Disappearing Earth
Julia Phillips, 2019
Knopf Doubleday
272 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780525520412
Summary
Spellbinding, moving—evoking a fascinating region on the other side of the world—this suspenseful and haunting story announces the debut of a profoundly gifted writer.
One August afternoon, on the shoreline of the Kamchatka peninsula at the northeastern edge of Russia, two girls—sisters, eight and eleven—go missing.
In the ensuing weeks, then months, the police investigation turns up nothing. Echoes of the disappearance reverberate across a tightly woven community, with the fear and loss felt most deeply among its women.
Taking us through a year in Kamchatka, Disappearing Earth enters with astonishing emotional acuity the worlds of a cast of richly drawn characters, all connected by the crime: a witness, a neighbor, a detective, a mother.
We are transported to vistas of rugged beauty—densely wooded forests, open expanses of tundra, soaring volcanoes, and the glassy seas that border Japan and Alaska—and into a region as complex as it is alluring, where social and ethnic tensions have long simmered, and where outsiders are often the first to be accused.
In a story as propulsive as it is emotionally engaging, and through a young writer's virtuosic feat of empathy and imagination, this powerful novel brings us to a new understanding of the intricate bonds of family and community, in a Russia unlike any we have seen before. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1989
• Where—Montclair, New Jersey, USA
• Education—Barnard College
• Currently—lives in Brooklyn, New York City, New York
Julia Phillips is an American author, born in New Jersey. Her debut novel, Disappearing Earth, published in 2019, was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction.
Phillips attended Montclair High School and earned her B.A. in English from Barnard College. She spent a semester of college abroad in Moscow, volunteering at the Crime Victims Treatment Center.[
After graduating from college, Phillips earned a Fulbright Program grant, allowing her to return to Moscow, this time where she conducted research into the affect of foreign investment and tourism on the Kamchatka Peninsula. She also wrote blog posts for The Moscow Times.
During her time in Kamchatka, she began exploring the everyday living experiences of women. This eventually led to the publication of her debut novel, Disappearing Earth, published in 2019, which was based on the fictional kidnapping of two girls in the Kamchatka Peninsula. In addition to being listed as a National Book Award finalist, The New York Times named the book one its "10 Best Books of 2019." (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 4-10-2020.)
Book Reviews
Superb…. Brilliant…. Phillips's deep examination of loss and longing… is a testament to the novel's power.
New York Times Book Review
Immensely moving.
Wall Street Journal
Absorbing and extraordinarily well crafted.… It is a many-stranded crime story. It is also a complex portrait of clashing cultures.
Boston Globe
Unshakeable…. Disappearing Earth has the makings of a lurid thriller, but first-time novelist Julia Phillips does something more sophisticated than that…. It’s so specific, and yet so universal. These are stories of women the world over.
USA Today
Riveting, deeply rewarding…. As each succeeding story of Disappearing Earth takes us another month away from hope that Sophia and Alyona will be found alive, it becomes apparent that the book is not about the sisters but about a place so remote and unfriendly that it only takes a couple of months for a tragedy to become a dark fairy tale the characters tell one another.… Beautifully written.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Stunning…. Beautifully delineated scenes…. The situations remain strange in their specificities and universal in their familiarity… The mystery is worth reading until the very end.
NPR
Invigoratingly hard to classify…. [Phillips] ingeniously dismantl[es]… convention[s]…. The ending of Disappearing Earth ignites an immediate desire to reread the chapters leading up to it.
New Yorker
Thrilling…. This mystery takes you to a scrappy ice-bound town in Russia's frozen north. Rumors and rivalries, secrets and lies, all add up to a compelling portrayal of a community under siege.
People
Mesmerizing.…. It's the strength of Phillips's writing, her careful attention to character and tone, that will grip you right up until the final heart-stopping pages.
Vanity Fair
Elegant, ingeniously interwoven…. As a series of character studies, it’s brilliant…. But Phillips never stops tracing Disappearing Earth’s arc, tilting her tapestry toward a singularly satisfying ending.
Entertainment Weekly
[E]xceptional and suspenseful…. Phillips’s exquisite descriptions of the desolate landscape… are masterful throughout, as is her skill at crafting a complex and genuinely addictive whodunit. This novel signals the arrival of a mighty talent.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review) Cinematic…. A knockout novel that combines literary heft with a propulsive plot…. Phillips imagines a cold, desolate climate inhabited by characters who exude warmth and strength…. Dazzlingly original. —Sally Bissell, formerly with Lee Cty. Lib. Syst., Fort Myers, FL
Library Journal
(Starred review) Accomplished and gripping…. Phillips’ spellbinding prose is saturated with… emotional intensity, as she subtly traces the shadows of Russia’s past and illuminates today’s daunting complexities of gender and identity, expectations and longing.
