Lainey had a fairly good idea. She stood up, Rex hopping off the couch behind her. He’d taken to following her around like a shadow. Ever since they’d stayed with her parents for that month, he’d been completely disoriented. She picked up the phone just as the answering machine was about to click into action.
It took her a moment to calm the excited voice on the other end of the line. “Evie? That is you, isn’t it? Are you all right? Do you know what time it is here?”
Sitting beside Joseph on their sofa, Eva just laughed. “I’m fine, Lainey, really. And I’m sorry about the time, but I had to ring. To ask you something very important.”
Lainey waited.
“It’s about you and that pink taffeta dress…”
Lainey’s shriek down the phone was all the answer Eva needed.
for Mary, Lea, Marie and Maura
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to my two families—the Mclnerneys in Clare, Ade laide, Jamestown, Hobart, and Melbourne, and the Drislanes in Ireland and Germany; my two publishers—everyone at Penguin in Australia, especially Clare Forster, Ali Watts, Meredith Rose, and Rebecca Steinberg, and to the Poolbeg team in Ireland, especially Paula Campbell and Gaye Short-land.
Thanks also to Max and Jean Fatchen, Karen O’Connor, Bart Meldau, Mikaella Clements, Rob and Stephanie Mclnerney, Steven ‘Millipede’ Milanese, Annie O’Neill, Janet Grecian, Christopher Pearce, Marea Fox, Jane Melross, Helen Chryssides, Leonie Boothby, Fiona Gillies, Anne Pett, Julie-Ann Finney, Mary Conlon, Eilish Conlon, Niamh Naughton, and Eimear Duggan.
Big thanks to my friend and agent Eveleen Coyle in Dublin.
And once again, special thanks to two people—to my sister Maura for her insight, encouragement, and patience, and to my husband, John, for all that and more.
ALSO BY MONICA MCINERNEY
The Faraday Girls
Family Baggage
The Alphabet Sisters
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MONICA MCINERNEY grew up in a family of seven children in the Clare Valley of South Australia, where her father was the railway stationmaster. She is the author of six internationally bestselling novels, including The Faraday Girls, Family Baggage, The Alphabet Sisters, Spin the Bottle, and A Taste for It and the novella Odd One Out. She now lives in Dublin with her husband. Visit her website at www.monicamcinerney.com.
UPSIDE DOWN INSIDE OUT
Monica McInerney
A READER’S GUIDE
A CONVERSATION WITH MONICA MCINERNEY
Random House Reader’s Circle: What was the writing experience like for Upside Down Inside Out? Have your methods or approaches regarding writing changed over the years?
Monica McInerney: With Upside Down Inside Out, I decided I wanted to follow two main characters, letting the reader in on both of their lives, watching them grow closer and closer, even as their lives and lies got more mixed up. I wrote it as it unfolds for the reader—layer on layer, switching back and forth between Eva and Joseph’s stories, and not sure myself until the end how and when Eva would tell the truth about herself, and also how she would learn the truth about Joseph.
I still like to write that way, learning about the characters and their stories as I go along so no, I don’t think my writing methods have changed all that much from one book to the other. I’m also still just as interested in the layers of secrets and misunderstandings we humans surround ourselves with. I find secrets, lies, mishaps, and misunderstandings make such wonderful material for fiction, especially set against a backdrop of a complicated family or a growing romance.
RHRC: Eva and Lainey, while both delightful, compelling characters, are very different from each other. Do you see yourself in either of them? Or do your characters tend to be pure invention?
MM: My characters’ emotions are definitely autobiographical. I’ve experienced all that Eva and Lainey go through: fear, happiness, jealousy, frustration, anger, love, hurt, misunderstandings, etc., but the actual events they go through in the novel are pure invention.
RHRC: One of this novel’s main themes is seeking happiness—through work, love, travel, friendship—and it’s inspiring how both Eva and Joseph change their lives throughout the course of the narrative. Do you think it’s as possible in real life?
