Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982
Cho Nam-Joo; transl., Jamie Chang , 2016 (2020, U.S.)
Liveright Publishing
176 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781631496707
Summary
A fierce international bestseller that launched Korea’s new feminist movement, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 follows one woman’s psychic deterioration in the face of rigid misogyny.
Truly, flawlessly, completely, she became that person.
In a small, tidy apartment on the outskirts of the frenzied metropolis of Seoul lives Kim Jiyoung. A thirtysomething-year-old "millennial everywoman," she has recently left her white-collar desk job—in order to care for her newborn daughter full-time—as so many Korean women are expected to do.
But she quickly begins to exhibit strange symptoms that alarm her husband, parents, and in-laws: Jiyoung impersonates the voices of other women—alive and even dead, both known and unknown to her. As she plunges deeper into this psychosis, her discomfited husband sends her to a male psychiatrist.
In a chilling, eerily truncated third-person voice, Jiyoung’s entire life is recounted to the psychiatrist—a narrative infused with disparate elements of frustration, perseverance, and submission.
Born in 1982 and given the most common name for Korean baby girls, Jiyoung quickly becomes the unfavored sister to her princeling little brother.
Always, her behavior is policed by the male figures around her—from the elementary school teachers who enforce strict uniforms for girls, to the coworkers who install a hidden camera in the women’s restroom and post their photos online. In her father’s eyes, it is Jiyoung’s fault that men harass her late at night; in her husband’s eyes, it is Jiyoung’s duty to forsake her career to take care of him and their child—to put them first.
Jiyoung’s painfully common life is juxtaposed against a backdrop of an advancing Korea, as it abandons "family planning" birth control policies and passes new legislation against gender discrimination. But can her doctor flawlessly, completely cure her, or even discover what truly ails her?
Rendered in minimalist yet lacerating prose, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 sits at the center of our global #MeToo movement and announces the arrival of writer of international significance. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Cho Nam-Joo was a television scriptwriter for nine years. Her debut novel, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, has sold in nineteen countries and over a million copies. She lives in Korea.
Jamie Chang is an award-winning translator and teaches at the Ewha Womans University in Seoul, South Korea. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Cho’s clinical prose is bolstered with figures and footnotes to illustrate how ordinary Jiyoung’s experience is.… When Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, was published in Korea in 2016, it was received as a cultural call to arms…. Cho’s novel was treated as a social treatise as much as a work of art.… The new, often subversive novels by Korean women, which have intersected with the rise of the #MeToo movement, are driving discussions beyond the literary world.
Alexandra Alter - New York Times
This novel is about the banality of the evil that is systemic misogyny.… [Jiyoung] feels so overwhelmed by social expectations that there is no room for her in her own body; her only option is to become something—or someone—else.
Euny Hong - New York Times Book Review
Cho Nam-joo’s third novel has been hailed as giving voice to the unheard everywoman.… [Kim Jiyoung] has become both a touchstone for a conversation around feminism and gender and a lightning rod for anti-feminists who view the book as inciting misandry…. [The book] has touched a nerve globally…. The character of Kim Jiyoung can be seen as a sort of sacrifice: a protagonist who is broken in order to open up a channel for collective rage.
Sarah Shin - Guardian (UK)
Cho Nam-Joo points to a universal dialogue around discrimination, hopelessness, and fear.
Time
In this fine―and beautifully translated―biography of a fictional Korean woman we encounter the real experiences of many women around the world.
Spectator (UK)
Following the life of the titular character from her mother’s generation through her own childhood, young adulthood, career, marriage and eventual "breakdown," the book moves around in time to subtly uncover how patriarchy eats away at the psyches and bodies of women, starting before they’re even born.
Seattle Times
While Cho’s message-driven narrative will leave readers wishing for more complexity, the brutal, bleak conclusion demonstrates Cho’s mastery of irony. This will stir readers to consider the myriad factors that diminish women’s rights throughout the world.
