The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls
Anissa Gray, 2019
Penguin Publishing
304 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781984802439
Summary
The Butler family has had their share of trials—as sisters Althea, Viola, and Lillian can attest—but nothing prepared them for the literal trial that will upend their lives.
Althea, the eldest sister and substitute matriarch, is a force to be reckoned with and her younger sisters have alternately appreciated and chafed at her strong will.
They are as stunned as the rest of the small community when she and her husband, Proctor, are arrested, and in a heartbeat the family goes from one of the most respected in town to utter disgrace.
The worst part is, not even her sisters are sure exactly what happened.
As Althea awaits her fate, Lillian and Viola must come together in the house they grew up in to care for their sister’s teenage daughters. What unfolds is a stunning portrait of the heart and core of an American family in a story that is as page-turning as it is important. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—St. Joseph, Michigan, USA
• Education—B.A., Western Michigan University; M.A., New York University
• Currently—Atlanta, Georgia
Anissa Gray is a journalist of some 20 years, as well as a novelist. Born in St. Joseph, Michigan, she received her B.A. from Western Michigan University and went on to earn an M.A. in English and American literature from New York University.
Following her graduate work, Gray remained in New York, taking a job as a print reporter for Reuters, for whom she covered business news and international finance. Then she headed for Atlanta to work in broadcast journalism for CNN. She has served as a writer, producer and editor, eventually becoming Senior Editor at CNN Worldwide. Gray has been a contributor to award winning stories that have won both an Emmy and a DuPont-Columbia Award.
The Care and Feeing of Ravenously Hungry Girls, Gray's debut novel, was published in 2019. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her wife. (Adapted from the publisher and the author's website.)
Book Reviews
If you enjoyed An American Marriage, read The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls… an absorbing commentary on love, family and forgiveness.
Washington Post
The inequities of the justice system, the fortitude of women of color, and the bittersweet struggle to connect are rendered ravishly in this bighearted novel.
Oprah Magazine
[An] intimate family saga sure to appeal to fans of Tayari Jones and Celeste Ng.
Entertainment Weekly
As in Tayari Jones’s best-selling An American Marriage, Gray uses imprisonment as the backdrop for a disarmingly compelling story that skirts easy answers and sentimentality. Conversational in tone and difficult in subject, Care and Feeding tells not just an American story but several important ones.
Vogue
Gray’s absorbing novel is about family and the things we hunger for.
Real Simple
[A] moving debut.… Gray uses alternate chapters narrated by the three sisters to fill in details of their upbringing… and their current struggles.… [R]eaders will be deeply affected by this story of a family wrestling to support itself.
Publishers Weekly
Sisters…are knot-tight, with eldest Althea the de facto matriarch of a family seen as top of the heap in their town. So when Althea and husband Proctor are arrested for mysterious reasons… townsfolk turn their heads in disgust.
Library Journal
Gray’s engrossing and moving debut novel considers secrets and lies and their effect on the families of three sisters.
Booklist
Gray manages a large cast of characters with ease, sharply differentiating between the voices.… [Some] scenes… tend to drag… [with] more pressing family dramas at hand. A deep dive into the shifting alliances and betrayals among siblings.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Early in the novel, Althea says, "I used to think I was like a river. A mighty force of nature." What does she mean by this, and how does her view of herself change by the end of the novel?
2. Why do you think Baby Viola is Althea’s favored child? How does this affect Baby Vi, and what does it mean for Kim, who is so at odds with her mother?
3. Even in death, the presence of the Butler parents can be felt throughout the story. How do parental relationships affect each of the sisters and Joe?
4. How do you think Baby Vi and Kim will be affected by the long-term incarceration of their parents?
5. The relationships between Althea, Viola, Lillian, and Joe range from being warm to being incredibly fraught. How do the siblings understand or misunderstand one another in crucial ways?
6. Discuss Althea’s relationship with her mother and the significance of the Bible Althea later sends to Lillian.
7. The sisters all undergo transformations over the course of the novel. Discuss the critical changes each sister experiences and what led up to those moments.
8. When Lillian, who has been the caregiver for her nieces, urges Viola to take the girls, Viola is resistant. Compare the ways in which the sisters view and approach their family commitments and how that changes over time.
9. While family relationships are at the heart of the novel, friendships are crucially important as well. Which friendship pairings—Lillian and Nai Nai; Viola and David; Althea and Mercedes—were most resonant?