Booklist
[I]mmersive, impressive, and strikingly original…. An unusual, cleverly constructed thriller that is also a deep dive into the culture of a place many Americans have probably never heard of.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. In the first chapter, Alyona tells a story about a town that suddenly disappears when a wave washes it away. How is the theme of disappearance explored throughout the rest of the novel? How does this opening story relate to other examples of disappearances in the book? What does the title, Disappearing Earth, mean to you?
2. Before Alyona and Sophia went missing, another young woman, Lilia, disappeared too. How are these two crimes treated differently in their communities? How are they similar? How does the social, political, and economic climate of Kamchatka affect the way these victims are viewed and discussed? Do you see any similarities to the way people talk about crimes in your own community?
3. How do you think the sparsely populated Kamchatka setting informs the plot and characters? How do you think the story would be different if it were set somewhere else?
4. During the Soviet era, Kamchatka was a closed military zone, and it is now a remote tourist destination. How do the characters experience this transition to a post-Communist society differently? Consider these two passages from Katya’s and Valentina’s points-of-view:
Katya, pg. 39:
After the USSR collapsed, there were no longer any restrictions on travel, no stop to movement; the Soviet military bases that had constrained the entire peninsula were shuttered, so Kamchatka’s residents could finally explore their own land. Katya’s family had gone as far north as Esso to meet the natives with their reindeer herds, west to see steaming craters, and south to pull caviar out of what had become unpatrolled lakes. She spent her youth in the brief reckless period between the Communists’ rigidity and Putin’s strength, and though she had grown into a boundary enforcer, inspecting imports and issuing citations, within herself there remained a post-Soviet child. Some part of her did crave the wild.
Valentina, pg. 52:
She grew up knowing the region at its best. Military funding used to stuff the stores with food. There were no vagrants, then, no salmon poachers, and no planes but Soviet military jets overhead. The peninsula was so tightly defended that even other Russians needed government permission to enter. But when the country changed, Kamchatka went down with it. A whole civilization lost. Valentina was sorry for her daughter, for all the children, who would grow up without the love of a motherland.
5. Discuss the theme of violence against women in the novel. What kinds of violence are represented in the book? What role does violence play in these women’s lives? What forms of violence are seen in public, and which take place in private?
6. The book is centered on one specific act of violence—the disappearance of the Golosovsky sisters. How does this crime affect the rest of the characters in the novel and the community of Kamchatka in its entirety?
7. Consider the following conversation between Chander and Ksyusha on pg 73:
"You haven’t noticed by now that you can’t trust them? They don’t care about us the same way they care about themselves." Ksyusha waited for Chander to voice an exception: Ruslan. He did not. In her thoughts, Ruslan slipped from a man she should defend to a man who might abandon—Ruslan could leave her so much more easily than she could leave him.
How does Ksyusha’s relationship with Chander compare to her relationship with Ruslan? What draws her to each man? How do power dynamics factor into her relationships? What other examples of power dynamics are explored throughout the novel?
8. In addition to the white Russians, many indigenous communities and migrants live in Kamchatka. Discuss how the indigenous and migrant communities are viewed and treated. How does this affect how the police investigate the disappearances? Discuss Zoya’s attraction to the migrant construction workers. How does this compare to the other perspectives of migrants in the book?
9. The novel is written from the points of view of many different women. How are these women connected, and what draws them apart? Which woman’s story was the most memorable to you?
10. Examine the structure of Disappearing Earth. Why do you think Phillips decided to tell the story month by month and from different perspectives? How does this format help dissect a community in its entirety? How does the tension surrounding the investigation progress as the year goes on/the book progresses?
11. Although every chapter covers a month following the disappearance, one chapter breaks this mold and examines a specific date, the New Year’s chapter. Why do you think this specific date/chapter is highlighted?
12. Discuss Marina’s conversations with Alla Innokentevna about their missing daughters. What do these women have in common? How are their experiences different? Why do you think Phillips chose to share Marina’s perspective toward the end of the novel rather than earlier in the book? Why do you think she chose the festival celebrating cultural minorities as the context for Marina’s and Alla’s meeting?
13. The final chapter of the book reveals a shocking ending. Why do you think Phillips chose to end the novel in this way? When the story of the disappearing town resurfaces, how are we reminded of the theme of disappearing? How is it symbolic of the missing girls’ fate?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
The Paris Secret
Karen Swan, 2017
HarperCollins
416 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062672827
Summary
In this glittering tale of forgotten treasures and long-held secrets, international bestseller Karen Swan explores one woman’s journey to discovering the truth behind an abandoned apartment and a family whose mysteries may be better left undiscovered.