Publishers Weekly
A relatively quick read at under 200 pages, the novel… is credited with launching Korea's own #MeToo moment. It effectively communicates the realities Korean women face,…and the nearly impossible challenge of balancing motherhood with career aspirations. —Faye Chadwell, Oregon State Univ., Corvallis
Library Journal
(Starred review) Cho’s narrative is part bildungsroman and part Wikipedia entry…. Cho’s matter-of-fact delivery [and]…Jiyoung’s therapist’s report―his claims of being "aware" and "enlightened" only [damn] him further as an entitled troll―proves to be narrative genius.
Booklist
[T]here's nothing revolutionary here—it's basically feminism 101 but in novel form, complete with occasional footnotes.… But the story perfectly captures [misogyny]… recognizable to many. A compelling story about a woman in a deeply patriarchal society.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, 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)
(Resources by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Everything Here Is Beautiful
Mira T. Lee, 2018
Penguin Publishing
368 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780735221963
Summary
A dazzling novel of two sisters and their emotional journey through love, loyalty, and heartbreak
Two sisters—Miranda, the older, responsible one, always her younger sister’s protector; Lucia, the headstrong, unpredictable one, whose impulses are huge and, often, life changing.
When their mother dies and Lucia starts hearing voices, it is Miranda who must find a way to reach her sister.
But Lucia impetuously plows ahead, marrying a bighearted, older man only to leave him, suddenly, to have a baby with a young Latino immigrant. She moves her new family from the States to Ecuador and back again, but the bitter constant is that she is, in fact, mentally ill. Lucia lives life on a grand scale, until, inevitably, she crashes to earth.
Miranda leaves her own self-contained life in Switzerland to rescue her sister again—but only Lucia can decide whether she wants to be saved. The bonds of sisterly devotion stretch across oceans—but what does it take to break them?
Told in alternating points of view, Everything Here Is Beautiful is, at its heart, the story of a young woman’s quest to find fulfillment and a life unconstrained by her illness. But it’s also an unforgettable, gut-wrenching story of the sacrifices we make to truly love someone—and when loyalty to one’s self must prevail over all. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1970
• Where—N/A
• Education—Stanford University
• Currently—lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Mira T. Lee’s work has been published in numerous quarterlies and reviews, including The Missouri Review, The Southern Review, Harvard Review, and Triquarterly. She was awarded an Artist’s Fellowship by the Massachusetts Cultural Council in 2012, and has twice received special mention for the Pushcart Prize.
She is a graduate of Stanford University, and currently lives with her husband and two young sons in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This is her debut novel. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
A] promising debut.… Lee handles a sensitive subject with empathy and courage. Readers will find much to admire and ponder throughout, and Lucy’s section reveals Lee as a writer of considerable talent and power.
Publishers Weekly
First novelist Lee's story of mental illness and its effects on Lucia and those who love her alternates points of view from among various characters. The portrayal of sisterly love and its limits is visceral. A solid choice for general fiction readers.
Library Journal
The interaction of cultures, with the inevitable misunderstandings that accompany it, forms a vibrant subtheme, and as the novel branches out from New York to Ecuador and then Minnesota, its sense of place deepens.
Booklist
To Lee's credit, Lucia, the more compellingly drawn of the two siblings, never seems like a psychological case study. Instead, we get inside her head—perhaps even inside her soul—to grapple with the challenges she faces.… [B]eautifully written.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Many of the characters in the novel struggle to find balance between self-fulfillment and obligation to others. What would you have done if you were in Lucia’s situation in the campo? Have you ever had to choose between what you want for yourself and what’s best for someone you love (e.g., a child)?
2. Miranda has been caring for her younger sister since she was a child. But as an adult, what role should she play in her sister’s life? Did you find her actions caring or meddlesome?
3. Is Lucia a modern woman trying to balance family, career, and personal fulfillment or is she "rash, reckless, irresponsible"? To what lengths would you go/have gone to become a mother? Is it ever not okay for a woman to have a child?
4. Manny has to live with the brunt of Lucia’s illness. At one point he reflects: "This was love, or this was duty, he could no longer tell the difference." What is the difference? When does love turn into duty and when does duty become love? Do you consider Manny loyal, or is he simply passive? Do Manny and Lucia love each other?