10. Late in the novel, Viola says, "I’m thinking of how limits become limber. Pliable, when pressed with the thing in you that cries out, endlessly, More, please." Discuss how this applies to each of the characters and the title of the book.
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
Red Dress in Black & White
Elliot Ackerman, 2020
Knopf Doubleday
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780525521815
Summary
From the widely acclaimed author of Waiting for Eden: a stirring, timely new novel that unfolds over the course of a single day in Istanbul: the story of an American woman attempting to leave behind her life in Turkey—to leave without her husband.
Catherine has been married for many years to Murat, an influential Turkish real estate developer, and they have a young son together, William.
But when she decides to leave her marriage and return home to the United States with William and her photographer lover, Murat determines to take a stand.
He enlists the help of an American diplomat to prevent his wife and child from leaving the country—but, by inviting this scrutiny into their private lives, Murat becomes only further enmeshed in a web of deception and corruption.
As the hidden architecture of these relationships is gradually exposed, we learn the true nature of a cast of struggling artists, wealthy businessmen, expats, spies, a child pulled in different directions by his parents, and, ultimately, a society in crisis.
Riveting and unforgettably perceptive, Red Dress in Black and White is a novel of personal and political intrigue that casts light into the shadowy corners of a nation on the brink. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—April 12, 1980
• Where—Los Angeles, California, USA
• Education—B.A., M.A., Tufts University
• Currently—lives in Washington, D.C., and New York City
Elliot Ackerman is an American author, currently based out of Istanbul. He is the son of businessman Peter Ackerman and the brother of mathematician and wrestler Nate Ackerman.
Early life
At the age of 9, his family moved to London where he lived until the family moved back to Washington, DC, when he was 15. He studied literature and history at Tufts University, graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 2003, in a special program to earn Bachelor's and Master's degrees in 5 years, rather than the usual six. He holds a Master’s degree in International Affairs from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and has completed many of the United States military’s most challenging special operations training courses.
Career
Beginning in 2003, Ackerman spent eight years in the U.S. military as both an infantry and special operations officer. He served multiple tours of duty in the Middle East and Southwest Asia. As a Marine Corps Special Operations Team Leader, he operated as the primary combat advisor to a 700-man Afghan commando battalion responsible for capture operations against senior Taliban leadership. He also led a 75-man platoon that aided in relief operations in post-Katrina New Orleans.
Ackerman served as Chief Operating Officer of Americans Elect, a political organization founded and chaired by his father, Peter Ackerman, and continues to serve on its Board of Advisors. Americans Elect is known primarily for its efforts to stage a national online primary for the 2012 US Presidential Election. As one of its officers, Ackerman was interviewed extensively, notably on NPR's Talk of the Nation.
He has served on the board of the Afghan Scholars Initiative and as an advisor to the No Greater Sacrifice scholarship fund. Most recently, Ackerman served as a White House Fellow in the Obama Administration.
Ackerman divides his time between Washington, D.C., and New York City.
Writing
Ackerman's fiction and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Atlantic, New Republic, New York Times Magazine, Ecotone and others. He is also a contributor to the Daily Beast, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He has been interviewed in the Washington Post, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal and appeared on Charlie Rose, Colbert Report, NPR's Talk of the Nation, Meet the Press, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, Al Jazeera and PBS NewsHour among others.
Ackerman's first novel, Green on Blue, published in 2015, with Publishers Weekly referring to the novel as "bleak and uncompromising, a powerful war story that borders on the noir." Los Angeles Review of Books describes the novel as a radical departure from veterans writing thus far due to his choice of a first person narrator, the lowly Aziz, a poor soldier in a local militia.
Military Honors
Ackerman is a decorated veteran, having earned a Silver Star and Purple Heart for his role leading a Rifle Platoon in the November 2004 Second Battle of Fallujah and a Bronze Star for Valor while leading a Marine Corps Special Operations Team in Afghanistan in 2008. Ackerman is also a recipient of the Major General Edwin B. Wheeler Award for Infantry Excellence. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 2/10/2015.)
Book Reviews
[E]ntirely absorbing…. [The] characters, despite their vividness and their claims on our sympathy, are carried by a mighty undertow of self-interest. What lasts is the book’s emphasis on hidden machinations of power…. This reminder of unseen forces … provides the resonance… that ends the book—a musing on America’s overseas intrusions.