When high-powered fine art agent Flora Sykes is called in to assess objets d’art in a Paris apartment that has been abandoned since WWII, she is skeptical at first…
Then she realizes that the treasure trove of paintings is myriad — and priceless. The powerful Vermeil family to whom they belong is eager to learn more and asks Flora to trace the history of each painting.
Despite a shocking announcement that has left her own family reeling, Flora finds herself thrown into the glamorous world of the Vermeils. But she soon realizes there is more to this project than first appears.
As she researches the provenance of their prize Renoir, she uncovers a scandal surrounding the painting — and a secret that goes to the very heart of the family. The fallout will place Flora in the eye of a storm that carries her from London to Vienna to the glittering coast of Provence.
Xavier Vermeil, the brusque scion of the family, is determined to separate Flora from his family's affairs in spite of their powerful attraction to one another. Just what are the secrets he is desperately trying to hide? And what price is Flora willing to pay to uncover the devastating truth? (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Karen Swan is a British author, married with three children, who lives in East Sussex, England. Writing in a treehouse overlooking the South Downs, she is the author of several novels: The Summer Without You, Christmas at Tiffany’s, The Perfect Present, and Paris Secret. Before turning to fiction, Swan was a fashion journalist. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
The central mystery is intriguing, and while the romantic subplot is weak, the rest of the book is compelling and the artwork is described in luscious detail. —Jennifer Mills, Shorewood-Troy Lib., IL
Library Journal
A former fashion editor, Swan brings an eye for detail to her descriptive prose. Offer this to fans of Sophie Kinsella’s Shopaholic series who may be looking for more sophistication.
Booklist
The contrast between the moldy curtains and the colorful artwork gives the house an addictive … feel even before the skeletons emerge from the closet.… Behind the locked door are shocking secrets, an unlikely romance, and nail-biting intrigue—it’s definitely worth a peek.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, please use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for The Paris Secret ... then take off on your own:
1. How would you describe Flora Skyes? She could be considered a "no-nonsense" professional, a type many people find lacking in warmth or kindness. Is this the case with Flora, or is she a sympathetic character? Do you root for her?
2. Paris has often been called "the most beautiful city in the world." Does Karen Swan do a good job of bringing it alive for you? If you have been to Paris, do her descriptions ring true? Are they evocative of what you know or remember of the city? What about the other cities besides Paris that Flora visits?
3. Are you an art aficionado? If so, how well does the author write about the precious artwork in the novel? If you are not versed in art and/or art history, did you find the author's descriptions and in-depth analyses of the paintings interesting and understandable? Could you follow the descriptions ... or were you confused ... even a little bored?
4. At what point did you begin to suspect Nazi involvement in the artwork's history? Does knowing, from the author acknowledgments, that it was based on a news item deepen your appreciation of A Paris Secret?
5. Talk about the Vermeil family and each of its members. What do you think of them?
6. What were your first impressions of Natascha and Xavier? On meeting them, did you suspect that there was more to them than they presented to the world? Why or why not?
7. Do the book's central mystery and the novel in general live up to your expectations? What about the love affair? Is it necessary? Does it strengthen or weaken the storyline?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
The Dearly Beloved
Cara Wall, 2019
Simon & Schuster
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781982104528
Summary
Charles and Lily, James and Nan. They meet in Greenwich Village in 1963 when Charles and James are jointly hired to steward the historic Third Presbyterian Church through turbulent times. Their personal differences however, threaten to tear them apart.
Charles is destined to succeed his father as an esteemed professor of history at Harvard, until an unorthodox lecture about faith leads him to ministry. How then, can he fall in love with Lily—fiercely intellectual, elegantly stern—after she tells him with certainty that she will never believe in God? And yet, how can he not?
James, the youngest son in a hardscrabble Chicago family, spent much of his youth angry at his alcoholic father and avoiding his anxious mother. Nan grew up in Mississippi, the devout and beloved daughter of a minister and a debutante.
James’s escape from his desperate circumstances leads him to Nan and, despite his skepticism of hope in all its forms, her gentle, constant faith changes the course of his life.
In The Dearly Beloved, we follow these two couples through decades of love and friendship, jealousy and understanding, forgiveness and commitment.
Against the backdrop of turbulent changes facing the city and the church’s congregation, these four forge improbable paths through their evolving relationships, each struggling with uncertainty, heartbreak, and joy.
A poignant meditation on faith and reason, marriage and children, and the ways we find meaning in our lives, Cara Wall’s The Dearly Beloved is a gorgeous, wise, and provocative novel that is destined to become a classic. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Cara Wall is a graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop and Stanford University. While at Iowa, Cara taught fiction writing in the undergraduate creative writing department as well as at the Iowa Young Writer’s Studio in her capacity of founder and inaugural director.