5. In the book, Lee writes, "immigrants are the strongest.… Everywhere we go, we rebuild." All the characters in the novel are immigrants, rebuilding their lives in some way. But who is running away from something, and who is running toward something? How do their immigrant experiences differ?
6. How does ethnicity/culture play into this novel? Would you consider this an ethnic novel? Why or why not? Could the same story have been told if the characters were white?
7. Lucia points out that in our society, cancer survivors are viewed much differently from sufferers of mental illness. Do you agree? Do you know someone who has a mental illness? How does stigma affect our views of mental illness?
8. Anosognosia, or "lack of insight," is a frequent symptom of psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia and makes these illnesses especially difficult to treat. How do you help someone who doesn’t realize they are ill? How did you feel about Manny putting pills in Lucia’s tea?
9. "He tried so hard to love her—yet how best to love her still eluded him." The men in the book struggle with how best to love the women in their lives. Should Yonah have let Lucia walk out of their marriage so easily? Should Stefan have supported Miranda’s efforts to help her sister at the expense of her own well-being? Are there right or wrong ways to love someone?
10. Who is most to blame for Lucia’s end? Herself? Yonah? Miranda? Manny? Could someone have done something differently to alter the outcome? What do you think happened to Lucia?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
How to Stop Time
Matt Haig, 2018
Penguin Publishing
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780525522874
Summary
"The first rule is that you don’t fall in love," he said… "There are other rules too, but that is the main one. No falling in love. No staying in love. No daydreaming of love. If you stick to this you will just about be okay."
Tom Hazard has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old, but owing to a rare condition, he's been alive for centuries.
Tom has lived history—performing with Shakespeare, exploring the high seas with Captain Cook, and sharing cocktails with Fitzgerald. Now, he just wants an ordinary life.
So Tom moves back his to London, his old home, to become a high school history teacher--the perfect job for someone who has witnessed the city's history first hand. Better yet, a captivating French teacher at his school seems fascinated by him.
But the Albatross Society, the secretive group which protects people like Tom, has one rule: Never fall in love. As painful memories of his past and the erratic behavior of the Society's watchful leader threaten to derail his new life and romance, the one thing he can't have just happens to be the one thing that might save him. Tom will have to decide once and for all whether to remain stuck in the past, or finally begin living in the present.
How to Stop Time tells a love story across the ages—and for the ages—about a man lost in time, the woman who could save him, and the lifetimes it can take to learn how to live. It is a bighearted, wildly original novel about losing and finding yourself, the inevitability of change, and how with enough time to learn, we just might find happiness. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—July 3, 1975
• Where—Sheffield, Yorkshire, UK
• Education—B.A., University of Hull; M.A., Leeds University
• Currently—lives in Brighton, England
Matt Haig is a British novelist and journalist, writing both fiction and non-fiction for children and adults, often in the speculative fiction genre. He was born in Sheffield and studied English and history at the University of Hull.
Writing
His novels are often dark and quirky takes on family life. The Last Family in England (2004) retells Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1 with the protagonists as dogs. His second novel Dead Fathers Club (2006) is based on Hamlet, telling the story of an introspective 11-year-old dealing with the recent death of his father and appearance of his father's ghost.
His third adult novel, The Possession of Mr Cave (2008), deals with an obsessive father desperately trying to keep his teenage daughter safe. Shadow Forest (2007), a children's novel, is a fantasy that begins with the horrific death of the protagonists' parents. It won the Nestle Children's Book Prize in 2007. A year later, he followed it with a sequel, Runaway Troll (2008).
The Radleys (2011) is a domestic drama about a family of vampires, and The Humans (2013) is the story of an alien posing as a university lecturer whose work in mathematics threatens the stability of the planet. In How to Stop Time (2018), a man who appears to be 40 years old is, in fact, more than 400 years old. The film adaption is scheduled to star Benedict Cumberland.
At the age of 24, Haig suffered from severe depression, which he wrote about in his memoir Reasons to Stay Alive (2015). The book was a number one Sunday Times (London) bestseller and was in the UK top 10 for 46 weeks.