MM: I do. I love the endless possibility of life, how one small step can set many other events in motion, how taking what seems like a big risk can sometimes bring so many wonderful and unexpected returns.
RHRC: You so deftly and accurately portray the tension and jealousy Eva occasionally feels toward Lainey. Why do you think friendships between women are often so complicated?
MM: Women invest a great deal in their friends, I think—particularly as young women, when we are still learning how we feel about so many big issues—career, relationships, families—while at the same time forming our own personalities. We “trial” many of our bigger feelings on our friends, wanting and expecting 100 percent loyalty and support and understanding alongside the fun and the laughter and the big nights out. That can mean wonderful, close relationships, but the stronger the bonds, the higher the expectations—and sometimes the bigger the disappointment if it all goes wrong.
RHRC: You wonderfully evoke Ireland and Australia in the book, and are obviously able to do so because you’ve lived in both places. Is there one country you prefer over the other? What are your favorite haunts in each? Why is travel such an integral part of so many of your books?
MM: I’m very glad, and fortunate, that I can think of both Australia and Ireland as “my” countries, though for the past six years, practically speaking, Ireland has been home. Poor Ireland gets bad press for its weather, but I have to confess it’s one of the things I love most about living here. I am a cold-weather girl, and the longer I’m away from Australia, the harder I find the heat there. I love many things about both places—the space and the light of Australia, the history and quirkiness of Ireland. My favorite places in each constantly change—I love the mood and the liveliness of Melbourne, the ancient and beautiful Flinders Ranges of South Australia, and the big, empty beaches you can find all around Australia. In Ireland, I especially love the wildness of County Donegal and also the unexpected treats of the Phoenix Park, with its open fields, deer, chestnut trees, and squirrels, right in the center of Dublin.
All of my books have a strong focus on travel because I know from firsthand experience how it can change your life. I love the adventure and uncertainty of it, in real life and in fiction—taking a person out of their normal life and dropping them into new surroundings immediately creates all sorts of dramatic possibilities.
RHRC: This novel has a sequel: Spin the Bottle. Did you write Upside Down Inside Out intending to follow some of the same characters in the next book, or was that a decision you made later? Do you ever consider borrowing characters from your previous novels for any of your future books?
MM: About two-thirds of the way through writing Upside Down Inside Out, I decided that my next novel (which would become Spin the Bottle) would be a sequel. I found Lainey so intriguing that I wanted to know more about her. I also wanted to explore the Irish emigrants’ experience, how it feels to return home after years away from Ireland. Lainey and her family were the perfect candidates.
I haven’t used any other recurring characters in my books since then, though wine from the Clare Valley (my hometown) does pop up in most of my books, even in just a passing reference.
RHRC: Do you plan out the entire plots of your novels before you begin writing? Or do they get figured out as you go along? Is this difficult if you have a logistically complex story such as Upside Down?
MM: I have the scaffolding, or the skeleton, in place in my mind when I start writing, but once I start I’m often surprised by the twists and turns that appear and the directions in which the characters go, physically and emotionally. I felt like a puppeteer with Upside Down sometimes, making Eva and Joe do one thing first, and then head in another direction soon after. It’s a very
enjoyable feeling.
RHRC: Reading your novels is like an escape: Readers can travel and fall in love vicariously. Is that your intent when you set out to write a novel, or does it vary for each book? What do you most want your readers to come away with after finishing Upside Down Inside Out?
MM: I hope my readers feel like they’re right there with my characters, traveling, having adventures, making mistakes, falling in love, experiencing all the twists and roundabouts of life. It’s how I love to feel when I’m reading a book and it’s something I try hard to make happen with my own stories. I hope readers close the covers on Upside Down and feel like they’ve been on that journey with Eva and Joseph, and know that despite all the misunderstandings and mishaps, the two of them will be okay and that there’s been a rich and satisfying end to their story. And of course, if my readers really want to find out what happens next, they can also read Spin the Bottle!