She went on to teach middle school English and History, and has been published by Glamour, Salon, and The San Francisco Chronicle. She lives in New York City with her family. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
The Dearly Beloved is most compelling on romance, friendship and familial love…. Although the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement tug occasionally at the margins of the book, its attention is on the personal, not the social…. But it is delightful to see male friendship taken so seriously, and love handled so tenderly; some of the most stirring scenes in The Dearly Beloved are the ones that dramatize the love one spouse feels for another or that parents feel for their children.
Casey Cep - New York Times Book Review -
An unusually assured debut, the book examines faith with revelatory nuance…. The beauty of this slow burner will stay with you, religious or not.
People
The Dearly Beloved is a superb exploration of faith and marriage. Of all the books on this list—maybe this year—it’s the gentlest, a wise and searching story of purpose and passion, spanning decades and filled with empathy (Best Debut Novels of 2019)
Entertainment Weekly
A rare and intellectually stimulating outing…. By creating such well-defined characters, [Wall] is able to all the more effectively explore the role of faith, or its lack, in dealing with the pressures of marriage, child-rearing, and work
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review) Finely drawn and written with compassion and care, and every word is precisely chosen...This story will be beloved by book clubs and fans of literary fiction.
Library Journal
Underlying the very readable, honestly human propulsion of her characters' lives in their near-entirety, Wall does a tricky thing quite well, exploring the facts of faith and love at both their most exalting and most trying.
Booklist
(Starred review) [C]ombining the viewpoints of a quartet of characters across multiple decades and events. Finely drawn and paced and written with intense compassion...A moving, eloquent exploration of faith and its response to the refining fire of life's challenges.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. The Dearly Beloved opens with the scene of James grieving Charles’s death. In what ways does grief frame this novel? How do each of the characters respond to the feelings of abandonment that accompany grief? In whom or what do they choose to put their faith after loss? In whom or what do you put your faith in difficult times?
2. In the prologue, Nan says that "she was soft, and Lily was straight. She wavered; Lily was plumb" (2). Describe Nan and Lily. Do you agree with Nan that she and Lily are opposites? If so, how do they overcome that to become the kind of friends Lily refers to as "her stitches, her scaffold, her ballast, her home" (338).
3. Early in the novel, Charles’s father tells his son that "Obligations are the fuel of life, Charles. Reputation is their reward" (5). Do you agree? To what do each of the four characters obligate themselves, and what reputation do they receive in return? What are the obligations in your life, and what do you gain by fulfilling them?
4. When Charles and Lily first meet in the library, Charles notices that she looks "entirely sad" (9). And after their first fight, he acknowledges that he "could not bear the fact that she would always be sad" (102). What does Charles hope for Lily, and how does it feel for him to know he can’t heal her? Why do you think he married her, knowing he could never make her happy?
5. James is anxious about the difference between his upbringing and Nan’s, describing it as a chasm that loomed "dark and large" (87). What are the geographic, religious, and class differences in their upbringings? Why do they feel unbridgeable to James?
6. Love seems to come easily to Nan and Charles. Why? Conversely, James and Lily are wary of love: James has a "look of distrust… the look people had when they needed to be treated with dignity after so much of life had been unfair" (60) and Lily believes that "the prerequisite for love was trust; and Lily did not trust anything" (81). Why do James and Lily struggle to trust, and therefore, love, their partners? How does love relate to trust? And how does trust relate to faith?
7. Nan and Charles come to very different conclusions about what they can accept regarding their partners’ faith. Nan realizes that "of all the things she thought she could give up for [James], she could not give up her faith in God" (61). What would Nan’s life have been like if James had decided not to be a minister? How does his decision to become a minister enrich her life and faith? Conversely, Charles decides that he doesn’t need Lily to believe in order to marry her— "I don’t need you to believe in God, I just need you to believe in me" (105). Does Lily’s rejection of Charles’s religion diminish or enlarge his life and faith?
8. After Nan helps Lily with her twins, she realizes that "every right action begets another; every extension of a hand forms a rope and then a ladder" (249). When have you seen this play out in your own life? Are there actions your book club could take to help your community like coordinating a book drive or volunteering at a library?
9. In the beginning of the book, Charles’s college professor Tom says that "only empathy allows us to see clearly. Only compassion brings lasting change" (14). How does this statement apply to the struggles Charles and James encounter while leading their church? What values are they trying to engender in their congregation? To what extent do they succeed?
10. After their first meeting, Nan says that Lily makes her feel "invisible" (169) and later says that just being in proximity to her makes her feel "brittle and resentful" (183). Is there anyone in your life who makes you feel this way? Lily’s reasoning is that she "knew that she could not give Nan one inch, not one conversation. Even one gesture of friendship would lead to the expectation of more…." (161). Do you feel that way about anyone in your life? Why?