Personal life
Haig resides in Brighton, England, with his wife Andrea Semple. He homeschools their two children. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 2/13/2018.)
Book Reviews
Haig's novel is a treasure a storehouse of wry humor, historical information, and philosophical insights. Haig examines the consolation of music and the necessity of human connection. He ponders the very things that make life meaningful—along with love, one of them turns out to be, of all things, our own gloriously short lifespan. Highly recommended. READ MORE …
P.J. Adler - LitLovers
Haig has phenomenal range: he has turned his versatile talent to everything from children’s literature to young adult vampire novels to the hard-won wisdom of his bestselling memoir of depression, Reasons to Stay Alive.… How to Stop Time is written in a different, more minor key. It is plangent. It has designs on our heartstrings.… [Nonetheless,] the energy and zip of this book are hard to resist.
Hermione Eyre - Guardian
A quirky romcom dusted with philosophical observations…. A delightfully witty…poignant novel.
Washington Post
Haig’s novel offers a wry, intriguing meditation on time and an eternal human challenge: how to relinquish the past and live fully in the present.
People
[E]nthralling…Haig follows his protagonist through the Renaissance up to “now,” when Tom works as a history teacher in London.… His persistence through the centuries shows us that the quality of time matters more than the quantity lived.
Publishers Weekly
[A] marvel of invention—it is seamlessly presented, telling an absolutely compelling story. It examines large issues…but in an engagingly thought-provoking, compulsively readable way. It is, in every way, a triumph not to be missed. —Michael Cart
Booklist
Haig skillfully enlivens Tom's history with spare, well-chosen detail, making much of the book transporting. An engaging story framed by a brooding meditation on time and meaning.
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 HOW TO STOP TIME … then take off on your own:
1. How does Tom Hazard feel about his life as an Albatross? What does he see as the draw-backs of great longevity? Would you want the kind of lifespan the Albas have? Let's say you were an Alba, how would you want to live your life, especially given the no-falling-in-love rule and the secrecy rule?
2. Follow-up to Question 1: Tom thinks that being an Alba isn't anything special:
We weren't superheroes. We were just old … always living within the parameters of [our] personality. No expanse of time or space could change that. You could never escape yourself. (p.12)
What does Tom mean? Why does he want to escape himself? Is it possible to escape ourselves?
3. During his job interview with Daphne, Tom explains his view of history: "History isn't something you need to bring to life. History already is alive. We are history.… History is everywhere" (p. 17). What is history to you? Was it a favorite or despised subject for you in school? What about today?
4. Follow-up to Question 3: Other than what he tells Daphne during his interview, how is Tom's view of history different from the way we "mayflies" see it? He has seen a lot of it roll by. Is he optimistic or pessimistic about history and humankind's role in its events? Consider George Santayana's famous warning: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" (p. 320).
5. On his first trip to America, Tom considers the (at that time) modern ocean liner and thinks that humans measure progress as "the distance we placed between ourselves and nature (p. 83). It seems a rather cynical definition. Or maybe it's simply unsentimental. What do you think? How do you define progress.
6. Tom attends a live performance of Tchaikovsky directing one of his orchestral pieces. What consolations does music offer Tom, not just symphonic music but all music? What are the things you turn to in your own life for consolation?
7. Follow-up to Question 6: At the concert in Carnegie Hall, Hendrich points out Andrew Carnegie in the balcony. Despite all his wealth, with music halls and libraries carrying his name, Hendrich scoffs at Carnegie. He says to Tom, "Legacy. What a meaningless thing" (p. 98). What does Hendrich mean, and why does one's name after death count for nothing in his eyes? Do you agree? Is legacy merely a stab at achieving immortality? Does legacy have significance? Or is it ultimately meaningless?
8. In one of his peregrinations through present-day London, Tom views young people in a gym on treadmills, plugged in to headphones, watching TV, or checking email.
Places don't matter to people anymore. Places aren't the point. People are only ever half present where they are these days. They always have at least one foot in the great digital nowhere. (p. 109)
What do you make of his observation? Is there truth to it? Before you answer, consider his observation in the context of Question 2, i.e., Tom's despair about being unable to escape himself.