New York Times Book Review
Shrewd, intricately plotted, propulsive…. With all the intersecting perspectives, past-action leaps, socio- and geopolitical intrigue, and the need to contextualize modern Istanbul, the novel can feel a bit labyrinthine. But… there’s something of Graham Greene, too, in the insights and authority on foreign affairs, the combination of moral complexity with entertainment.
Washington Post
Cunning, atmospheric and filled with surprises in ways that call to mind the fiction of Joseph Conrad and John le Carré. Partly an ethical Rorschach test and partly a thriller in the vein of The Year of Living Dangerously, it’s the best novel yet from Ackerman…. It’s also a ton of tangled fun…. Splendidly gnarly.
Seattle Times
At once suspenseful and delicate, Red Dress in Black and White deftly depicts love in a brutal time.
Elle.com
In Ackerman’s wry if convoluted latest, the story of an unhappy marriage is suffused with pointed commentary on Turkey.… Still, the big reveal arrives too late and doesn’t quite offer enough payoff to justify such dense plotting. This falls short of Ackerman’s best work.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review) This absolutely riveting novel moves rapidly…. An attention-grabbing, cleverly plotted, character-driven yarn…. In Agatha Christie fashion, Ackerman gathers his characters for what appears to be the grand finale but saves the true reveal for the very end. —Michael Russo, Louisiana State Univ., Baton Rouge
Library Journal
Ackerman’s trademark prose evocatively captures the strained nature of contemporary Turkish life…. Deftly hints at a shadowy world that exists just out of frame and is one that lives long in the memory.
Booklist
The novel is deftly plotted, though the characters themselves seem more like pawns in the author’s narrative scheme, lacking much flesh-and-blood depth…. A novel in which relationships develop more from pragmatism than passion.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking point to help start a discussion for THE RED DRESS IN BLACK & WHITE … then take off on your own:
1. What do you think of Catherine? Is she a sympathetic character? What is her reason for wanting to return to the U.S?
2. Talk about Murat and his business practices. Our initial proclivity is to dislike him for his greed and dishonesty, as well as for a comment such as this: "he loves the idea of [his family] while, at times, he isn't certain if he's capable of actually loving them." Gradually, though, Murat becomes more sympathetic. How does the author humanize him?
3. What role does Kristen play in all of this?
4. Talk about the way state corruption directs the characters and their actions in this novel? Describe, if you can, the intricate, circuitous dealings within the government—and how Catherine, Peter, and Murat are manipulated without their knowledge.
5. How do the protests in Gezi Park propel the plot?
6. The book slips back in time frequently, making the story anything but linear. Did you have trouble following the many flashbacks, feeling perhaps that they overly complicate the plot? Or do you think the flashbacks add context and depth?
7. What is the significance of the photo of the woman in the red dress at Gezi Park—and why the book's title?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
The Light We Lost
Jill Santopolo, 2017
Penguin Publishing
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780735212756
Summary
He was the first person to inspire her, to move her, to truly understand her. Was he meant to be the last?
Lucy is faced with a life-altering choice. But before she can make her decision, she must start her story—their story—at the very beginning.
Lucy and Gabe meet as seniors at Columbia University on a day that changes both of their lives forever. Together, they decide they want their lives to mean something, to matter.
When they meet again a year later, it seems fated—perhaps they’ll find life’s meaning in each other. But then Gabe becomes a photojournalist assigned to the Middle East and Lucy pursues a career in New York.
What follows is a thirteen-year journey of dreams, desires, jealousies, betrayals, and, ultimately, of love. Was it fate that brought them together? Is it choice that has kept them away? Their journey takes Lucy and Gabe continents apart, but never out of each other’s hearts.
This devastatingly romantic debut novel about the enduring power of first love, with a shocking, unforgettable ending, is Love Story for a new generation. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1981
• Raised—Hewlett, New York, USA
• Education—B.A., Columbia University; M.F.A., Vermont College of Fine Ats
• Currently—lives in New York, New York
Jill Santopolo is the author of children's and young-adult books, as well as adult novels, including The Light We Lost (2017) and More Than Words (2019). She grew up in Hewlett New York, on the South Shore of Long Island.
Santopolo received a BA in English literature from Columbia University and an MFA in writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. In addition to her work as the editorial director of Philomel Books (an imprint of Penguin Young Readers group), she is an adjunct professor in The New School’s MFA program. Santopolo lives in New York City and travels the world to speak about writing and storytelling. (Adapted from the publisher.)
Book Reviews
This moving story is a perfect understanding of the sacrifices we make for love and for our dreams.
Real Simple
It’s the epic love story of 2017 and the ending is one you’ll be feeling for months to come.
