as a grocery clerk, an insurance broker, a waiter, a roofer, a photographer, and a DJ — experiences he has mined for a veritable rogue's gallery of unforgettable fictional creations. Moreover, to the delight of hardcore fans, characters from one novel often resurface in another. For example, the lovesick teen vampires introduced in 1995's Bloodsucking Fiends are revived (literally) for the 2007 sequel You Suck—which also incorporates plot points from 2006's A Dirty Job.
For a writer of satirical fantasy, Moore is a surprisingly scrupulous researcher. In pursuit of realistic details to ground his fiction, he has been known to immerse himself in marine biology, death rituals, Biblical scholarship, and Goth culture. He has been dubbed "the thinking man's Dave Barry" by none other than The Onion, a publication with a particular appreciation of smart humor.
As for story ideas, Moore elaborates on his website: "Usually [they come] from something I read. It could be a single sentence in a magazine article that kicks off a whole book. Ideas are cheap and easy. Telling a good story once you get an idea is hard." Perhaps. But, to judge from his continued presence on the bestseller lists, Chris Moore appears to have mastered the art.
Extras
From a 2006 Barnes & Noble interview:
• In researching his wild tales, Moore has done everything from taking excursions to the South Pacific to diving with whales. So what is left for the author to tackle? He says he'd like to try riding an elephant.
• One of the most memorably weird moments in Moore's body of work is no fictional invention. The scene in Bloodsucking Fiends where the late-night crew of a grocery store bowls with frozen turkeys is based on Moore's own experiences bowling with frozen turkeys while working the late shift at a grocery store.
• When asked what book influenced his career as a writer, he answered:
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. In Cannery Row, Steinbeck writes about very flawed people, but with great affection, and by doing so, shows us that it is our flaws that make us human, and that is what we share, that is our humanity. A friend of mine used to say, "He writes with the voice of a benevolent God." In the process, the book is also very funny. I think I saw that as a model, as a guide. I'd always written humor that was fairly edgy, but here was a guy writing with great power and gentle humor. I was moved and inspired." (Author bio Barnes & Noble.)
Book Reviews
A hilariously noir tale of love, magic and murder.
USA Today
Buckle in for Shakespeare for Squirrels, an uproarious take on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream—transformed into a murder mystery.… A funny, fast-paced, and wild read.
Huffington Post
Moore’s amusing third installment to the Fool series…. In this raucous, crass, and innuendo-filled romp, Moore once again delivers light and derivative fun. This cheeky homage will please lovers of Shakespeare and camp.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review) Moore's trademark humor is on full display with his cast of strangely lovable characters. This is Shakespeare with an edge and will not only appeal to Moore's fans but garner new ones. —Kristen Stewart, Pearland Lib., Brazoria Cty. Lib. Syst., TX
Library Journal
(Starred review) It takes a certain amount of guts and wild abandon to recast a Shakespeare comedy as a hard-boiled detective story, but if anyone can pull it off, it’s master satirist Moore, whose gift for funny business apparently knows no bounds.
Booklist
(Starred review) Nobody writes mystery novels quite like Christopher Moore…. As hilarious as A Midsummer Night’s Dream is to begin with, Moore adds a contemporary dose of sly humor that I think would impress the Bard.
Bookpage
Manic parodist Moore… returns with a rare gift for Shakespeare fans…. A kicky, kinky, wildly inventive 21st-century mashup with franker language and a higher body count than Hamlet.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for SHAKESPEARE FOR SQUIRRELS … then take off on your own:
1. Well… is Shakespeare for Squirrels funny? Do you find Moore's humor puerile, cleverly witty, overly raunchy, laugh-out-loud hilarious?
2. Are you familiar with the Bard's original Midsummer Night's Dream? What elements of MsND does Moore build on, and where does he depart?
3. Characters seems to have their own agendas. Who manipulates whom for their own reasons?
4. Do you have a favorite character?
5. Who killed Puck… and why? A number of Athenians would love to have Puck dead; whom did you first suspect?
6. Talk about the way Moore breaks through the 4th wall in his Shakespearean spoof.
7. What do you think Shakespeare himself would have thought of Moore's homage?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Death in Her Hands
Ottessa Moshfegh, 2020
Penguin Publishing
272 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781984879356
Summary
From one of our most ceaselessly provocative literary talents, a novel of haunting metaphysical suspense about an elderly widow whose life is upturned when she finds an ominous note on a walk in the woods.
While on her daily walk with her dog in a secluded woods, a woman comes across a note, handwritten and carefully pinned to the ground by stones.
"Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn't me. Here is her dead body."