9. Why did Tom enjoy his life during the Jazz Age? In hindsight, how does he see the era as a prelude to fascism and World War II? He talks about the rise of "bully-boy leaders" and scapegoats and cults; then he adds, "It happened every now and then" (p. 205). Do you sense any parallels to our current age?
10. Of the historical personages Tom has met, eras he has lived through, and events he has witnessed, who or what do you find most interesting or engaging or disturbing?
11. Hendrich says he does only "what is necessary." He has saved Flora Brown, Reginald Fisher, and others. Tom continues to work for the Society because, despite its flaws, he believes that ultimately it's the good work that matters. Discounting the end of the novel, do you agree with Tom at this point: is it possible to overlook the evil and concentrate on the good, especially if it saves lives? In other words, does the good outweigh the bad?
12. On the flight to Australia, Tom wonders if his love for Camilla is a different kind of love from the love he had for Rose. What do you think? Are there different ways to be "in love"? Isn't all "romantic" love fundamentally the same?
13. Omai tells Tom about his seven years with Hoku, saying those years "contained more than anything else." Then he goes on to talk about time:
That's the thing with time isn't it? It's not all the same. Some days—some years—some decades—are empty. There is nothing to them. It's just flat water. Then you come across a year, or even a day, or an afternoon. And it is everything. It is the whole thing. (p. 296)
Have you ever had the sense that the duration of time varies—that some days go faster and others more slowly, or that some periods of time have greater import or a stronger claim on your memory than others?
14. Omai also talks about love:
You cannot simply fall in love and and not think there is something bigger ruling us. Something not quite us … that lives inside of us … ready to help or fuck us over. (p. 297)
What does Omai mean?
15. Why does Omai reject the Albatross Society and its protection?
16. Once back from Australia, Tom types an email to the biotech company investigating cellular damage in illnesses and ageing. He gives his age and writes that he might be able to help wth research. He saves it as a draft, but we never know whether he sends it. Should he?
17. What is your prediction for Tom and Camilla? Has it struck you, by the way, that the two women loved by Tom are named for flowers. (There's … a … symbol … there …)
18. What is the significance of the title, "How to Stop Time"? Some of the characters talk about stopping time, though for different reasons: mayflies because it goes by too quickly, Tom because he's had too much of it. Nonetheless, the title is "how" to stop it. What does Tom realize by the novel's end?
19. Follow-up to Question 18: In one of the most beautiful passages of the book, on page 314, Tom considers how he wishes to live his life: without fear of hurt or loneliness, without looking forever toward the future but living in the here and now. Read the passage aloud in your book group, and consider how each of you wishes to live your own life. Are you in accordance with Tom's wishes? Would you add anything to his list … or leave anything out?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Assemetry
Lisa Halliday, 2018
Simon & Schuster
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781501166761
Summary
A singularly inventive and unforgettable debut novel about love, luck, and the inextricability of life and art, from 2017 Whiting Award winner Lisa Halliday.
Told in three distinct and uniquely compelling sections, Asymmetry explores the imbalances that spark and sustain many of our most dramatic human relations: inequities in age, power, talent, wealth, fame, geography, and justice.
The first section, "Folly," tells the story of Alice, a young American editor, and her relationship with the famous and much older writer Ezra Blazer. A tender and exquisite account of an unexpected romance that takes place in New York during the early years of the Iraq War, "Folly" also suggests an aspiring novelist’s coming-of-age.
By contrast, "Madness" is narrated by Amar, an Iraqi-American man who, on his way to visit his brother in Kurdistan, is detained by immigration officers and spends the last weekend of 2008 in a holding room in Heathrow.
These two seemingly disparate stories gain resonance as their perspectives interact and overlap, with yet new implications for their relationship revealed in an unexpected coda.
