Vacuum in the Dark
Page 23
The only problems are Dark and her past. Neither is so easy to get rid of.
A constantly surprising, laugh-out-loud funny novel about an utterly unique woman dealing with some of the most universal issues in America today, Vacuum in the Dark is an unforgettable, astonishing read from one of the freshest voices in fiction today.
Topics & Questions for Discussion
1. Beagin herself worked as a cleaning lady and she draws on some of her own experiences cleaning homes. Does knowing that there is an autobiographical component affect the way you understand Mona?
2. Throughout the novel, Mona speaks to her imaginary friend, NPR host Terry Gross. Are her conversations with Terry a product of loneliness? A way to pass the time as she cleans? A form of prayer? What role do you think Terry plays in the novel and in Mona’s life?
3. Mona says repeatedly that Dark makes her feel “Spanish.” What do you think she means by that?
4. Dark has tattoos across his knuckles that read: MORE LOVE. Mona calls back to this phrase several times throughout the novel, even after she severs her relationship with Dark. Discuss how Mona’s search for more love underpins the novel.
5. Before she leaves Rose’s house for good, Mona steals the portrait Dark painted of his wife. Why do you think she selected that portrait? What does it signify?
6. When Mona tells Lena that she has “intimate relationships” with the homes she cleans, Lena responds by saying that the house is all her. Is Mona’s love for a house an extension of her love for its owner? Or vice versa? How can we understand Mona’s unusually close relationships with her clients?
7. How can we understand Mona’s flashbacks to her grandparents Woody and Ginger throughout her experience cleaning Paul and Lena’s home? What is the connection between the two? What can we make of the title of the chapter, “Barbarians”?
8. On page 70, Paul says that he wants to show Mona something, and Mona thinks: “Please don't let it be your penis.” What are other moments in which Mona fears abuse or harassment? Discuss how the threat of male violence, particularly sexual violence, weighs on Mona’s inner monologue and drives the plot.
9. Mona calls her neighbors “Yoko and Yoko.” She refers to Philip as Dark. She calls her mother Clare, even though her given name is Darlene. Why do you think Mona has a habit of renaming the people around her, even those closest to her? What is the significance of “Mommy,” both as a chapter title and as the name her mother desires?
10. Mona refers to her mother as her phantom limb. Are there times earlier in the novel where we can sense Mona’s yearning for her mother?
11. Both Mona’s father and Mr. Disgusting, her junkie ex-boyfriend, appear as a shadows throughout the novel, though those who have read Pretend I’m Dead will know more about their history. How do their presences loom over Mona’s life, even in absentia? How does she connect the two in her memory?
12. The novel’s title comes from a passage on page 195: “[Mona] loved to vacuum in the dark, with only the warm, golden beam of the Eureka’s headlight to guide her.” What do you think is the significance of this line? How can it help us understand the novel?
Enhance Your Book Club
1. Listen to Terry Gross interviews and discuss how Mona’s imaginary Terry matches up against the real-life Terry on the air: https://www.npr.org/people/2100593/terry-gross.
2. Read and discuss Pretend I’m Dead, Beagin’s debut novel, which chronicles Mona’s life at age twenty-four.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
© BEOWULF SHEEHAN
JEN BEAGIN holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of California, Irvine, and was a recipient of a 2017 Whiting Award in fiction for her first novel, Pretend I’m Dead, which was also shortlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and named a best book of the year by O, The Oprah Magazine; Refinery29; and Kirkus Reviews. A former cleaning lady, she lives in Hudson, New York.
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ALSO BY JEN BEAGIN
Pretend I’m Dead
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2019 by Jen Beagin
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First Scribner hardcover edition February 2019
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN 978-1-5011-8214-3
ISBN 978-1-5011-8216-7 (ebook)