The Instant When Everything is Perfect

by Jessica Barksdale Inclan

  When Robert first meets Mia, he seems to recognize her as a “kindred soul.” Jessica Inclan writes: “’There you are,’ he almost said. ‘Where the hell have you been?’” (Page ___) Do you think that immediate sense of recognition is a common experience among people who fall in love? If so, how do you explain it?

  Mia’s younger, high-school-age son brings the family situation to a crisis by telling his mother that his father is having an affair. Do you find this development believable? realistic? Are you upset by the boys’ direct involvement in their parents’ adultery?

  Is the end of the novel satisfying? If so, why? If not, how would you change it?

  Jessica Inclan devotes quite a few pages to dramatizing the doctors’ appointments and medical treatments that involve an entire family when one member is suffering from a serious illness. Discuss the family dynamics described in the novel. How do your own experiences compare?

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