A stunning debut from a rising literary star, Asymmetry is an urgent, important, and truly original work that will captivate any reader while also posing arresting questions about the very nature of fiction itself. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1976
• Raised—Medfield, Massachusetts, USA
• Education—Harvard University
• Awards—Whiting Award
• Currently—lives in Milan, Italy
Lisa Halliday has worked as a freelance editor and translator in Milan, where she lives with her husband. Her short story "Stump Louie" appeared in The Paris Review in 2005, and she received a Whiting Award for Fiction in 2017. Asymmetry is her first novel. (From the pubisher.)
Book Reviews
Asymmetry is extraordinary, and the timing of its publication seems almost like a feat of civics.… Halliday’s prose is so strange and startingly smart that its mere existence seems like commentary on the state of fiction.… It’s a first novel that reads like the work of an author who has published many books over many years.… Halliday has written, somehow all at once, a transgressive roman a clef, a novel of ideas, and a politically engaged work of metafiction.
Alice Gregory - New York Times Book Review
A scorchingly intelligent first novel …a clever comedy of manners set in Manhattan as well as a slowly unspooling tragedy about an Iraqi-American family, which poses deep questions about free will, fate and freedom, the all-powerful accident of one’s birth and how life is alchemized into fiction.… [Asymmetry] will make you a better reader, a more active noticer. It hones your senses.
Parul Segha - New York Times
A brilliant and complex examination of power dynamics in love and war.
Sam Sacks - Wall Street Journal
It’s hard to deny, by the novel’s end, that Alice/Halliday has pulled off this stunt of transcendence. As with a gymnast who’s just stuck a perfect routine, your impulse is to ask her, what’s next?
Christian Lorentzen - New York Magazine
Lisa Halliday’s debut novel, Asymmetry, begins with a lopsided affair—a perfect vehicle for a story of inexperience and advantage.… Alice and Amar may be naive, but Halliday is knowing–about isolation, dissatisfaction and the pain of being human.
Time
Asymmetry is a debut burnished to a maximum shine by technical prowess, but it offers readers more than just a clever structure: a familiar world gone familiarly mad.
New Republic
(Starred review.) [A] stellar and inventive debut, a puzzle of seemingly incongruous pieces that, in the end, fit together perfectly.… Any reader who values innovative fiction should treasure this.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) While the first story may have readers wondering about the characters' motivations…, the second builds a picture of life as a dual national, the eventual need to pick a side.… [T]hought-provoking…evocative. —Joanna Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Libs., Providence
Library Journal
(Starred review.) [A] beautiful debut…. Halliday deftly and subtly intersects the two disparate stories, resulting in a deep rumination on the relation of art to life and death. — Cortney Ophoff
Booklist
(Starred review.) Two seemingly unrelated novellas form one delicately joined whole in this observant debut.… A singularly conceived graft of one narrative upon another; what grows out of these conjoined stories is a beautiful reflection of life and art.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Why do you think Halliday chose to title her novel Asymmetry? Discuss the central relationships within the book. In what ways are they unequal? Are there other things that are asymmetrical within the book in addition to the interpersonal relationships? Discuss them with your book club.
2. Alice tells Ezra, "I guess you could say … that I’m a good old-fashioned girl" (p. 17). Describe the context of this statement. How did you interpret the statement? How would you describe Alice? Did your perception of her change throughout the novel? In what ways?
3. Discuss the structure of the novel. Did the titles of each section frame your understanding of the narrative that follows? If so, how? Who or what do you think "Folly" and "Madness" refer to?
4. Amar recounts how at a dinner with Maddie and one of Maddie’s high school friends, the conversation turned to religion. Were you surprised to learn that Amar was religious, given that he identifies as an empiricist? How does he reconcile the two belief systems that are seemingly at odds? Explain his argument in favor of religion.
5. Amar says that his mother has told him, "You would be happier …if you were more like your brother. Sami lives in the moment, like a dog," and then notes with irony that Sami’s name means "high, lofty, or elevated—not traits you’d readily associate with [a dog]" (p. 149). Did you find yourself making certain assumptions about the characters based on their names? If so, what were they? Ezra’s name isn’t revealed immediately when he starts spending time with Alice. What’s the effect?