RHRC: Are you working on a new book?
MM: Yes, I’m in the early “thinking” stage of my next novel. It means I’m doing lots of daydreaming about plots, collecting possible names for characters, deciding on locations, and soon the research and writing will begin too.
READING GROUP QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION
1. Whom do you relate to more—Eva or Lainey? Who do you think you’d be better friends with?
2. Why do you think it was so difficult for Eva and Joseph to reveal their true identities to each other? Have you ever been in a similar situation?
3. In our modern society, people are working increasingly longer hours until they have no semblance of a normal life, like Joseph does. Why do you think this is so? What inspired Joseph to change his life?
4. Why does Eva put up with people she’d rather not be around, like Dermot and Greg? Is she just too nice, or does she sell herself short? Where do you think her self-doubt stems from?
5. “Pretending to be Niamh made [Eva] feel different. It was like slipping on a confidence cloak, an invisible shield between her and the rest of the world” (chapter 22). Have you ever wanted to assume a new identity? If so, why, and under what circumstances?
6. Is Eva’s jealousy and suspicion of Lainey justified?
7. Travel is a main component of this novel, and acts as an opportunity for second chances. What is it about being in a new place that makes people shed their skins and act differently? What is the most enlightening travel experience you’ve ever had?
8. How do you think Joseph’s estrangement from his father has affected him? Do you blame his parents for not telling him the truth all this time?
9. Eva finally comes clean about her identity to Joseph, and is able to be her true self—but do you think she changed at all over the course of the trip regardless?
10. When Joseph finds out his father is an artist, his own artistic tendencies suddenly make sense. Do you think artistic talent is genetically inherited? What tendencies have been passed down to you from your family?
11. How does this novel compare to other books by Monica McInerney that you’ve read?
12. What did you take away from Upside Down Inside Out? Were you transported? Satisfied? Inspired?
Read on for an excerpt from
Lola’s Secret
by Monica McInerney
Published by Ballantine Books
Chapter One
EVEN AFTER more than sixty years of living in Australia, eighty-four-year-old Lola Quinlan couldn’t get used to a hot Christmas. Back home in Ireland, December had meant short days, darkness by four P.M., open fires, and frosty walks. Snow if they were lucky. Her mother had loved following Christmas traditions, many of them passed down by her own mother. The tree decorated a week before Christmas Day and not a day earlier. Carols in the chilly church before Midnight Mass. Lola’s favorite tradition of all had been the placing of a lit candle in each window of the house on Christmas Eve. It was a symbolic welcome to Mary and Joseph, but also a message to any passing stranger that they would be made welcome too. As a child, she’d begged to be the one to light the candles, carefully tying back the curtains to avoid the chance of fire. Afterward, she’d stood outside with her parents, their breath three frosty clouds, gazing up at their two-story house transformed into something almost magical.
She was a long way from Ireland and dark, frosty Decembers now. About 9,941 miles and ninety-five degrees Fahrenheit, to be exact. The temperature in the Clare Valley of South Australia was already heading toward 104 degrees and it wasn’t even ten A.M. yet. The hills that were visible through the window were burned golden by the sun, not a blade of green grass to be seen. There was no sound of carols or tinkling sleigh bells. The loudest noise was coming from the air conditioner behind her. If she did take a notion to start lighting candles and placing them in all the windows, there was every chance the fire brigade would come roaring up the hill, sirens blaring and water hoses at the ready. At last count, the Valley View Motel that Lola called home had more than sixty windows. Imagine that, Lola mused. Sixty candles ablaze at once. It would be quite a sight. Almost worth the trouble it would cause …
“Are you plotting mischief? I know that look.”
At the sound of her son’s voice, Lola turned from her seat at one of the dining room tables and smiled. “I wouldn’t dream of it. You know me, harmless as a kitten.”
Jim simply raised an eyebrow, before pulling out a chair and sitting down opposite his mother. “I was talking about you with Bett and Carrie today. We’ve all agreed it’s not too late to change your mind.”