Redbook
Your new tearjerker has arrived: Fans of Me Before You and One Day will love/weep over this elegant novel.
New York Post
Have your tissues ready…This book will sink its hooks into your heart on page one, and leave you scarred long after you're done.
Bustle
The scale of this book's ambition is matched only by Santopolo's flawless execution. 9/11, love, sex, war, Shakespeare, American foreign policy—The Light We Lost has it all, illuminating so much of what our generation and what we in the media have lived through for fifteen years. The arc of this book, from the fall of the Twin Towers to a love letter written from the Middle East, gracefully and tragically charts the course not only of a genuine and deep love, but also that of our country and of our collective identities. It is memorable and haunting, because it is authentic and so close to home.
Nick Schifrin, PBS NewsHour Special Correspondent, NPR Correspondent
A children's/YA author and editorial director of Philomel Books, Santopolo goes adult with the story of Lucy and Gabe, who meet one fateful day as seniors at Columbia University and face more than a decade of love, jealousy, and turmoil.
Library Journal
Comparisons will be made to David Nicholls’ One Day, but there is something more romantic here—yet also more grounded—that will draw readers in.
Booklist
(Starred review.) Santopolo explores passion, fate, love, and what it means to truly be a good person. She raises questions readers will find themselves pondering long after they've turned the last page.… A beautiful and devastating story that will captivate readers.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. The novel begins on September 11, 2001, a day in which history and Lucy’s life both change. Is there a day in your own life that you’ll never forget?
2. Lucy calls her love for Gabe “all-consuming and powerful” (p. 321). Was there a time in your life when you felt like this? Do you remember your own first love? How do you feel about that person now?
3. The novel explores how the choices we make can lead us to very different lifestyles. Do you think Lucy regrets any of her choices? Have you made a decision that has changed the course of your life drastically? If so, what was it? How do you feel about it now?
4. When talking to Lucy, Jay compares his explosive first relationship to the gummy bear experiment and his marriage to Vanessa to the Old Nassau experiment. He tells Lucy that “there are lots of ways to love people” (p. 80). Do you agree with Jay? Why or why not? Do you prefer one of these relationships in your own life?
5. Did you have a favorite man in the novel—Gabe or Darren? Who would you pick in the end?
6. Lucy and her friend Kate use the metaphor of fire to discuss the relationships in their lives—some are wildfires and some are hearth fires or bonfires (p. 138). Do you think the metaphor works? Is there one kind of relationship, or fire, that you wish you could find?
7. Lucy thinks, “There are so many moments that change a person’s world. Some are because of a decision that’s made. Others, I think, might be because of the universe, fate, God, a higher power, whatever you want to call it” (p. 291). How do you feel about Lucy’s approach to fate and free will? Do you believe in fate? Why or why not?
8. How is marriage portrayed in the novel? How did you feel when Gabe and Lucy reconnected? Were you surprised by Lucy’s reaction to Gabe?
9. Lucy is a loving mother, but she also balances a successful career in television, which Darren doesn’t always support. Were you frustrated with Darren’s priorities for Lucy, or were there times you agreed? How did you feel about Darren’s “paper doll” philosophy for finding a wife? How do you think this philosophy affected Lucy?
10. How did you feel about Gabe’s photography exhibit Light? Were you surprised? How does Gabe’s art shape the way he lives? How does it shape the way Lucy lives
11. What do you think about the way the novel ends?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
Beautiful Bad
Annie Ward, 2019
Park Row
368 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780778369103
Summary
In the tradition of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train comes the psychological thriller everyone is talking about, a twisted novel about a devoted wife, a loving husband, and a chilling crime that will stun even the cleverest readers.
There are two sides to every story… And every person.
Maddie and Ian’s love story began with a chance encounter at a party overseas, while she was a travel writer visiting her best friend, Jo. Now almost two decades later, married with a beautiful son, Charlie, they are living the perfect suburban life in Middle America.
But when a camping accident leaves Maddie badly scarred, she begins attending writing therapy, where she gradually reveals her fears about Ian; her concerns for the safety of their young son; and the couple’s tangled and tumultuous past with Jo.