6. Amar "once heard a filmmaker say that in order to be truly creative a person must be in possession of four things: irony, melancholy, a sense of competition, and boredom" (p. 152). Do you agree? What do you think leads to creativity? As a well-respected author, Ezra is viewed by many as "truly creative." Do you think he possesses all the characteristics enumerated in the statement? Share some examples.
7. When they are discussing a homeless man in their neighborhood, Ezra chastises Alice, telling her, "Don’t sentimentalize him" (p. 38). Explain this statement. Why does Ezra object to the way that Alice is speaking about the man? Are any of the other characters guilty of sentimentalizing others within the narrative? What are the dangers in doing so?
8. Ezra asks Alice, "Do you ever think this isn’t good for you?" (p. 49) of their relationship. Why might it be detrimental to Alice? What do you think of their relationship? Did your feelings about it change as you got to know Ezra and Alice as a couple? Why or why not? What do you think they see in each other?
9. Amar muses, "Sometimes I wonder whether we hide lovers from others because it makes it easier to hide ourselves from ourselves" (p. 179). What are the reasons that Alice and Ezra give each other for keeping their relationship hidden? Do you think they’re being truthful about the rationale behind their actions? Explain your answer.
10. When Amar is speaking with Hassan, Hassan tells him to "think about the future." Upon reflection, Amar says, "If I were to articulate the prevailing impression of the… weeks I spent in Iraq …it would be to venture that the future meant something very different there from what it means in, say, America" (p. 222). Based on Amar’s descriptions of his visit in Iraq, do you agree? Why is it so hard for Zahra’s family to understand the concept of making New Year’s resolutions? Compare his world view to that of Zahra’s family. Do Ezra and Alice also experience different perceptions of what "the future" means? Explain your answer.
11. Amar tells Sami that the more time he spent in the Middle East, the more he understood why Alastair said "the more time a foreign journalist spends in the Middle East, the more difficult it becomes for him to write about it" (p. 226). Explain the sentiment that Alastair expresses. What causes Amar’s view to evolve? Why does Sami disagree? What does Sami think the role of art should be? What do you think?
12. Passages from several books are interspersed within the text of Asymmetry. What books do these excerpts come from? Why do you think that Halliday has included these passages? Did the excerpts affect your reading? If so, how?
13. Both Amar and Alice make unexpected disclosures to strangers—to the doctor in the airport and to the judge during jury duty respectively. What are the disclosures that each of the characters share? Why are they able to make these assertions in front of virtual strangers? Were you surprised by their pronouncements?
14. Consider the parallels between Asymmetry and Alice in Wonderland, beginning with the first sentence and including all the foods and beverages (and pills) Alice and Ezra eat and drink, the description of Alice's first ride up Ezra's elevator, Amar's reflection on rabbit holes, and Ezra's reference on page 261 to penetrating the looking-glass. Discuss these and any other similarities between the two books. What might this connection be trying to say?
15. Chad Harbach praised Asymmetry, saying, "Halliday’s debut novel starts like a story you’ve heard, only to become a book unlike any you’ve read. The initial mystery is how its pieces fit together; the lasting one is how she pulled the whole thing off." Were you able to solve the "mystery" of how the seemingly disparate stories related to each other? Talk about it with your book club. Did you find the stories more powerful by reading them in tandem?
(Questions issued by the publishers.)
A Game of Thrones (Song of Ice and Fire, 1)
George Martin, 1996
Bantam Press
694 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780553103540
Summary
Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall.
To the south, the king’s powers are failing—his most trusted adviser dead under mysterious circumstances and his enemies emerging from the shadows of the throne.
At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the frozen land they were born to. Now Lord Eddard Stark is reluctantly summoned to serve as the king’s new Hand, an appointment that threatens to sunder not only his family but the kingdom itself.
Sweeping from a harsh land of cold to a summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, A Game of Thrones tells a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens. Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; a child is lost in the twilight between life and death; and a determined woman undertakes a treacherous journey to protect all she holds dear.
Amid plots and counter-plots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, allies and enemies, the fate of the Starks hangs perilously in the balance, as each side endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.