“About what? My lunch order? It’s Friday. I always have fish on Fridays.” Another tradition from her days in Ireland, even if she’d long ago stopped following any religion.
“About you sending us away and taking charge of a fifteen-room motel on your own for five days. At Christmas. At the age of eighty-four.”
“You make me sound quite mad.”
“I don’t, actually. You manage it perfectly well on your own.”
Lola stood, reached for her stick, and drew herself up to her full five foot nine inches, fixing her sixty-four-year-old son with the gaze that had worked to silence him as a child, but hadn’t had much effect for many years now. There was a brief staring contest and then she started to laugh. “Of course I’m mad, darling. You don’t live as long as I have if you’ve got any sense. What’s the point? Hips giving up, hearing going, wits long gone—”
“So you admit it, then? Shall I call off our driving trip? Tell Bett and Carrie to cancel their holidays too? Say that you’d gone temporarily insane and you didn’t mean it?”
“And what? Let you and Geraldine down? Let down my poor adorable granddaughters and their even more adorable children, not to mention their handsome husbands and their handsome husbands’ families? Never. In fact, why don’t you leave now, all of you? Begone. Leave an old lady in relative peace. Literally.”
“That’s what I’m worried about. What if we’re not leaving you in peace?”
“It’s the middle of one of the hottest summers on record. We haven’t had a drop of rain in years. The Valley is beautiful, yes, but as dry as a bone. Who on earth is going to choose to spend Christmas in a parched country motel?” She opened the bookings register to the week of December twenty-fifth and placed it in front of her son. “See? Not a sinner. Or a saint. It’ll just be poor old me rattling around the place on my own, while the turkey stays happily frozen, the puddings soak in their brandy for another twelve months, and you and Geraldine and the girls hopefully get to have a proper Christmas break.”
Jim flicked through the pages, frowning. “It’s odd, isn’t it? This time last year we were much busier. I thought we’d have at least one booking, that you’d have someone to talk to.”
“I’ll be grand, darling. I’ll have the radio for company. They have lovely programs on Christmas Day for lonely, abandoned old women like myself.” She laughed at the expression on his face. “I’m teasing you, Jim. Don’t get guilty on me and insist on staying, plea
se. You know I enjoy my own company. Now, shouldn’t you be helping Geraldine pack your bags? Getting the tires pumped up? Checking the oil? A driving holiday won’t organize itself.”
Jim was still distracted by the empty bookings register. “That’s the last time I try an online advertising campaign. Everybody kept telling me it’s the only way people find motel accommodation these days, but it obviously didn’t work for us. Our computer problems haven’t helped, either.”
“Never mind, darling. Worry about your advertising next year. Off you go and leave me alone. I have eighty-four action-packed years I want to sit here and reminisce about before I go do my shift at the charity shop.”
“I think you should cut down your hours there, by the way.”
She put her fingers in her ears. “Not listening, Jim. Reminiscing.” She shut her eyes, tight, like a child, until he left the room.
After a moment, she opened one eye to be sure he’d gone. Thank God. Any longer and she’d have been forced to tell him the truth. That in fact his online advertising campaign had worked wonders. She’d been receiving email inquiries all week. Not on the motel computer, of course. It had been broken—been “down,” in the computer parlance she loved using—for the past four days. Her official story to her fortunately distracted son and his wife was that the server was having problems. (“Server!” she’d said, pretending more amazement. “In my day that word meant maid or waitress!”) The truth was she’d pulled out the Internet cable on the office computer. Hidden it, too, to be doubly sure they stayed offline. The last thing she needed was Jim or Geraldine seeing the emails asking for more information about their Christmas special offer. As it happened, they didn’t know much about what that Christmas special offer comprised, either. Why bother them, when they were in almost-holiday mode? When even the hint that there could be a Christmas guest or two at the Valley View Motel might make them change their minds about going away?
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