From the Balkans to England, Iraq to Manhattan, and finally to an ordinary family home in Kansas, sixteen years of love and fear, adventure and suspicion culminate in The Day of the Killing, when a frantic 911 call summons the police to the scene of a shocking crime. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—state of Kansas, USA
• Education—B.A., Uiversity of California, Los Angeles; M.F.A., American Film Institute
• Awards—(see below: for a screenplay)
• Currently—lives in Kansas
Annie Ward is a novelist with two psychological thrillers under her belt: her debut, The Making of June (2002) and Beautiful Bad (2019). Born and raised in Kansas, Ward received a B.A. in English literature from University of California-Los Angeles and an M.F.A. in film writing from the American Film Institute (AFI).
While still a student at AFI, Ward sold her sold a short screenplay, "Strange Habit" to MTV/ BFCS. It starred Adam Scott and went on to become a Grand Jury Award Winner at the Aspen Film Festival and a Sundance Festival Official Selection.
After film school, Ward followed a man to Bulgaria, where she found work as a journalist and travel writer for Fodors, as well as a script doctor for an Israeli-American film company. During her five years there, she also won a Fulbright Scholarship, "left the man, found a best friend" (a CIA agent out of Skopje, unbeknownst to Ward), wrote her first novel, and met her husband, a private military contractor.
As Ward told Publishers Weekly, she writes about what she knows, and both of her books are based on her time in Bulgaria. Her latest, Beautiful Bad, in fact, started out as a memoir before becoming a novel.
Following a stint in New York, she and her husband now live in Kansas with their children. (Adapted from the publisher various online sources.)
Book Reviews
★ [H]arrowing…. Ward takes her time revealing what tragedy transpired in the present, heightening suspense and maximizing her devastating conclusion’s emotional impact.… [An] intricate, intelligent plot, which shocks and chills.
Publishers Weekly
[This] well-constructed thriller… brilliantly conceived and presented conclusion would do Patricia Highsmith proud.… [T]his debut novel is being advertised as 2019’s The Woman in the Window.
Booklist
In this post–Gone Girl and –Girl on the Train world, any savvy reader knows that no narrator is ever remotely trustworthy, and no narrative that moves around in time is ever offering the whole story. Instead, the truth will be slowly dropped…. Shamelessly manipulative.
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 BEAUTIFUL BAD … 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.)
Grief Cottage
Gail Godwin, 2017
Bloomsbury USA
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781632867049
Summary
The haunting tale of a desolate cottage, and the hair-thin junction between this life and the next, from bestselling National Book Award finalist Gail Godwin.
After his mother's death, eleven-year-old Marcus is sent to live on a small South Carolina island with his great aunt, a reclusive painter with a haunted past.
Aunt Charlotte, otherwise a woman of few words, points out a ruined cottage, telling Marcus she had visited it regularly after she'd moved there thirty years ago because it matched the ruin of her own life. Eventually she was inspired to take up painting so she could capture its utter desolation.
The islanders call it "Grief Cottage," because a boy and his parents disappeared from it during a hurricane fifty years before. Their bodies were never found and the cottage has stood empty ever since.
During his lonely hours while Aunt Charlotte is in her studio painting and keeping her demons at bay, Marcus visits the cottage daily, building up his courage by coming ever closer, even after the ghost of the boy who died seems to reveal himself.
Full of curiosity and open to the unfamiliar and uncanny given the recent upending of his life, he courts the ghost boy, never certain whether the ghost is friendly or follows some sinister agenda.
Grief Cottage is the best sort of ghost story, but it is far more than that—an investigation of grief, remorse, and the memories that haunt us. The power and beauty of this artful novel wash over the reader like the waves on a South Carolina beach. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—June 18, 1937
• Where—Birmingham, Alabama, USA
• Raised—Ashville, North Carolina
• Education—B.A., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill;
M.A. and Ph.D., University of Iowa, Writers' Workshop
• Currently—lives in Woodstock, New York
Gail Kathleen Godwin, an American novelist and short story writer, has published one non-fiction work, two collections of short stories, and eleven novels, three of which have been nominated for the National Book Award and five of which have made the New York Times Bestseller List.
Personal life
Godwin was born in Birmingham, Alabama but raised in Asheville, North Carolina by her divorced mother and grandmother. She attended Peace College in Raleigh, North Carolina (a women's college founded by Presbyterians in 1857) from 1955 to 1957, but graduated with a B.A. in Journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1959. She worked briefly as a reporter for the Miami Herald and married a Herald photographer named Douglas Kennedy. After the job and the marriage finished (by firing and by divorce, respectively), she worked as waitress back home in North Carolina to save money to travel to Europe.
