by Sandi Ward
Father calls me Boo, or Fat Cat, or Fatty. Sometimes he scratches between my ears, especially when I am sitting up on the back of the couch and looking down at him.
I catch him looking at me on occasion. When Mother lived here, and he looked at me, I was never sure what he was thinking. But now I think he remembers. There’s Mother’s child. There’s Mother’s cat. These are the creatures I need to take care of now. We are familiar to him, and he takes comfort in us.
Before, with Mother, he was always worried. He still worries, but maybe a little less.
I keep an eye on him. He’s my best friend, after all.
Finn is a sweet baby. He looks at me with a friendly face, just like Father does. He likes to pet me and see how it feels to sink his tiny hands into my silky fur. I can’t wait for him to get a little older.
I worried about Finn when he was very small. I thought he would not thrive, like the runt of a litter. He has surprised me. He is a big, strong, handsome, and bright-eyed baby.
Sometimes in the morning, Father brings Finn into our bed with a little book that has fabrics he can touch. Father will put Finn’s hand on me, and together they will stroke my soft back. Finn may not be able to hear my purring, but I’m sure he can feel it. Finn smiles his toothy grin and looks happily up at Father. Father puts Finn’s little hand up on his face to feel his own whiskers, and Finn squeals.
Father also keeps a ball on his bedside table. It is a hard, white ball with red slashes sewn through it. He runs Finn’s little fingers over the seams. The ball is kept right next to the wooden cross.
Both of these items seem to hold some mystical meaning to them. They certainly worship that ball.
When Mother visits every now and again, I let her pet me. I enjoy her exquisitely gentle and precise touch, while it lasts. But I also have Mary and Charlotte and Jimmy and Finn and Mahmee and Aruna, and all of my humans are good to me.
When the afternoon sun comes through the front window and makes a bright square on the floor, I lie down, spread out my fat stomach, and purr.
Yes, life is short.
My life will be the shortest of all, but such is life for a cat.
Acknowledgments
Thank you to Michael, Hunter, and Summer. They allow me time and space to write. It is nice to live with creative people who are full of ideas and encouragement.
A huge thank-you to my super-smart agent, Stacy Testa, at Writers House, for holding my hand every step of the way and answering all of my questions. I am also very lucky to work with editor John Scognamiglio and an amazing team at Kensington Publishing. Their enthusiasm is contagious! I appreciate their hard work and dedication to the book.
I have appreciated all of my writing teachers along the way, including Tim Averill and John Stuart at Manchester High School, Tufts professor Jay Cantor, and my Creative Writing professor E. L. Doctorow at NYU.
Thanks to my early readers, editors, and supporters of this book, including Susan Breen, Brenda Windberg, and Debbie Goelz. A shout-out to all of the wonderful writers in my author groups, the Algonkian Round Table and ’17 Scribes.
I’d like to thank The Avengers, code name for my mom friends who force me to leave my computer once in a while and get out of the house. Thanks also to my mom and dad, who nurtured my love of cats and books, and made sure I always had both.
My big, black cat Winnie was my muse for this book. I imagine she thinks she is Bagheera to my Mowgli as she follows me around the house. She guards me carefully.
I love hearing from readers! You can find many ways to connect with me on my Web Site: www.sandiwardbooks.com.
Thanks for reading!
A READING GROUP GUIDE
THE
ASTONISHING
THING
Sandi Ward
ABOUT THIS GUIDE
The suggested questions are included to enhance
your group’s reading of Sandi Ward’s
The Astonishing Thing!
Discussion Questions
1. Were you as surprised as Boo was to find out where her mother, Carrie Sullivan, was living after she moved out? What did you think had happened to Carrie? Did your guess change over the course of the story, until you learned the truth?
2. Like a child, Boo had some understanding of what was going on in her family but didn’t always have the full picture. Was Boo a narrator you empathized with? Did you agree with her judgment most of the time?
3. Did your opinion of Carrie change as the book progressed? Did it change more than once? If so, how?
4. Which teenager did you think was more resilient after Carrie left, Mary or Jimmy? Did either of them react the way you think you would have if your mother moved out when you were that age? Jimmy and Mary continue to talk on the phone to and text their mother after she moves out; does today’s technology make it easier for kids to keep in touch with their parents? Do you think they would have kept in such close touch with Tommy if he had been the one to leave?
5. Do you know anyone like Tommy Sullivan, who felt he needed to hide family problems from the outside world? Why do you think Tommy was so distrustful of people who weren’t in his immediate family? Was it primarily due to a misunderstanding of mental illness, or the stigma attached to it, or a fear of doctors and hospitals that stopped him from getting more help? Were his fears justified? Would you feel the same way in his situation?
6. When a family member has mental illness, it is important to “see the person, not the illness,” even when the person’s words and behavior are hurtful. How hard do you imagine it is to do that? Was Boo able to do that? Were the other members of the Sullivan family able to do that?
7. Families and caregivers of persons with an illness often forget to—or don’t have the time and ability to—take care of themselves. What could the Sullivan family have done better to help Carrie, and to help themselves? Do you and your family have anything you do to alleviate stress during tough times?
8. Do you think Tommy’s relationship with Charlotte will last over time? Why or why not? Why do you think Charlotte does not say “I love you” back to Tommy when he says it to her for the first time? Have you ever been in a relationship where you felt the other person was rushing into things? How did you resolve it?
9. Was Tommy’s mother helpful to him, or did she make things harder for him? In what ways? Is there anything you think she could have done differently?
