by Lisa Wingate
FALAMAT ISHLA CHI-KI, THE EXIT SIGN SAID AS I LEFT, COME BACK AGAIN.
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CONVERSATION GUIDE
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A THOUSAND VOICES
LISA WINGATE
This Conversation Guide is intended to enrich the individual reading experience, as well as encourage us to explore these topics together—because books, and life, are meant for sharing.
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A CONVERSATION WITH LISA WINGATE
Q. Why did you choose to end the Tending Roses series with A Thousand Voices?
A. When I was writing Tending Roses six years ago, I never imagined the story as part of a series. After the book was finished, I found myself occasionally thinking about the characters and wondering how their lives might progress in the future. When the book was published, readers began sending letters, asking what happened to the characters after the story ended. Because I never know what will happen in a story until it’s written, the only way to answer those questions was to write another novel. In the Tending Roses series, each story generated another story, resulting in Good Hope Road, The Language of Sycamores, and Drenched in Light. As the series progressed, Dell was slowly growing up, discovering the world outside her tiny house on Mulberry Creek, learning to leave behind the memories of her mother’s drug addiction and neglect, and to accept the love of a new family. Dell was, in many ways, the catalyst for change in Grandma Rose’s family, and in turn she was changed by Grandma Rose’s family. It seemed only fitting that the series end when Dell had found her way to adulthood and become the woman Grandma Rose believed she could be.
Q. Even though they did not like one another initially, Grandma Rose and Dell share a deep spiritual connection that continues, even after Grandma Rose’s death. Can you explain this connection?
A. Dell’s childhood is a parallel to the childhood of my grandmother, whose stories inspired the creation of Grandma Rose in Tending Roses. Like many who survived the Depression, my grandmother didn’t often talk about the difficulties she faced during childhood. She “married up,” as folks used to call it, and felt she’d risen above a childhood stigmatized by poverty, alcoholism, and family mental illness. She was critical, as is Grandma Rose, of others who couldn’t pull themselves up by their bootstraps and find success in life. During the opening chapters of Tending Roses, Grandma Rose is content to habitually bypass Dell and her family. As is often true in life, the things we are most critical of in other people are the things we like least about ourselves. As Grandma Rose becomes involved with Dell in Tending Roses, she is forced to confront her own past and is reminded of how it feels to be a child living in a hopeless situation. Like a growing number of children today, Dell is a victim of parental drug addiction and neglect. In opening herself to Dell, in becoming determined to change Dell’s existence for the better, Grandma Rose finds a purpose for the last months of her life. In spending time with Grandma Rose, Dell finds security, acceptance, a kindred spirit, and the love she has always yearned for. After Grandma Rose’s death, that special love becomes the gossamer bridge between earth and heaven. Love, not being a physical thing, is not bound by physical constraints, nor does it die when the body dies.
Q. Your novels have frequently been chosen by book clubs and discussion groups. What do you think makes them so popular with groups of women who read together?
A. I can think of no greater gift to be shared among women who love and care for one another than the gift of story. As women, we often isolate ourselves in our problems, keeping concerns tucked down so as not to bother or embarrass anyone. It’s easy to take in others’ lives from the outside and become convinced that everyone else has things figured out, that others’ lives are perfect, that we couldn’t possibly reveal the imperfect parts of ourselves. In fiction, characters are free to be imperfect, to struggle, to fail and try again. In living through the characters’ struggles, in discussing them among friends, we’re free to also share parts of ourselves. My grandmother used to say that a burden shared is a burden halved.
Q. When you are speaking to audiences and communicating with readers and booksellers about your writing, what comments most deeply affect you?
A. All of them. I love hearing from readers who have enjoyed journeying through a story with me and found the books meaningful in their own lives. I hope others are inspired to share their own stories, both real and fictional, with friends, family, and the rest of the world. Each of us is a product of an individual set of experiences, a completely unique work of art. Only when we understand one another’s stories can we really understand one another.
Q. A Thousand Voices is your eighth published novel. What are you working on next?
A. A new novel, of course. When it’s finished, I’ll undoubtedly begin to wonder what the characters are doing with their lives now that the book is over, which will generate another story, and another, and another. Readers sometimes ask if I ever worry that I’ll run out of ideas, but in truth, it’s exactly the reverse—I worry that I’ll never be able to write all of the stories I’d like to write. Everywhere I go, I find little slices of life, tiny windows into the hearts and lives of amazing, wonderful, interesting people. So often, those slices of life become the seeds of a story. The process of wondering what’s behind the window, of attempting to mentally step into another person’s shoes, is the soil that germinates the seed. Some seeds grow faster than others, but it’s always fun to tend the garden and see what will develop.
Q. What is your ultimate dream, as a writer and as a person?
A. To make a difference to someone, somewhere, in any little way I can.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. Why, after years of living in a happy, supportive home, is Dell still haunted by her past? Why does she risk opening old wounds in order to search for the truth about her biological mother and father?
2. What do you think James and Karen would have said if Dell had, at the outset, been honest about her desire to find her biological family? Is it natural for adoptive parents to feel hurt or threatened by such desires?
3. As young adults, both Dell and Shasta have made choices in opposition to the desires of their parents. To what degree should parents, grandparents, or guardians attempt to control grown children? Should young adults be allowed to make mistakes and suffer the consequences? How have you dealt with this issue in your own family?
4. While in Tuskahoma, Dell experiences both rejection and acceptance due to her Choctaw heritage and physical appearance. Have you had similar experiences in your own life? Have you ever been accepted or rejected based on your appearance or your identification as part of a specific group? How did this make you feel?
5. In advising Jace about Autumn’s grief, Dell says that, for years after Grandma Rose’s death, she felt Grandma Rose nearby, protecting and guiding her. Is this imagination? Reality? Have you ever felt as if a lost loved one were helping or guiding you?
6. At twenty, Dell and Shasta have taken very different paths, yet the two young women look at each other’s lives with longing. Can you identify with the longings Dell and Shasta experience? Have you had difficulty choosing among, or planning the timing of, education, career, and family in your own life?
7. Even before discovering connections to her own biological family, Dell begins to feel grounded in the roots of her Choctaw heritage. What elements of your own family history make you feel grounded?
8. Jace and Dell experience a strong connection and an undeniable attraction to each other, yet Jace chooses not to pursue the relationship due to their age difference. Is his choice the right one? Should age difference matter in relationships? Why or why not?
9. As Dell leaves the Choctaw council house grounds to return to Kansas City, the future seems to be opening before her, filled with new choices and possibilities. What do you think she will choose? What will she do next? Will she return to Tuskahoma or move on to Juilliard?
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Lisa Wingate, A Thousand Voices