Billionaire at the Barricades: The Populist Revolution from Regan to Trump
Laura Ingraham, 2017
St. Martin's Press
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781250150646
Summary
Americans didn’t just go to the polls in 2016. They joined a movement that swept the unlikeliest of candidates, Donald Trump, into the Oval Office.
Can he complete his agenda? Or will his opponents in the media, protestor class, and political establishment block his efforts and choke off the movement he represents?
In Billionaire at the Barricades, Laura Ingraham gives readers a front row seat to the populist revolution as she witnessed it.
She reveals the origins of this movement and its connection to the Trump presidency. She unmasks the opposition, forecasts the future of the Make America Great Again agenda and offers her own prescriptions for bringing real change to the swamp of Washington.
Unlike most of her media colleagues, Ingraham understood Trump’s appeal and defied those who wrote his political obituary.
Now she confronts the president’s critics and responds to those who deny the importance of his America First agenda. With sharp humor and insight she traces the DNA of the populist movement: from Goldwater’s 1964 campaign, to Nixon’s Silent Majority, to Reagan’s smashing electoral victories.
Populism fueled the insurgency campaigns of Buchanan and Perot, the election of George W. Bush, and the Tea Party rallies of the Obama presidency. But a political novice ― a Manhattan billionaire ― proved to be the movement’s most vocal champion. This is the inside story of his victory and the fitful struggle to enact his agenda. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—June 19, 1963
• Where—Glastonbury, Connecticut, USA
• Education—B.A., Dartmouth College; J.D., University of Virginia
• Currently—lives near Washington, D.C.
Laura Anne Ingraham is an American TV and radio talk show host, author, and conservative political commentator. She hosts the nationally syndicated radio show, The Laura Ingraham Show, is the editor-in-chief of LifeZette, a long time Fox News Channel contributor, and host of her own FNC show, The Ingraham Angle, weeknights at 10 p.m.
In the late 1980s, Ingraham worked as a speechwriter in the Ronald Reagan administration for the Domestic Policy Advisor. She also briefly served as editor of The Prospect, the magazine issued by Concerned Alumni of Princeton.
After law school, in 1991, she served as a law clerk for Judge Ralph K. Winter, Jr., of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in New York and subsequently clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. She then worked as an attorney at the New York-based law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. In 1995, she appeared on the cover of The New York Times Magazine in a leopard-print miniskirt in connection with a story about young conservatives.
In 1996, she and Jay P. Lefkowitz organized the first Dark Ages Weekend in response to Renaissance Weekend.
Ingraham has had two stints as a cable television host. In the late 1990s, she became a CBS commentator and hosted the MSNBC program Watch It! Several years later, Ingraham began campaigning for another cable television show on her radio program. She finally got her wish in 2008, when Fox News Channel gave her a three-week trial run for a new show entitled Just In.
Her book, Of Thee I Zing, was released in 2011. In August 2013, conservative Newsmax magazine named Ingraham among the "25 most influential women in the GOP."
Political columnist Paul Bedard reported on January 15, 2017, that Ingraham had been approached by Republican party "insiders," to run for the Senate seat held by Virginia Democrat Tim Kaine. Ingraham later confirmed that she was considering it.
Personal
Ingraham has previously dated broadcaster Keith Olbermann, Dinesh D’Souza, and former New Jersey Democratic Senator Robert Torricelli. In April 2005, she made two announcements: her engagement to Chicago businessman James V. Reyes and her surgery for breast cancer. In May 2005, Ingraham told listeners that her engagement to Reyes was canceled, citing issues regarding her diagnosis with breast cancer.
Quick Facts: Ingraham is 6-'3", a convert to Roman Catholicism, and has studied Russian.
In May 2008, Ingraham adopted a young girl from Guatemala, whom she has named Maria Caroline. In July 2009 she adopted a 13-month-old boy, Michael Dmitri, and two years later, in June 2011, she announced the adoption of her third child, 13-month-old Nikolai Peter. Both of the boys were from Russia. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 10/28/2017.)