In the early 1960s, Godwin worked for the U.S. Travel Service at the U.S. Embassy in London and wrote novels and short stories in her spare time. She returned to the United States and worked briefly as an editorial assistant at the Saturday Evening Post before attending the University of Iowa, earning her M.A. (1968) from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and PhD (1971) in English Literature.
Godwin's body of work has garnered many honors, including three National Book Award nominations, a Guggenheim Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts grants for both fiction and libretto writing, and the Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Five of her novels have been on the New York Times best seller list.
Godwin lives and writes in Woodstock, New York. Her family includes her half-brother Rebel A. Cole and half-sister Franchelle Millender.
Writings
Godwin’s eighteen books have established her as a leading voice in American literature along several currents. Her first few novels, published in the early 1970s, explored the worlds of women negotiating restrictive roles. The Odd Woman (1974) was a National Book Award finalist, as was her fourth novel, Violet Clay (1978), in which she modernized the Gothic novel and explored such themes as villainy and suicide.
A Mother and Two Daughters (1982) marked a turning point in Godwin’s career. It encompassed a community, Mountain City, based on her hometown of Asheville, North Carolina, and carried out her empathetic method of entering many characters’ minds within a fluid narrative. Voted a National Book Award finalist, it also became Godwin’s first best-seller. Between it and her next four best-sellers, Godwin interposed Mr. Bedford and the Muses (1983), her second short story collection after Dream Children (1976).
Dream Children had been Godwin’s offering, with some additions, of work she’d created at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, studying with advisors Kurt Vonnegut and Robert Coover. It exhibits her early interest in allegory made real on a psychological level. The Iowa years come alive in her edited journals, The Making of a Writer, Journals, 1963-1969 (2010). A previous volume, The Making of a Writer, Journals, 1961-1963 (2006), presents her years in Europe after a do-or-die decision to become a writer. The novella, "Mr. Bedford," which leads her second story collection, derives from her time in London. Narrated in the first person, it achieves the author’s quest for timelessness through a look into a living room window.
"Last night I dreamed of Ursula DeVane," begins Godwin’s sixth novel, The Finishing School (1984), again employing a first person reverie, and turning it toward one of Godwin’s fertile interests, the effect of a powerful personality on a developing one. The suspense that tragically ensues relates to her next novel, A Southern Family, which returns to Mountain City, but is darker than A Mother and Two Daughters, as it involves a murder-suicide that sends shock waves and melancholy through a family. All of Godwin’s second three novels were published additionally as mass market paperbacks.
Father Melancholy’s Daughter (1991), also a best-seller, represented Godwin’s independence from the best-seller niche being marketed for her. The daughter of the title navigates her relationships with her father, an Episcopal minister; and with a classic Godwin character, a bewitching theatrical auteur. Theology, and its non-doctrinal meaning in spiritual life, became one of the areas in which Godwin began to act as a leading explorer. The subject is embraced in Evensong, her 1999 sequel to Father Melancholy’s Daughter; and in her 2010 novel, Unfinished Desires. It also informs her non-fiction book, Heart: A Natural History of the Heart-Filled Life (2001), illustrated by stories from her life and from her constant reading.
Godwin ninth novel, The Good Husband (1994), makes use of a form she’d emulated as a 24-year-old in Europe, Lawrence Durrell’s quartet (as in The Alexandria Quartet), by which a story is told through four related characters. Godwin’s new direction—not just in form, but also in choice of characters—did not reach the best-seller list. Evensong, her tenth novel, did; and then she engaged in another literary experiment, "Evenings at Five" (2003), a novella that explores, through a distinctive kind of stream-of-consciousness, the presence that follows the death of a long-term companion. It is based on her relationship with composer Robert Starer, with whom she collaborated on nine libretti. Regarding Evenings at Five, Godwin said she wanted "to write a different kind of ghost story." The trade paperback edition of the book, with Godwin’s autobiographical "Christina Stories" added, became one of eight works of her fiction published as Ballantine Readers Circle trade paperbacks, with interviews and reader’s guides.
For her twelfth novel, Queen of the Underworld, Godwin fashioned a Bildungsroman, derived from her years as a Miami Herald reporter, 1959-60. Her experience included close familiarity with the Cuban emigre community, with whom, at times, she conversed in Spanish.