But there is no dead body. Our narrator is deeply shaken; she has no idea what to make of this. She is new to this area, alone after the death of her husband, and she knows no one.
Becoming obsessed with solving this mystery, our narrator imagines who Magda was and how she met her fate. With very little to go on, she invents a list of murder suspects and possible motives for the crime. Oddly, her suppositions begin to find correspondences in the real world, and with mounting excitement and dread, the fog of mystery starts to fade into menacing certainty.
As her investigation widens, strange dissonances accrue, perhaps associated with the darkness in her own past; we must face the prospect that there is either an innocent explanation for all this or a much more sinister one.
A triumphant blend of horror, suspense, and pitch-black comedy, Death in Her Hands asks us to consider how the stories we tell ourselves both reflect the truth and keep us blind to it. Once again, we are in the hands of a narrator whose unreliability is well earned, and the stakes have never been higher. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—May 20, 1981
• Where—Boston, Massachusetts, USA
• Education—B.A., Barnard College; M.F.A., Brown University
• Awards—Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award (more below)
• Currently—lives in New England
Ottessa Moshfegh is an American author and novelist who was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to a Croatian mother and Jewish-Iranian father. Both parents were musicians, who taught at the New England Conservatory of Music. Moshfegh herself learned to play piano and clarinet as a child.
Education and Career
Moshfegh received her B.A. from Barnard College in 2002. After graduation, she moved to China where she taught English and worked in a punk bar. In her mid-twenties, she moved to New York City where she worked for Overlook Press and then as an assistant to the author Jean Stein. After contracting cat-scratch fever, she left the city and earned an M.F.A. from Brown University.
Ottessa's first work of fiction was the novella "McGlue," published in 2014. Her debut novel Eileen was released in 2015 and won the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award. The novel was also shortlisted for the 2016 Man Booker Prize and selected as a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.
n 2017 Moshfega published a collection of stories, Homesick for Another World. Her second novel, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, was published in 2018, and Death in Her Hands, her third, came out in 2020.
Moshfegh is a frequent contributor to the Paris Review; she has published numerous stories in the journal since 2012.
Awards and honors
2013–15 Wallace Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University
2013 Plimpton Prize for Fiction (Paris Review) - "Bettering Myself" (story)
2014 Fence Modern Prize in Prose - "McGlue"
2014 Believer Book Award winner - "McGlue"
2016 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award - Eileen
2016 Man Booker Prize (shortlist) - Eileen
2018 The Story Prize finalist for Homesick for Another World
(Author bio adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 8/29/2018.)
Book Reviews
When it comes to evoking the jagged edge of contemporary anxiety there might not be a more insightful writer working today than Moshfegh. That is, if the boundless dark potential of the human psyche is your thing. If it’s not, this atmospheric, darkly comic tale of a pathologically lonely widow and the thrills lurking in her sylvan retreat might not be for you. But, sophisticated reader that you are, you’re not afraid of the dark. Right?
The Millions
It all starts with a note that reads, "Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn't me. Here is her dead body." An elderly widow finds it in the woods and her horror and curiosity soon turns into an obsession. But just as her investigation begins to take shape, we begin to doubt our narrator's grip on reality. This is part crime thriller, part dark comedy, and totally delightful.
Good Housekeeping
[C]hilling…. A self-contained horror story that takes place inside the mind of an alluringly unreliable narrator…. When shhe finds a handwritten note that implies a murder has taken place on her property, she works to solve it as best she can. The narrator’s dark fantasies and less-than-pure thoughts work especially well if you think of Death in Her Hands as a sequel to Moshfegh’s deliciously gross and grotesque debut novel, Eileen.
Vulture
Perhaps the most jarring genre of fiction is the kind that takes you deep into the gradual unraveling of a person's mind. Moshfegh does a masterful job with Death In Her Hands, which follows a protagonist who believes she's solving a murder. The book moves seamlessly from suspenseful to horrifying, retaining the reader's attention all the while.
Marie Claire
Moshfegh is a novelist I will follow pretty much anywhere, even if this story’s winding path raised as many questions as it answered.
Vogue.com
There’s an intriguing idea at the center of this about how the mind can spin stories in order to stay alive, but the novel lacks the devious, provocative fun of Moshfegh’s other work, and is messy enough to make readers wonder what exactly to make of it.
Publishers Weekly
This unnerving latest from Moshfegh offers a truly creepy murder mystery while commenting on our relationship to the genre itself.
Library Journal
A fractured, startlingly human narrator in Moshfegh’s… inimitable style, Vesta quickly reveals a relentless imagination matched only by her desire to uncover the truth…. Cleverly unraveling… the limits of reality… this will speak to fans of literary psychological suspense.