Book Reviews
I ran into my old friend Laura Ingraham last week the day her new book launched. I haven’t had a chance to dip into it yet, and there are certainly things I disagree with in it (we’ve had our disputes over the past two years), but I’m sure it’s smart and sharp-elbowed. Even if you are not in sympathy with Trump-style populism, it’s not going away, and Laura is one of its top voices.
Rich Lowry - National Review
Laura Ingraham was one of the few people who saw Donald Trump’s shocking victory coming. More importantly, as a former speechwriter for Ronald Reagan who saw firsthand how viciously the Bush-aligned establishment despised Reagan’s working-class voters. Ingraham understands how powerful the conservative-populist movement is and why the elites in the permanent political class have spent gazillions and worked overtime for three decades to thwart it.… [A] must-read.
Tony Lee - Breitbart News
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 Billionaire at the Barricades ... then take off on your own:
1. Nearly everyone — in media and politics — dismissed the candidacy of Donald Trump early on. What was it that tipped Laura Ingraham off about the power of Trump's appeal?
2. Follow-up to Question 1: Consider Dave Brat's stunning 2014 victory in Virginia over then House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. Ingraham called Brat's win "cataclysmic." Why? What did it reveal about the party and the voters?
3. What were your initial reactions to Candidate Trump? Did you dismiss him at first … or take him seriously? Did your reaction to him change over time? Has it changed since he has taken office?
4. How would you define the progressive movement and its supporters? Consider Ingraham's observation that voters "didn’t care about [Trump's] rough language." Instead, “they cared about saving their country and knew the only way to do it was to elect a renegade — a disruptor — someone who owed the Old Guard nothing.” What do progressives want to save the country from? Why does it take a renegade to save it?
5. Follow-up to Question 4: In what ways was Trump a "disruptor?" How did he pit himself against the Establishment Republicans? How did (does) he differ from the "Old Guard"?
6. Ingraham reports that in a private GOP meeting, everyone "laughed out loud at the idea that Trump's border wall would ever be built." Are people laughing now? What do you think of the wall — and what do you think its chances are of being built? Ingraham predicts that if it is not built "the president and his part will pay a severe political price." Do you agree?
7. Pointing to politicians' hypocrisy, Ingraham notes that while many claim they had never seen populism before, all successful "presidential candidates invoke the populist style because it connects with working people." But, she goes on to say, except for Regan, once in office, all presidents have "governed as globalists." First, define globalism: what policies, specifically, does the term refer to? Second, do you agree with her assessment that previous presidents have all been globalists? Talk about the reasons populists and Trump oppose globalism. What is the argument in favor of it?
8. Ingraham also posits, however, that there is an overlap between conservative and populism. In what areas do the two blocs agree?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family
Robert Kolker, 2020
Knopf Doubleday
400 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780385543767
Summary
The heartrending story of a midcentury American family with twelve children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science's great hope in the quest to understand the disease.
Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dream.
After World War II, Don's work with the Air Force brought them to Colorado, where their twelve children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965.
In those years, there was an established script for a family like the Galvins—aspiration, hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony—and they worked hard to play their parts.
But behind the scenes was a different story: psychological breakdown, sudden shocking violence, hidden abuse. By the mid-1970s, six of the ten Galvin boys, one after another, were diagnosed as schizophrenic. How could all this happen to one family?
What took place inside the house on Hidden Valley Road was so extraordinary that the Galvins became one of the first families to be studied by the National Institute of Mental Health. Their story offers a shadow history of the science of schizophrenia, from the era of institutionalization, lobotomy, and the schizophrenogenic mother to the search for genetic markers for the disease, always amid profound disagreements about the nature of the illness itself.
And unbeknownst to the Galvins, samples of their DNA informed decades of genetic research that continues today, offering paths to treatment, prediction, and even eradication of the disease for future generations.