10. Do you think part of Tommy’s desire for Carrie to come back was driven by his insecurities as a parent? Do you know anyone who has unexpectedly become a single parent and experienced similar doubts? Does Tommy provide his children with the love and support they need? Do his children to some degree end up parenting him?
11. Do you think pets provide comfort and stress relief in families? How so? Have your pets ever helped you through a tough time in your life?
12. Discuss the novel’s title, The Astonishing Thing. What was the most astonishing thing that happened in the story? Does more than one thing come to mind?
Turn the page
for an exciting Q&A
with Sandi Ward!
How did you come up with the idea for The Astonishing Thing?
The idea of writing from a cat’s point of view came to me after I read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. The Curious Incident is an amazing book that allows the reader to get inside the head of an autistic young man who looks at the world from a unique perspective. I loved the idea of using an unconventional narrator.
I decided to write a story from a cat’s point of view as she tries to solve a mystery. In this case, Boo’s mother goes out one day and doesn’t return. Boo wants to know: What happened to my mother?
As I wrote more of the story, I realized that Boo’s point of view was similar to that of a perceptive child. She understands a lot of what’s going on with her humans—but not everything. Boo doesn’t know much about mental illness, or divorce, or what exactly is wrong with baby Finn. So the
reader must go on a journey with Boo, piecing together clues until the story becomes clear.
How easy was it to write a novel from a cat’s point of view? Did you have to do any sort of research?
It was easy to write scenes where Boo is observing her family interacting. I just had to get her down on the floor, or up on the back of the couch, and make sure she was physically located somewhere a cat would want to be. It was a little harder to make sure Boo was a character who had an active role within the bigger story. Let’s face it—cats are limited in what they can do. Boo is not a big golden retriever who can pull a drowning boy out of a lake. But Boo can climb into a lap to comfort her humans and give them unconditional love when they experience emotional highs and lows. She can demand to be noticed, tipping over a photograph to get attention, or hiss and scratch to make her opinions known. Boo considers herself to be an important member of the family, no matter how small she is.
My only “research” was observing my cat Winnie. For example, the boom boom boom boom sound Boo makes while going down the stairs is the noise Winnie makes when she’s bounding down our stairs in the dead of night.
As far as Boo’s personality goes, I think most people imagine their cats to be devoted and affectionate at heart—but with a little bit of attitude. Boo loves her family, but she’s also sarcastic and judgmental at times, and that gives her voice some humor.
How long did it take you to write the book?
I wrote the first draft quickly, in a few months, but it was too short to be a novel. I then took a few additional months to expand the story to book length. I always spend more time editing than writing, so I went on making revisions for over a year while at the same time starting new projects.
Were any particular parts of the book easier to write than others? Harder?
Tommy’s scenes were the most emotionally draining to write. Carrie’s medications don’t always work well. Her words and behavior sometimes break Tommy’s heart. But Tommy doesn’t blame Carrie for being ill. Instead, he blames himself for being unable to manage her better. And he definitely doesn’t like talking about it! So I needed to portray how trapped and hopeless he felt, and sometimes I felt like I was stuck right there with him.
I enjoyed writing scenes with Carrie, because she brings a certain energy with her when she enters a room—she’s often very up or very down. It was important to me that readers see her as a complete person, to get a glimpse of her strengths as a wife and mother as well as her more challenging behaviors. I hope that comes across.
The easier scenes to write were those involving the two teenagers, Jimmy and Mary. They were the most fun to spend time with. Readers often tell me that Jimmy is their favorite character. He’s easygoing and funny, and handles his problems with a lightness and grace that I think people would like to have themselves. I have teenagers at home, and I know from experience that they can be very resilient.
The ending was also satisfying to write. While the novel explores the darker ways mental illness can tear a family apart, I hope it also sends the message that families can repair themselves. It’s a story about being strong enough to get help and make changes, even when those changes are painful.
Are you working on a new novel? If so, can you tell us anything about it?
My next novel is also told from the point of view of a cat! But it is a different cat, named Lily, and tells the story of a different family.
Just as Mother was Boo’s favorite person in the world, Lily has a best friend: a sensitive, fourteen-year-old boy named Charlie. Lily sees that Charlie has bruises he hides from his family, and she assumes that he is being bullied in school. She makes it her mission to find out who is hurting Charlie and help him put a stop to it. But along the way, Lily discovers that her family has even more pressing issues to deal with.
Like The Astonishing Thing, it’s a story about a family that falls apart and must figure out how to put itself back together. There will be drama, romance, and I hope a few surprises along the way.
So, the most important question: Are you a cat person or a dog person?
Ha ha. This is, of course, the most important question!
I grew up with cats. Unfortunately, the woods of northern Massachusetts are not the most hospitable place for cats to live. We had one cat killed by a neighborhood dog, and another who fell through thin ice. But our next two cats lived many years.
Right now we have one cat, Winnie (who stays indoors), and one dog, Jasper. I don’t want to insult Jasper by saying I’m a cat person. Yet the truth is, Jasper is a small, fluffy lap dog and a couch potato. He’s about as close to a cat as a dog can get.
Author’s Note
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), one in five American adults experiences some form of mental illness in any given year, and one in every twenty adults lives with a serious mental health condition like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or long-term depression. Yet less than half receive mental health care.
If you are one of the millions who face mental illness, or you care for someone who does, you know that it can be hard to talk about. Everyone’s journey and experience is different. It might feel like no one else could possibly understand what you are going through. But you are not alone.
Help is available, not just for those with mental illness but also for their loved ones. Please take care of yourself. It’s important to manage stress and find support. NAMI provides information and suggestions on their Web site and may be a good place to start:
www.nami.org
NAMI helpline: 800-950-NAMI