Unfinished Desires (2010) exemplified her empathetic method by inhabiting the minds and enunciating the voices of more than a dozen full characters. Set at a girls’ school run by nuns, it makes the connection between religious devotion and artistic seriousness. The novel openly reveals girls in adolescence, as well as their elders, who bequeath them their deep-set issues. Suspense comes from multi-punch power plays, as well as from characters’ struggles to be good. The novel’s original title, "The Red Nun," refers to the statue of a tragic novitiate, whose story becomes the subject of a school play, which in turns becomes an arena for acting out. The play’s the thing, dramatically, metaphorically, and psychologically. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 7/2/2010.)
Book Reviews
(Starred review.) A young boy obsessed with a haunted beach shack searches for meaning amid catastrophic loss in National Book Award–finalist Godwin’s chilling novel.… His choice and its consequences will echo with readers, and Godwin’s forceful prose captivates with the quiet, renewing power of a persistent tide.
Publishers Weekly
Like Henry James's classic, The Turn of the Screw, Grief Cottage is less a paranormal thriller than an exploration of the psyche's creative tactics to survive trauma.… Godwin shows she is still at the top of her craft, using the fragile link between living and spirit to illuminate a young man's coming of age in this keenly observed, powerful novel.
BookPage
(Starred review.) Godwin's riveting and wise story of the slow coalescence of trust and love between a stoic artist and a grieving boy… subtly and insightfully explores different forms of haunting and vulnerability, strength and survival.… Word will spread quickly about Godwin's tender and spellbinding supernatural novel
Booklist
Echoes of the mysterious isolation in Marcus' family's past sound throughout the novel…. Godwin approaches many of her usual melancholic themes from a different angle and raises the question of whether we get what we want or we get what we need.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Consider the novel’s epigraph: "Not everybody gets to grow up. First you have to survive your childhood, and then begins the hard work of growing into it." Childhood and survival are central themes for this novel. Charlotte, Marcus, and his mother all had traumatic childhoods that influenced their behavior as adults. What tools do each of them employ to help them survive? What does it mean to "grow into" one’s childhood? Who in the book is a good example of that?
2. The turtle migration is a central fixture in Marcus’s new life; he convenes with the eggs each day, monitors their temperature closely, and is devastated when he misses their historic sprint from nest to ocean. Before the migration, he explains to them, "The reason we can’t pick you up and carry you is because you need to do the walk yourselves so you can smell the sand and remember your way back to this beach when you’re grown up" (151). Why are the turtles a source of comfort for Marcus? Compare and contrast their ancient ritual for survival to Marcus own journey towards growth and safety. How does the turtles’ journey serve as a foil for the other character’s attempts at survival?
3. Because of his relationship with Johnny’s ghost, Marcus often feels as if he straddles the line between sanity and insanity. He thinks, "The ghost-boy was related to my life, yet he was also an entity on his own terms.… Didn’t something have to be one thing or the other, either real or imagined?" (156) Discuss Marcus’s question: is it possible for something to be both real and imagined? In your opinion, does Marcus actually see a ghost in Grief Cottage or is he merely hallucinating an imaginary friend of sorts? How does this ghost story in particular challenge our preconceived notions of the boundaries of reality?
4. At a town hall, a scientist tells the crowd of island locals that their insistence on preservation will always fail: "The only losers will be the property owners fighting a hopeless battle to make nature stand still" (299). Many characters in the novel refuse to move forward or accept the inevitable: Marcus is scared to grow up, Charlotte won’t acknowledge her addiction; and Charlie Coggins tries diligently to sell Grief Cottage, even though it lies on a precarious stretch of beach that will soon erode into the ocean. Explore how the novel’s main characters find the strength to overcome their "hopeless battles." Discuss how Grief Cottage serves as a metaphor for how precarious and mysterious life can be.
5. The past and present are at constant odds throughout the novel: Marcus’s confidant Lachicotte is enamored with restoring the antique; the turtles prepare to embark on an annual, ancient tradition; Marcus finds himself obsessed with the fate of a family who inhabited the island over fifty years ago, only to develop a present-day relationship with the ghost of their teenage son. What point, if any, does the novel make about the function of time? Does the novel advocate for attempting to preserve the past or for letting it go? How do the characters reckon with, honor, and run from their pasts?
6. Despite receiving praise from his aunt, Marcus is constantly wracked with anxiety that she will find him unsatisfactory and send him away. When Charlotte leaves for surgery, Marcus has a mental breakdown and is tormented by "Cutting Edge," a malicious voice urging him to take his own life. Cutting Edge taunts Marcus with his worst fear, "You aren’t wanted, you weren’t wanted, and you’re not going to be missed" (269). Discuss this part of Marcus’s personality. How does it impact his life and relationships? Why does Marcus feel unwanted despite reassurance? In your opinion, what is the seed of his insecurity?