With clarity and compassion, bestselling and award-winning author Robert Kolker uncovers one family's unforgettable legacy of suffering, love, and hope. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Robert Kolker is the New York Times bestselling author of Lost Girls, named one of the Times's 100 Notable Books and one of Publishers Weekly's Top Ten Books of 2013. It was released as a 2020 Netflix film.
As a journalist, his work has appeared in New York Magazine, Bloomberg Businessweek, The New York Times Magazine, Wired, GQ, O Magazine,and Men's Journal.
He is a National Magazine Award finalist and a recipient of the 2011 Harry Frank Guggenheim Award for Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
[A] feat of empathy and narrative journalism, as [Kolker] coaxes out the struggles of the Galvin family, showing how they embodied the roiling debates over the science of schizophrenia—not just its causes, "but what it actually is."… Kolker recounts the Galvins' home life with such vivid specificity that it can seem as if he's working up to a suggestion that their upbringing determined the course of their mental health. But… Kolker—who skillfully corrals the disparate strands of his story and gives all of his many characters their due—knows better than to settle for pat truths.
Jennifer Szalai - New York Times
(Starred review) [P]owerful.… Kolker concludes that while "biology is destiny, to a point," everyone is a product of the people who surround us…. This is a haunting and memorable look at the impact of mental illness on multiple generations.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review) Kolker masterfully combines scientific intrigue with biographical sketches, allowing readers to feel as if they are right there with the Galvins as researchers examine their genes in the quest for answers.
(Starred review) A stunning, riveting chronicle crackling with intelligence and empathy…. Kolker tackles this extraordinarily complex story so brilliantly and effectively that readers will be swept away. An exceptional, unforgettable, and significant work that must not be missed.
Booklist
(Starred review) [R]iveting…. Kolker deftly follows the psychiatric, chemical, and biological theories proposed to explain schizophrenia…. Most poignantly, he portrays the impact on the unafflicted children…. A family portrait of astounding depth and empathy.
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.)
The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World
Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, Douglas Abrams, 2016
Penguin Publishing
368 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780399185045
Summary
Two spiritual giants. Five days. One timeless question.
Nobel Peace Prize Laureates His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have survived more than fifty years of exile and the soul-crushing violence of oppression. Despite their hardships—or, as they would say, because of them—they are two of the most joyful people on the planet.
In April 2015, Archbishop Tutu traveled to the Dalai Lama's home in Dharamsala, India, to celebrate His Holiness's eightieth birthday and to create what they hoped would be a gift for others. They looked back on their long lives to answer a single burning question: How do we find joy in the face of life's inevitable suffering?
They traded intimate stories, teased each other continually, and shared their spiritual practices. By the end of a week filled with laughter and punctuated with tears, these two global heroes had stared into the abyss and despair of our time and revealed how to live a life brimming with joy.
This book offers us a rare opportunity to experience their astonishing and unprecendented week together, from the first embrace to the final good-bye.
We get to listen as they explore the Nature of True Joy and confront each of the Obstacles of Joy—from fear, stress, and anger to grief, illness, and death. They then offer us the Eight Pillars of Joy, which provide the foundation for lasting happiness. Throughout, they include stories, wisdom, and science. Finally, they share their daily Joy Practices that anchor their own emotional and spiritual lives.
The Archbishop has never claimed sainthood, and the Dalai Lama considers himself a simple monk. In this unique collaboration, they offer us the reflection of real lives filled with pain and turmoil in the midst of which they have been able to discover a level of peace, of courage, and of joy to which we can all aspire in our own lives. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Dalai Lama
• Birth—1935
• Where—Takster, Tibet
• Education—Lharampa degree
• Awards—Nobel Peace Prize; U.S. Congressional Gold Medal
• Currently—lives in Dharamsala, India
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, describes himself as a simple Buddhist monk. He is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan People and of Tibetan Buddhism. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 and the US Congressional Gold Medal in 2007. Born in 1935 to a poor farming family in the village of Takster in northeastern Tibet he was recognized at the age of two as the reincarnation of his predecessor, the 13th Dalai Lama. He studied with a series of tutors, and in 1959, at the age of 23, he took his final examination at Lhasa's Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. Passing with honors, he was awarded the Lharampa degree, the highest-level geshe degree, roughly equivalent to a doctorate in Buddhist philosophy.