Booklist
You simultaneously worry about Vesta and root for her, and Moshfegh’s handling of her story is at once troubling and moving. An eerie and affecting satire of the detective novel.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for DEATH IN HER HANDS … then take off on your own:
1. When Vesta Gul finds the note about a murder that kicks this narrative off, why doesn't she call the police? What would you have done?
2. How does Vesta come up with "Blake," the supposed identity of the supposed murderer? Does she use random association, research, logic, imagination? Is the author poking fun at mystery novels?
3. What do we come to learn about Vesta as she begins to determine the plot and characters of her "murder mystery"? Is she writing a mystery… or living within one?
4. Talk about Vesta's marriage to her late husband, Walter Gul. What kind of man was Walter?
5. Vest recalls how Walter playing chess with himself--that by switching chairs, as he told her, "the psyche confronts itself.” He goes on: "The mind must be spoken to, Vesta, otherwise it starts to atrophy.” Vesta doesn't buy it: "But if the mind talks to itself… isn’t it just saying what it wants to hear?” Is Vesta suggesting that our attempts to understand our own lives and selves are simply efforts in delusion or illusion? Does this rule apply to Vesta herself?
6. At what point do you come to think that Ottessa Moshfegh is writing a novel within a novel. Or is she? How do you untangle this?
7. Is any of this real? Has Vesta dreamed all of this? Has she even fabricated Walter? What about her dog Charlie? Does he exist?
8. Is this book a mindfuck?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Sad Janet
Lucie Britsch, 2020
Penguin Publishing
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780593086520
Summary
Janet works at a rundown dog shelter in the woods. She wears black, loves the Smiths, and can’t wait to get rid of her passive-aggressive boyfriend. Her brain is full of anxiety, like "one of those closets you never want to open because everything will fall out and crush you."
She has a meddlesome family, eccentric coworkers, one old friend who’s left her for Ibiza, and one new friend who’s really just a neighbor she sees in the hallway. Most of all, Janet has her sadness—a comfortable cloak she uses to insulate herself from the oppressions of the wider world.
That is, until one fateful summer when word spreads about a new pill that offers even cynics like her a short-term taste of happiness… just long enough to make it through the holidays without wanting to stab someone with a candy cane.
When her family stages an intervention, her boyfriend leaves, and the prospect of making it through Christmas alone seems like too much, Janet decides to give them what they want. What follows is life-changing for all concerned—in ways no one quite expects.
Hilarious, bitterly wise, and surprisingly warm, Sad Janet is the depression comedy you never knew you needed. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Lucie Britsch's writing has appeared in Catapult Story, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Split Lip Magazine, and The Sun (UK), and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She lives in England, and Sad Janet is her first novel. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
A gentle, yet precise probe into the nature of melancholia.… Sad Janet is a strangely exuberant meditation on sadness; Britsch articulates the conflicting comforts and pains of depression in a distinctively memorable, wise way.
Refinery29
[A] darkly comic debut, a deadpan, abrasive narrator muses on her depression.… Janet has a gift for homing in on her own emotional state and everyone else’s, which Britsch renders in rueful, knowing prose…. [T]his monologue on unhappiness is undeniably infectious.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review) The narrative voice of Janet in Britsch’s debut novel is a skin-tingling combination of new and necessary…. This book and this character are radical, and readers are likely to feel a relief at reading the thoughts they’ve had but not spoken.
Booklist
[A] darkly humorous debut… [and] sardonic portrayal of self-improvement…. However, by its end, it becomes a sort of echo chamber unto itself, full of cynicism, angst, existential ennui, and no solution. Perhaps that is life. A misanthropic tale goes awry.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help discuss SAD JANET … then take off on your own:
1. Does Janet's sadness resonate with you? If so, in what way? If not, do you lose patience with her? Is she wallowing in her depression … or trapped?
2. Talk about Janet's counter-cultural desires: her wish not to have a boyfriend, own a house, or have children. Why does she hold these seemingly contrarian aspirations?
3. How would you describe the other characters in Lucie Britsch's novel: Janet's boyfriend and her family?
4. Janet tells us, "Love is like gluten," and that she "should have told the doctor. I can't process it properly." Funny! But what does she mean?
5. Talk about the dogs. What role do they play in Janet's life? Who or what do they stand in for, both the role they play in Janet's life, as well as the symbolic role in the novel itself?
6. What are Janet's perceptions—the pros and cons—of taking the medication. Why did she agree to take the pills?
7. Is this a "self-improvement" novel? Or a parody of one?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)