11. Nan desperately wants to have a child—she calls it her "fondest dream" (215)—but suffers two miscarriages over the course of the novel. Lily doesn’t want to have children, but gives birth to twins. Why is Nan hesitant to seek treatment for her infertility? What does it mean to Nan to be a mother? What does it mean to Lily?
12. After Charles’s controversial sermon, Marcus says that "these people need a good disaster. They need to know what it means for life to be hard. And I’m not talking about death hard. I’m talking about suffering" (288). Will’s diagnosis brings hard suffering into the lives of the four main characters. Were you surprised by Charles, Lily, James, or Nan’s response to Will’s diagnosis? Could you relate to the suffering it produced in them? Did you agree or disagree with the courses of action they took in response to his condition?
13. Marcus and Annelise only appear toward the end of the book. What role do each of them play in the lives of the Barrett and MacNally families? How would the book be different without them?
14. In many wedding ceremonies, the pastor welcomes the attendees with the greeting "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today…." Toward the end of the novel, Nan notes that "they were, the four of them, married to each other" (287). In what ways are the various couples tied to each other? How do they learn to love each other? Overall, why do you think Wall chose this phrase as the title of her novel?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
Mrs. Osmond
John Banville, 2017
Knopf Doubleday
384 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780451493422
Summary
From the Man Booker Prize-winning author of The Sea, a dazzling and audacious new novel that extends the story of Isabel Archer, the heroine of Henry James's The Portrait of a Lady, into unexpected territory.
Isabel Archer is a young American woman, swept off to Europe in the late nineteenth century by an aunt who hopes to round out the impetuous but naïve girl's experience of the world.
When Isabel comes into a large, unexpected inheritance, she is finagled into a marriage with the charming, penniless, and — as Isabel finds out too late — cruel and deceitful Gilbert Osmond, whose connection to a certain Madame Merle is suspiciously intimate.
On a trip to England to visit her cousin Ralph Touchett on his deathbed, Isabel is offered a chance to free herself from the marriage, but nonetheless chooses to return to Italy.
Banville follows James's story line to this point, but Mrs. Osmond is thoroughly Banville's own: the narrative inventiveness; the lyrical precision and surprise of his language; the layers of emotional and psychological intensity; the subtle, dark humor. And when Isabel arrives in Italy — along with someone else! — the novel takes off in directions that James himself would be thrilled to follow. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Aka—Benjamin Black
• Birth—December, 1945
• Where—Wexford, Ireland, UK
• Education—St. Peter's College, Wexford
• Awards—Booker Prize (more below)
• Currently—lives in Dublin, Ireland
John Banville is an Irish novelist and journalist. His novel The Book of Evidence (1989) was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and won the Guinness Peat Aviation award. His eighteenth novel, The Sea, won the Man Booker Prize in 2005. He sometimes writes under the pseudonym Benjamin Black.
Banville is known for his precise and cold prose style, Nabokovian inventiveness, and for the dark humour of his generally arch narrators. His stated ambition is to give his prose "the kind of denseness and thickness that poetry has".
Background
Banville was born in Wexford, Ireland. His father worked in a garage and died when Banville was in his early thirties; his mother was a housewife. He is the youngest of three siblings; his older brother Vincent is also a novelist and has written under the name Vincent Lawrence as well as his own. His sister Vonnie Banville-Evans has written both a children's novel and a reminiscence of growing up in Wexford.
Banville was educated at a Christian Brothers school and at St Peter's College in Wexford. Despite having intended to be a painter and an architect he did not attend university. Banville has described this as "A great mistake. I should have gone. I regret not taking that four years of getting drunk and falling in love. But I wanted to get away from my family. I wanted to be free."
After school he worked as a clerk at Aer Lingus which allowed him to travel at deeply-discounted rates. He took advantage of this to travel in Greece and Italy. He lived in the United States during 1968 and 1969. On his return to Ireland he became a sub-editor at the Irish Press, rising eventually to the position of chief sub-editor. His first book, Long Lankin, was published in 1970.
Early career
After the Irish Press collapsed in 1995, he became a sub-editor at the Irish Times. He was appointed literary editor in 1998. The Irish Times, too, suffered severe financial problems, and Banville was offered the choice of taking a redundancy package or working as a features department sub-editor. He left.
Banville has been a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books since 1990. In 1984, he was elected to the Irish arts association Aosdana, but resigned in 2001 so that some other artist might be allowed to receive the annuity. He described himself in an interview with Argentine paper La Nacíon, as a West Brit. Banville also writes hardboiled crime fiction under the pen name Benjamin Black, beginning with Christine Falls (2006).