He has been a passionate advocate for a secular universal approach to cultivating fundamental human values. For over three decades the Dalai Lama has maintained an ongoing conversation and collaboration with scientists from a wide range of disciplines, especially through the Mind and Life Institute, an organization that he co-founded. The Dalai Lama travels extensively, promoting kindness and compassion, interfaith understanding, respect for the e<nvironment, and, above all, world peace. He lives in exile in Dharamsala, India. For more information, please visit www.dalailama.com.
Desmond Tutu
• Birth—1931
• Where—Klerksdorp, South Africa
• Education—Pretoria Bantu Normal College;
Peter's Theological College (Rosettenville); Cambridge University
• Awards—Nobel Peace Prize; U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom
• Currently—lives in Cape Town South Africa
Desmond Mpilo Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus of Southern Africa, became a prominent leader in the crusade for justice and racial reconciliation in South Africa. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. In 1994, Tutu was appointed chair of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission by Nelson Mandela, where he pioneered a new way for countries to move forward after experiencing civil conflict and oppression. He was the founding chair of The Elders, a group of global leaders working together for peace and human rights. Archbishop Tutu is regarded as a leading moral voice and an icon of hope. Throughout his life, he has cared deeply about the needs of people around the world, teaching love and compassion for all. He lives in Cape Town, South Africa. For more information please visit www.tutu.org.za.
Douglas Abrams is an author, editor, and literary agent. He is the founder and president of Idea Architects, a creative book and media agency helping visionaries to create a wiser, healthier, and more just world. He is also co-founder, with Pam Omidyar and Desmond Tutu, of HumanJourney.com, a public benefit company working to share life-changing and world-changing ideas. Doug has worked with Desmond Tutu as his cowriter and editor for over a decade, and before founding his own literary agency, he was a senior editor at HarperCollins and also served for nine years as the religion editor at the University of California Press. He believes strongly in the power of books and media to catalyze the next stage of global evolutionary culture. He lives in Santa Cruz, California, USA.
Book Reviews
The question may be timeless, but their answer has urgent significance.
Time
This sparkling, wise, and immediately useful gift to readers from two remarkable spiritual masters offers hope that joy is possible for everyone even in the most difficult circumstances, and describes a clear path for attaining it.
Publishers Weekly
[An] exquisite book.… An intimate glimpse into the minds of two of the world's spiritual guides, and their foundation for an attainable and practical approach to experiencing a more enriching and sustainable life of abundant joy.
Shelf Awareness
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for The Book of Joy … then take off on your own:
1. First, talk about the two men at the heart of this treatise on joy. Discuss their backgrounds and how two such different men have come to understand the need for and the path to joy. Do the the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu share any similarities in their personal histories?
2. In your own words, what is joy? Do you experience it — frequently, on occasion, rarely if ever? What in your life triggers feelings of joy?
3. How do the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu define joy — what do they see as its true nature?
4. One of the shortest answers to attaining joy in a world of suffering is not thinking too much about yourself. What does that mean? How is it possible to step outside of one's consciousness … NOT to think of the self?
5. The Dalai Lama, when asked about exile from his homeland, says, "wherever you have friends, that's your country, and wherever you receive love, that's your home." Do you agree?
6. What does BishopTutu mean when he says that even a person who struggles with hardship is a "masterpiece in the making"?
7. Go through each of the Eight Pillars of Joy — the four of the mind: perspective, humility, humor, acceptance; and the four of the heart: forgiveness, gratitude, compassion, generosity. Talk about what each of those pillars means, personally or generally, and how each contributes to feeling joyful. Or try the opposite: what happens in you don't incorporate these pillars into your life? How does that "nil" approach detract from experiencing joy?
8. Have you ever kept your own notebook on gratitude or joy, writing down at the start or end of each day your thoughts about what has made you thankful or joyful?
