One Minus One (Nancy Pearl’s Book Lust Rediscoveries)
Page 17
The social studies teacher said, “Not with a new house.”
David said, “But there’s fire you can worry about, and if you’re a really good worrier like my folks you can rig up all kinds of alarm systems and gongs and more fire extinguishers than you’ve got furniture to extinguish, and there’s lightning rods, too, and you must build a fallout shelter.”
The social studies teacher began uncertainly to grin.
David said, “I come from a cautious family,” and finished his beer. “My folks’ cellar got flooded just once, but that was quite enough for my father; probably ours is the only house in the world with a bilge-level indicator in the cellar.”
“Does it have a gong?” the social studies teacher asked.
“It has a gong,” David said. “All they need now is a couple of antiaircraft guns on the roof.”
Yet he had bought this house.
I looked at him. There were changes. But, still, he was I and I was he and there were all the years.
Ann walked over to him and took the beer out of his hand and drank. They stood together and watched the people at their party. David said something, and she laughed.
I turned the car in a driveway and drove back to Hull.
Readers’ Guide for
One Minus One
Discussion Questions
What do you think happened to Emily after the end of this book? Did she “get over” David? Did she end up with Cliff?
What makes for a better life, following your heart or your head?
Why didn’t MacDougall call the novel Two Minus One?
What would David’s side of the story be?
How much sympathy did you have for Emily? What did you think about her behavior at the end of the book?
Suggestions for Further Reading
If you liked exploring the dichotomy between decisions made by the heart and those made by the head, and the difficulty of choosing which to follow, try these:
Esker, one of three main characters in Leah Hager Cohen’s Heart, You Bully, You Punk, still believes she’s in love with her college boyfriend nine years after he left her to marry someone else.
Barbara Gowdy’s The Romantic asks this question: What do you do when you love someone who is hell-bent on destroying himself?
In Ann Packer’s The Dive from Clausen’s Pier, a young woman who suspects that she’s fallen out of love with her fiancé has to decide whether or not to break the engagement after he has a life-altering accident.
The eponymous main character of Chaim Potok’s My Name Is Asher Lev must choose between honoring his astounding artistic talent or remaining faithful to the tenets of his religion.
If you enjoyed the small-town New Hampshire setting of One Minus One, try these:
When outsider Naomi Roth discovers the body of a murdered child in the Sabbathday River, unraveling the mystery of who’s responsible touches almost everyone living in the small town of Goddard in Jean Hanff Korelitz’s The Sabbathday River.
Can you ever go home again (particularly where you were an intensely unhappy adolescent)? In The Dearly Departed, Elinor Lipman introduces us to Sunny, who comes home to King George after the death of her mother, Margaret, a woman beloved by the whole town.
Probably one of the truest pictures of coming of age in the 1950s, Ruth Doan MacDougall’s The Cheerleader follows Henrietta Snow through her teen years as she navigates the intricacies of high school, friendship, and first love.
If you like to read novels about male/female relationships, try these:
How hard is it to rekindle an old romance? In The Patron Saint of Unmarried Women, Karl Ackerman humorously tells the story of Jack and Nina’s on-again, off-again romance: once engaged, they’re now both involved with other people.
In Barbara Pym’s No Fond Return of Love, marked by Pym’s trademark wry humor and affection for her main characters, Dulcie Mainwaring thinks she’s found her true love—but can she persuade him that he feels the same?
As a child, outgoing Vaclav’s great desire is to be a famous magician, and Lena, shy and reserved, becomes his trusted assistant and best friend. What happens when, through no fault of their own, they’re separated? Haley Tanner’s debut novel, Vaclav & Lena, sensitively limns this relationship.
About the Author
Photo credit © Tim Cameron
Ruth Doan MacDougall was born and grew up in Laconia, New Hampshire, where she started writing stories at the age of six—and never stopped. She attended Bennington College and graduated from Keene (NH) State College. After living for two years in England, she and her husband, Don, settled down in New Hampshire, where she writes novels, which include the national bestseller The Cheerleader. She also updates her late father’s hiking books. On her Web site, www.ruthdoanmacdougall.com, she writes about life in the countryside.
She is a recipient of the New Hampshire Writers’ Project’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
About Nancy Pearl
Nancy Pearl is a librarian and lifelong reader. She regularly comments on books on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition. Her books include 2003’s Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason, 2005’s More Book Lust: 1,000 New Reading Recommendations for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason; Book Crush: For Kids and Teens: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Interest, published in 2007, and 2010’s Book Lust To Go: Recommended Reading for Travelers, Vagabonds, and Dreamers. Among her many awards and honors are the 2011 Librarian of the Year Award from Library Journal; the 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association; the 2010 Margaret E. Monroe Award from the Reference and Users Services Association of the American Library Association; and the 2004 Women’s National Book Association Award, given to “a living American woman who…has done meritorious work in the world of books beyond the duties or responsibilities of her profession or occupation.”
About Book Lust Rediscoveries
Book Lust Rediscoveries is a series devoted to reprinting some of the best (and now out of print) novels originally published between 1960–2000. Each book is personally selected by Nancy Pearl and includes an introduction by her, as well as discussion questions for book groups and a list of recommended further reading.