Unparalleled in scope and execution, A Game of Thrones is one of those rare reading experiences that catch you up from the opening pages, won’t let you go until the end, and leave you yearning for more. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
George R. R. Martin is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of many novels, including the acclaimed series A Song of Ice and Fire—A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, and A Dance with Dragons—as well as Tuf Voyaging, Fevre Dream, The Armageddon Rag, Dying of the Light, Windhaven (with Lisa Tuttle), and Dreamsongs Volumes and II.
He is also the creator of The Lands of Ice and Fire, a collection of maps from A Song of Ice and Fire featuring original artwork from illustrator and cartographer Jonathan Roberts, and The World of Ice & Fire (with Elio M. García, Jr., and Linda Antonsson). As a writer-producer, Martin has worked on The Twilight Zone, Beauty and the Beast, and various feature films and pilots that were never made. He lives with the lovely Parris in Santa Fe, New Mexico. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
We have been invited to a grand feast and pageant: George R.R. Martin has unveiled for us an intensely realized, romantic but realistic world.
Chicago Sun-Times
The major fantasy of the decade…compulsively readable.
Denver Post
(Starred review.) [T]riumphant…[with] superbly developed characters, accomplished prose and sheer bloody-mindedness. Although the romance of chivalry,…tournaments, derring-do and handsome knights abound, these trappings merely give cover to dangerous men and women who will stop at nothing to achieve their goals.
Publishers Weekly
[I]ntrigue, action, romance, and mystery in a family saga…it promises to repay reading and rereading, from first volume to last, on account of its literacy, imagination, emotional impact, and superb world-building. Roland Green
Booklist
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, feel free to use our LitLovers talking points to start a discussion for The Game of Thrones...then take off on your own:
1. One of the most compelling elements of George R.R.Martin's epic saga of Song of Ice and Fire is his characterization. He has crafted characters who come alive on the page—they are distinct, complex, and fully inhabited with their own memories and desires. Which characters are you particularly drawn to, admire most, or find particularly intriguing? Talk about the Stark family, especially Ned and Cat and also their children.
2. The book opens with Ned Stark beheading a young man for desertion. What do you think of his undertaking the execution himself? Why was no mercy shown?
3. (Follow-up to Question 1) Consider in particular how the Stark children grow and develop from when you first meet them in the beginning of the novel to the end.
4. King Robert makes a grand entrance into Winterfell. What were your initial impressions of the King and his retinue, including Cersei, Jamie, and Tyrion Lanister? What is the first indication of young Prince Joffrey's true nature? How would you describe him?
5. Metaphorically, what does it suggest that winter is approaching and is to last for decades.
6. Daenerys Targaryen has one of the most fascinating trajectories in the book (and in the entire series). Trace her development, from being under the thrall of her brother to her marriage to Khal Drogo. What are her initial feelings toward her husband and how do those feelings change? What does her survival of the funeral pyre and the birth of the dragons suggest, symbolically, about Daenerys?
7. Tyrion gradually becomes a central figure. How would you describe him and his position in the Lannister family?
8. Jon Snow also grows as a character when he goes to the Wall. How does he win the trust and admiration of the men? What does it suggest about the kind of young man he is? His loyalty is torn between his vows as a member of the Night Watch and his love for Robb Stark. What do you think of his decision to desert?
9. Originally, it seems readers are meant to take the side of the Stark family. But as the story develops, do you find yourself sympathizing with some members of the Lannister family...or other characters you might not have expected to like?
10. (Follow-up to Question 9) Martin uses multiple viewpoints, allowing characters to be explored from different perspectives. Does that make a difference in how you have come to view them? In other words, is there a straight-line "good and evil" axis in this story?
11. What is the significance of the title? Why is winning the throne "a game"? What does the book suggest about the desire for power? Does anyone wish to use it for good? Or is the desire for power simply a matter of self-aggrandizement?
12. Talk about the medieval world Martin creates. How would you describe its culture, class divisions, living conditions, treatment of people, and the tournaments and trappings of chivalry for the wealthy? Does it feel real, if not realistic? Much of the writing is similar in style to historical fiction, but Martin has also added a layer of supernaturalism. Do the fantastic elements enhance the tale for you? Or do you find them unnecessary?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)