9. What role does religion, or any spiritual practice, play in creating a sense of joy?
10. Nearly every page of The Book of Joy contains some remarkable insight. Which observations or passages in particular made you stop and ponder … or say, "Yes!" … or which struck you as profound in some way?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Running with Sherman: The Donkey with the Heart of a Hero
Christopher McDougall, 2020
Knopf Doubleday
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781524732363
Summary
From the author of Born to Run, a heartwarming story about training a rescue donkey to run one of the most challenging races in America, and, in the process, discovering the life-changing power of the human-animal connection.
When Chris McDougall agreed to take in a donkey from an animal hoarder, he thought it would be no harder than the rest of the adjustments he and his family had made after moving from Philadelphia to the heart of Pennsylvania Amish country.
But when he arrived, Sherman was in such bad shape he could barely move, and his hair was coming out in clumps. Chris decided to undertake a radical rehabilitation program designed not only to heal Sherman's body but to heal his mind as well.
It turns out the best way to soothe a donkey is to give it a job, and so Chris decided to teach Sherman how to run. He'd heard about burro racing—a unique type of race where humans and donkeys run together in a call-back to mining days—and decided he and Sherman would enter the World Championship in Colorado.
Easier said than done.
In the course of Sherman's training, Chris would have to recruit several other runners, both human and equine, and call upon the wisdom of burro racers, goat farmers, Amish running club members, and a group of irrepressible female long-haul truckers.
An entire community comes together to help save Sherman and, along the way, Chris shows us the joy of a life with animals. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1962
• Where—Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Education—B.A., Harvard University
• Currently—lives in Peach Bottom, Penn.
Christopher McDougall covered wars in Rwanda and Angola as a foreign correspondent for the Associated Press before writing his best-selling book Born to Run (2009). His fascination with the limits of human potential led him to create the Outside magazine's web series, "Art of the Hero."
He currently lives with his wife, two daughters, and a farmyard menagerie in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. (From the publisher.)
McDougall with his wife, Mika, and Sherman.
Bob Williams for The Philadelphia Inquirer
Book Reviews
[A] magical read, one that elicits surprised chuckles even as it tugs at the heartstrings. The motley crew—both human and animal—that it introduces is an absolute delight; McDougall clearly has a gift for fully rendering the people that he meets.… It’s a wonderful read for anyone who has loved an animal that needed to be loved.
Maine Edge
[A] charming story.… McDougall has a colorful writing style that brings to life the animals’ personalities, as well as the various obstacles they encounter during their year of training.… McDougall describes all of it with exquisite detail, making Running with Sherman a fun and inspiring read, not just for runners, but for anyone who believes in the healing power of the human-animal bond.
New York Journal of Books
In this tenderhearted memoir, McDougall (Born to Run) tells of his adoption and rehabilitation of Sherman, an ailing rescue donkey.… Runners and animal lovers alike can find inspiration in this story of the ways in which humans and animals connect.
Publishers Weekly
A humorous and heartwarming book about not only running with donkeys but about community, our connections with one another, and our abilities to persevere and overcome physical and mental challenges. —Melissa Keegan, Ela Area P.L., Lake Zurich, IL
Library Journal
Both inspiring and humorous, a testament to the depth of the animal-human connection.
Booklist
Sherman's transformation from dying donkey to confident runner involved a circle of family, friends, neighbors, and a few feisty donkeys, each of whom McDougall portrays in affectionate, vivid detail.… A charming tale of a resilient donkey and a community's love.
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 RUNNING WITH SHERMAN … then take off on your own:
1. So let's get personal here. Did you cry? When? On first meeting Sherman in his broken-down condition? Or by the end, rehabilitated by loving care.
2. Okay, if you didn't actually well up, which episodes in the book at least moved your or delighted you? How about, say, the moment when Sherman raced uphill to the farm, "touching noses with the two big warhorses" behind the fence?