7. Before his overdose is complete, Marcus races to see Johnny’s ghost at Grief Cottage. He thinks, "You were my sure. You were my lifeline…" (271). Explore Marcus’s inexplicable connection to Johnny’s ghost; in what ways are the boys similar or different? Why does Marcus feel closer to Johnny than any of living friends he has made so far? Marcus believes that "since ghosts don’t have living brains, the work must be done by the living person. The living person had to offer his brain as the dwelling place for the ghost" (133). Why does Marcus give himself to Johnny as a place to dwell? Likewise, why does Johnny choose Marcus as his host?
8. Discuss the significance of Marcus’s friendship with Wheezer. He often remembers their boyhood closeness fondly but is still haunted by Wheezer’s accusation. When Marcus returns to visit Wheezer years later, how has their relationship changed? How has it stayed the same? When the two friends catch up, Marcus learns that Wheezer also attempted suicide in his younger years. What brings each of these two boys, who have very different backgrounds, to the brink of death?
9. Charlotte begins painting a secret project when she loses the use of her right hand. Under the influence of Cutting Edge, Marcus sneaks into her studio to find "Only to you, my little sheets," an intimate and grotesque set of paintings about her abusive past. Later, in rehab, Charlotte tells her art students "your unpracticed hand will waver and wobble into places your controlling hand would never let you near" (290). How does her discomfort allow her to come to terms with her own ghosts? How does this logic apply to other aspects of the novel? Who else benefits from their discomfort, and how?
10. Discuss the significance of putting the soul to rest. William, Marcus’s interim guardian before Charlotte, implores him to bury his mother soon so "you’ll know you can always come back and find her in the same place" (148). By the end of the novel, Marcus has to bury not only his mother, but the bones of Johnny Dace as well. He chooses Lachicotte’s suggestion for both headstones: "May the earth lie lightly on thee." Explore the implications of this engraving and why it feels so right to Marcus. Does finding Johnny’s bones help Marcus on from the death of his mom?
11. Marcus grows up to become a child psychiatrist. In his studies, he is struck by the following passage: "The idea of a ghost, a disembodied spirit, derives from this lack of essential anchoring of the psyche in the soma, and the value of the ghost story lies in its drawing attention to the precariousness of the psychesoma existence" (282). Why is this precariousness important? What does it teach Marcus about hischildhood self? In what other ways can a ghost story, with its emphasis on the supernatural, teach us about human existence?
12. At the end of the novel, Marcus finally learns the truth about the man in his mother’s photo. Long thought to be a fake, the picture turned out to be a class photo of Wheezer’s notorious late Uncle Henry. What is the significance of this discovery? Discuss how Henry’s brilliant and disastrous life reflects on Marcus. The novel ends soon after this revelation. How do you imagine Marcus felt about learning the identity of his father and being related to his best friend all along?
13. Marcus and his elderly neighbor Carol Upchurch have a special bond over the loss of their loved ones. Ever since the death of her son, Coral Upchurch has been attempting to undergo an "archaeology of herself": "What would be left of the essential me without any of my roles?" (243) How does Marcus attempt his own "archaeology of self?" What are his roles throughout the novel and how to they evolve? He believes that love is the answer to the question of everyone’s essential role. Do you agree? Discuss all of roles you play in life; who do you become if your roles disappear?
14. "I realized that below all our mes that become known to others is a self that nobody else can ever fully know. No self can ever share its entire being with another self, no matter how much love there is between them." (244) Even though Marcus makes strong connections with his island neighbors, his experience with the ghost of Johnny Dace is the most impactful. Is Marcus connecting to Johnny, or to himself? Do you agree with Coral? Explain why or why not.
15. Consider Marcus’s suicide attempt. Cutting Edge forces him to remember his thoughts the night his mother died. Faced with the reality that he had envisioned a better life without his mother, Marcus resents himself enough to end his own life. Discuss Marcus’s choice: was it fueled by insanity, insecurity, selflessness, or something else entirely? Earlier in the novel, Marcus admires Johnny’s ghost: "It’s all over for you. Your life is a complete thing. I envy that." (140) Why does Marcus envy Johnny? How does this novel challenge the idea that anyone’s life is every truly "complete"? How is this a pivotal moment for Marcus on his journey to forgiving himself?
(Questions developed by Zoe Gould for Bloomsbury USA, publishers.)