Banville has two adult sons with his wife, the American textile artist Janet Dunham. They met during his visit to San Francisco in 1968 where she was a student at the University of California, Berkeley. Dunham described him during the writing process as being like "a murderer who's just come back from a particularly bloody killing". Banville has two daughters from his relationship with Patricia Quinn, former head of the Arts Council of Ireland.
Banville has a strong interest in animal rights, and is often featured in Irish media speaking out against vivisection in Irish university research.
His writing
Banville is considered by critics as a master stylist of the English language, and his writing has been described as perfectly crafted, beautiful, dazzling. David Mehegan of the Boston Globe calls Banville "one of the great stylists writing in English today"; Don DeLillo called his work "dangerous and clear-running prose;" Val Nolan in the Sunday Business Post calls his style "lyrical, fastidious, and occasionally hilarious" [10]; The Observer described his 1989 work, The Book of Evidence, as "flawlessly flowing prose whose lyricism, patrician irony and aching sense of loss are reminiscent of Lolita." Banville himself has admitted that he is "trying to blend poetry and fiction into some new form." He is also known for his dark humour, and sharp wit.
Banville has written two trilogies; "The Revolutions Trilogy", consisting of Doctor Copernicus, Kepler, The Newton Letter and a second unnamed trilogy consisting of The Book of Evidence, Ghosts, Athena.
Banville is highly scathing of all of his work, stating of his books "I hate them all ... I loathe them. They're all a standing embarrassment. Instead of dwelling on the past Banville is continually looking forward; "You have to crank yourself up every morning and think about all the awful stuff you did yesterday, and how how you can compensate for that by doing better today". He writes only about a hundred words a day for his literary novels, versus several thousand words a day for his Benjamin Black crime fiction. He appreciates his work as Black as a craft while as Banville he is an artist, though he does consider crime-writing, in his own words, as being "cheap fiction."
Banville is highly influenced by Heinrich von Kleist, having written adaptations of three of his plays (including Amphitrion) and having again used Amphitrion as a basis for his novel The Infinities. One of Banvilles earlier influences was James Joyce—"After I'd read the Dubliners, and was struck at the way Joyce wrote about real life, I immediately started writing bad imitations of the Dubliners."
Awards
Booker Prize, James Tail Black Memorial Prize, Irish Book Awards, Guiness Peat Aviation Award, Guardian Ficiton Award, Franz Kafka Prize, Lannan Literary Award for Fiction. (From Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
I recommend Mrs. Osmond more for curiosity’s sake than for the sake of a satisfying read—though it can certainly be that as well. But the novel will please mostly Henry James fans eager to learn of Isabel Archer’s fate. It will also please those fans who appreciate James’s—and now Banville’s—superb mastery of the English language. MORE …
Molly Lundquist - LitLovers
A fine act of literary ventriloquism and imagination.... [T]he narrative might best be described as a series of encounters between her and various characters from the original.... Cleverly, Banville has each of these meetings both propel his narrative forward and, looking backwards, add layers of intricacy to James’s work; each of Banville’s characters satisfyingly convincing in their new guises. As such, I suspect it’s those readers already familiar with The Portrait of a Lady who will enjoy Mrs Osmond the most.
Lucy Sholes - Independent (UK)
At times [Mrs. Osmond] has the glacial pace of the original, endless psychological dithering punctuated by brilliant flashes of melodrama … even over-the-top, language.… [T]here are also quite a few surprises, a tribute to Banville’s ingenuity…. [Isabel] uses her wealth and the power of inheritance to effect a neat revenge. Mrs Osmond is both a remarkable novel in its own right and a superb pastiche. But I found irritating the very mannerisms that try my patience in James.
Edmund White - Guardian (UK)
(Starred review.) [A] delightful tour de force.… Banville incorporates a wonderful sense of irony; the result is a novel that succeeds both as an unofficial sequel and as a bold, thoroughly satisfying standalone.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) Banville's brilliant 17th novel uncannily evokes James's limpid prose, deft plotting, and finely limned characterization to offer a credible sequel to one of the greatest novels ever written. Banville's genius is unquestionable. —John G. Matthews, Washington State Univ. Libs., Pullman
Library Journal
(Starred review.) Fans of Henry will find the writing persuasively Jamesian…. A sequel that honors James and his singular heroine while showing Banville to be both an uncanny mimic and, as always, a captivating writer.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1.. Have you read The Portrait of a Lady? How does this sequel compare to your interpretation of James’s ambiguous ending?
2. Banville chose as his epigraph an excerpt from James’s novel: "Deep in her soul—deeper than any appetite for renunciation—was the sense that life would be her business for a long time to come." What does this sentence mean? Why did Banville choose this particular passage?