3. Talk about some of the human characters that populate the book. Zeke, for instance, suffering with depression. Perhaps you might do some online research to find out what psychologists have learned about how bonding with animals can alleviate depression. Who are other characters in this book whose lives were touched by Sherman?
4. (Follow-up to Question 3) Consider other ways in which animals aid humans. Therapy dogs in hospitals, for instance? Equine therapy?
5. What is your own experience bonding with animals, healthy or not? Have you even volunteered, say, to work with animals in a humane society's kennel?
6. As humans, what do we owe animals?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
Adrienne Brodeur, 2020
Houghton Mufflin Harcourt (HMH Books)
256 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781328519030
Summary
A daughter’s tale of living in the thrall of her magnetic, complicated mother, and the chilling consequences of her complicity.
On a hot July night on Cape Cod when Adrienne was fourteen, her mother, Malabar, woke her at midnight with five simple words that would set the course of both of their lives for years to come …
Ben Souther just kissed me.
Adrienne instantly became her mother’s confidante and helpmate, blossoming in the sudden light of her attention, and from then on, Malabar came to rely on her daughter to help orchestrate what would become an epic affair with her husband’s closest friend.
The affair would have calamitous consequences for everyone involved, impacting Adrienne’s life in profound ways, driving her into a precarious marriage of her own, and then into a deep depression. Only years later will she find the strength to embrace her life—and her mother—on her own terms.
Wild Game is a brilliant, timeless memoir about how the people close to us can break our hearts simply because they have access to them, and the lies we tell in order to justify the choices we make.
It’s a remarkable story of resilience, a reminder that we need not be the parents our parents were to us. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Adrienne Brodeur began her career in publishing as the cofounder, with filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, of the National Magazine Award–winning Zoetrope: All-Story. She has worked as a book editor and is currently the executive director of Aspen Words. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Exquisite and harrowing…. [Wild Game] is so gorgeously written and deeply insightful, and with a line of narrative tension that never slacks, from the first page to the last, that it’s one you’ll likely read in a single, delicious sitting.
New York Times Book Review
As the saying goes, you can’t make this stuff up. [A] remarkable web of relationships in a privileged, Cape Cod world and the lies a daughter was forced to tell. Riveting.
Toronto Star
Wild Game is a memoir, but it reads very much like a novel with a first-person narrator, bringing readers closely into scenes with vivid sensual detail that paints the atmosphere with the adoring eyes of the enthralled daughter the author once was. Wild Game, for all its luscious prose and tantalizing elements, is ultimately about the slow and painful process of losing a mother.
NPR
[A] vivid memoir…[Brodeur] writes beautifully, even tenderly, as a mother herself, aware of repercussions, knowing how it all ended.
BBC
I can’t stop thinking about this extraordinary memoir.… Brodeur takes on the complicated subjects of mother-daughter relationships and family secrets with masterful storytelling and cinematic style. Be forewarned that this book requires the buddy system; you’ll need to discuss it with someone the minute you finish!
Orange County Register
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me works effortlessly to earn my highest compliment for a memoir: It reads like a novel. The story immediately drew me in into [its] magnetic and complicated world.
Psychology
Brodeur is a deft memoirist, portraying Malabar as a woman traumatized by a violent parent and early tragedy. In this stunning tale of treachery—unsettling yet seductive—we are led through some of the darkest and most alluring corridors of the human heart.
Oprah Magazine
Adrienne Brodeur's stunning memoir is the kind of true story that makes you wonder why we'd ever need fiction. It's a beautifully written, totally engrossing story unlike any we've read before—and will surely be one of the most talked-about books of the year.
Town and Country Magazine
This electrifying, gorgeously written memoir will hold you captive until the last word.
People
[A] mother’s affair with her husband’s best friend… set in motion years of consequences, grief and family struggles, retold intimately by Brodeur and layered with detail, excitement and heartbreak throughout years of Cape Cod summers.
Parade
(Starred review) This page-turning memoir about an especially fraught mother-daughter relationship from novelist Brodeur reads like heady beach fiction.… This layered narrative of deceit, denial, and disillusionment is a surefire bestseller.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review) Brodeur's story explores the bond between mother and daughter and the ripple effect a family secret can have when passed among generations. Highly recommended. —Erin Shea, Ferguson Lib., CT
Library Journal
An absorbing story of secrets, love, and family.
Booklist
[A] candid, deftly crafted narrative.… A vivid chronicle of a daughter's struggle to find herself
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. What do we learn about the author from how she tells her tale—both what she chooses to tell, and the tone of voice in which she tells it? Is this a story about her mother’s misbehavior, or about something else?
2. Revisit the Mary Oliver poem, “The Uses of Sorrow,” that serves as an epigraph to the book. Do you see the darknesses in your own life as gifts, or would you wish some of them away? Is growth possible without suffering? Consider Margot’s advice to Rennie that happiness is a choice. Is gratitude in the face of life’s difficulties a habit of mind we can choose to cultivate?
3. Malabar makes life more interesting for everyone, including us as readers. Do you feel a little bewitched by her charms? Would she be as compelling without her flaws? Doyou admire her? If so, in what ways?
4. How does Malabar upend traditional roles for women, and how does she subscribe to them? How has her mother Vivian’s influence shaped her sense of identity, as well as her relationships with other women? Rennie’s friend Kyra diagnoses Malabar as lonely, and says that loneliness is about not being known for who you are. Does Malabar know herself?
5. Malabar’s marriage to Charles and her romance with Ben occur within a privileged milieu at a time when gender roles were narrowly defi ned. What are the values of this social set, and how do they do harm to its members? Can the follies of the characters be blamed in part on an unhealthy worldview?
6. Compare Ben’s conduct during the affair to Malabar’s. Whom do you feel more sympathy for? When you look at all the adult characters in the book, is there a villain in this story?
7. Rennie is a victim of harm, a beneficiary of kindness, and an actor—for good and ill—in other people’s lives. Which of these roles does she have the most diffi cultyacknowledging? Do we learn more about how to live from our parents’ mistakes orfrom what they do right?
8. "Understandable but not acceptable" becomes Jack and Rennie’s mantra in light of the affair. Where does Rennie demonstrate that she doesn’t accept her mother’s behavior? Do you think she might hold her mother more accountable? Who is helped more by forgiveness: the forgiven or the forgiver?
9. How does Rennie’s involvement in her mother’s deception hurt her relationship with herself? And how does it damage her relationships with other people in her life? By the end of the book, have all the wounded relationships been healed?
10. Rennie manages to separate from her mother, assume ownership of her own life, and chart a new path. What are her strengths, and how do we see her using them first to help her mother, and later, using them as a force for good in her own life? What other resources does she employ to help her become the person she wants to be? Does she inspire you to address aspects of your own life that are holding you back?
11. Rennie has two experiences where time collapses and the layers of her past rush in: just before her wedding and after she gives birth to her daughter (pp. 176, 223). Whatdo these moments do for her? Have you had a similar experience that has granted you a profound glimpse of your life?
12. Throughout the story, secrets are kept—about Christopher, about the affair, about Charles’s aneurism—ostensibly to protect others from pain. Is there anything wrong with this logic? The author says that lying comes with the territory when your parents get divorced, and you don’t share information about one parent if you think it will disturb the other. Do lies of omission pave the way for bigger lies? Is a lie ever completely harmless?
13. Is it fair of Malabar to demand that Rennie never sell the necklace? Which verdict of an appraisal would be worse: for the necklace to be valuable or valueless? Would you do as Rennie does and avoid the question? Is there an heirloom in your family that’s been divisive?
14. The author shows us Cape Cod as a place of beauty, history, and bounty. In what ways does the setting contribute to the meaning of the story?
15. Rennie actively reads to help her clarify and articulate her experience. Margot tells her, "You have no idea how much you can learn about yourself by plunging into someone else’s life (138)." What light does this story shed on your own experience as a parent or child? Have books helped you make sense of your own life?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
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