3. Our first glimpse of Isabel’s character comes through her maid, Staines, on page 4, who feels vexed by "what she considered her mistress’s willful credulousness, deplorable gullibility and incurably soft heart." Does this strike you as an accurate assessment? How does Isabel change over the course of the novel?
4. At several points, Isabel considers her fortune to be a burden. Why? How might her life be different if she hadn’t come into this inheritance?
5. Certain scenes have comedic undertones. How does Banville use humor to advance the story?
6. Why does Isabel attempt to make her relationship with Staines more egalitarian?
7. The behavior of several characters seems to be influenced by their location—in Rome vs. Florence, for instance. Why does it matter where conversations and confrontations take place?
8. On page 252, Isabel’s aunt tells her, "Advice is another term for mischief-making, and anyone who asks for it deserves the consequences. One cannot be told how to live, my girl—and one shouldn’t wish to be." How does this advice against advice prove useful to Isabel?
9. A vein of feminism runs throughout the story. How does it compare to your understanding of the time period, and to The Portrait of a Lady?
10. Why does Serena Merle accept Isabel’s proposition?
11. We don’t learn the whereabouts of the satchel of cash until relatively late in the novel. Why does Banville withhold this information?
12. How does Isabel’s final disposition of the money demonstrate how she has grown?
13. As the novel progresses, Isabel finds herself able to hold her own against both Gilbert Osmond and Serena Merle. What is the source of this newfound strength?
14. Discuss Isabel’s final encounter with Countess Gemini and Pansy. Why does Pansy act so cool toward Isabel? How did you respond to the Countess’s insinuations about Pansy?
15. The idea of freedom is a major theme of the novel. At what point does Isabel become free? How does she achieve freedom?
16. In the final scene, Isabel takes Myles Devenish to Paddington Station. Why? His response disappoints Isabel: "Our task, it seems to me, is to look beyond the individual case, and aim to make a world that will not any longer allow of the wretchedness you witnessed in that poor man’s plight" (page 369). Why does this change her attitude toward him?
17. Banville ends the novel as enigmatically, as James did with The Portrait of a Lady: "He had meant his words, shy and tentative as they had been, to convey an explorative note, a note of invitation, even, which he hoped Isabel would meet, and answer; but Isabel said nothing, nothing at all" (page 369). How do you interpret this?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
Heather, the Totality
Matthew Weiner, 2017
Little, Brown and Company
144 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780316435314
Summary
The explosive debut novel — about family, power and privilege — from the creator of the award-winning Mad Men. One of People magazine's "People Picks."
Mark and Karen Breakstone have constructed the idyllic life of wealth and status they always wanted, made complete by their beautiful and extraordinary daughter Heather.
But they are still not quite at the top.
When the new owners of the penthouse above them begin construction, an unstable stranger penetrates the security of their comfortable lives and threatens to destroy everything they've created. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—June 29, 1965
• Raised—Los Angeles, California, USA
• Education—B.A., Weslyan University; M.A., University of Southern California
• Awards—9 Emmies; 3 Golden Globes
• Currently—lives in Los Angeles, California
Matthew Weiner is an American writer, director and producer. He is the creator of the AMC television drama series Mad Men, which premiered in 2007 and ended in 2015. He is also noted for his work on the HBO drama series The Sopranos, on which he served as a writer and producer during the show's fifth and sixth seasons (2004; 2006–2007). He directed the comedy film Are You Here in 2013, marking his filmmaking debut.
Weiner has received nine Primetime Emmy Awards for his work on Mad Men and The Sopranos, winning seven for Mad Men, as well as three Golden Globe Awards for Mad Men. In 2011, Weiner was included in Time's annual "Time 100" as one of the "Most Influential People in the World." In 2011, The Atlantic named him one of 21 "Brave Thinkers."
Early life and education
Weiner was born in 1965 in Baltimore, to a Jewish family but grew up in Los Angeles. His father was a medical researcher and chair of the neurology department at University of Southern California. His mother graduated from law school but never practiced. He enrolled in the College of Letters at Wesleyan University, studying literature, philosophy, and history and earned an MFA from the University of Southern California School of Cinema and Television.
Career
Weiner described the start of his career as a "dark time. Show business looked so impenetrable that I eventually stopped writing." During this time, his wife financially supported them with her work as an architect. He began his screenwriting career writing for the short-lived Fox sitcom Party Girl (1996), then as a writer and producer on The Naked Truth and Andy Richter Controls the Universe. Weiner wrote the pilot of Mad Men in 1999 as a spec script while working as a writer on Becker. The Sopranos creator and executive producer David Chase offered Weiner a job as a writer for the series after being impressed by his Mad Men script.
Weiner served as a supervising producer for the fifth season of The Sopranos (2004), a co-executive producer for the first part of the sixth season (2006), and an executive producer for the second part of the sixth season (2007). He has sole or joint credit for 12 episodes overall, including the Primetime Emmy Award-nominated episodes "Unidentified Black Males" (co-written with Terence Winter) and "Kennedy and Heidi" (co-written with David Chase).
In addition to writing and producing, he acted in two Soprano episodes, "Two Tonys" and "Stage 5" as fictional mafia expert Manny Safier, author of The Wise Guide to Wise Guys, on TV news broadcasts within the show.
Weiner also spent a hiatus between two seasons teaching at his alma mater, the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television (now School of Cinematic Arts), where he taught an undergraduate screenwriting class on Feature Rewriting during the Fall 2004 semester.
During his time on The Sopranos Weiner began looking for a network to produce Mad Men. HBO, Showtime, and FX passed on the project. Weiner eventually pitched the series to AMC, which had never produced an original dramatic television series. They picked up the show, ordering a full 13-episode season, and Mad Men premiered on July 19, 2007, six weeks after The Sopranos concluded. Weiner served as showrunner, an executive producer, and head writer of Mad Men throughout its seven seasons. Mad Men has received considerable critical acclaim and has won four Golden Globe Awards and fifteen Primetime Emmy Awards.
In 2017, Weiner pubished his debut novel, Heather, the Totality, a noir thriller.
Personal life
Weiner is married to architect Linda Brettler. One of his four sons, Marten Holden Weiner, played the recurring role of Glen Bishop on Mad Men. (FromWikipedia. Retrieved 11/16/2017.)
Book Reviews
Weiner deftly exposes the weirdness of mundane life changes" and "chillingly reminds us of how unstable the ground is that we take for granted beneath our feet.
Maureen Corrigan - NPR's Fresh Air
[C]creepy, unsettling...and queasily seductive.
USA Today
Beyond its chilling portrait of America's social and economic divide, the novel raises a number of thorny questions.… Weiner writes with maximum economy.
Associated Press
You'll devour it in a single, heart-racing sitting.
People
[A] finely honed tale that highlights class conflict.… Weiner somewhat telegraphs his final twist, but the results of that twist may still surprise.
Publishers Weekly
[A] a razor-sharp, fast-paced dark look at the class divide. Fans of Richard Yates will enjoy this chilling addition to noir literature. —Russell Michalak, Goldey-Beacom Coll. Lib., Wilmington, DE
Library Journal
The sense of doom is sharply rendered, characters are well developed, and their motivations are finely wrought. Readers will hope for more book-form fiction from Weiner.
Booklist
From the first sentence, it all starts so innocently.… The creator of Mad Men makes his fiction debut with a noirish novella designed to be read in one hair-raising session.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, please use our GENERIC MYSTERY QUESTIONS to start a discussion for Heather, the Totality … then take off on your own:
GENERIC DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Mystery / Crime / Suspense Thrillers
1. Talk about the characters, both good and bad. Describe their personalities and motivations. Are they fully developed and emotionally complex? Or are they flat, one-dimensional heroes and villains?
2. What do you know...and when do you know it? At what point in the book do you begin to piece together what happened?
3. Good crime writers embed hidden clues in plain sight, slipping them in casually, almost in passing. Did you pick them out, or were you...clueless? Once you've finished the book, go back to locate the clues hidden in plain sight. How skillful was the author in burying them?
4. Good crime writers also tease us with red-herrings—false clues—to purposely lead readers astray? Does your author try to throw you off track? If so, were you tripped up?
5. Talk about the twists & turns—those surprising plot developments that throw everything you think you've figured out into disarray.
- Do they enhance the story, add complexity, and build suspense?
- Are they plausible or implausible?
- Do they feel forced and gratuitous—inserted merely to extend the story?
6. Does the author ratchet up the suspense? Did you find yourself anxious—quickly turning pages to learn what happened? A what point does the suspense start to build? Where does it climax...then perhaps start rising again?
7. A good ending is essential in any mystery or crime thriller: it should ease up on tension, answer questions, and tidy up loose ends. Does the ending accomplish those goals?
- Is the conclusion probable or believable?
- Is it organic, growing out of clues previously laid out by the author (see Question 3)?
- Or does the ending come out of the blue, feeling forced or tacked-on?
- Perhaps it's too predictable.
- Can you envision a different or better ending?
8. Are there certain passages in the book—ideas, descriptions, or dialogue—that you found interesting or revealing...or that somehow struck you? What lines, if any, made you stop and think?
9. Overall, does the book satisfy? Does it live up to the standards of a good crime story or suspense thriller? Why or why not?
(Generic Mystery Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)