Ruby Among Us
Page 27
As I pulled I felt an unraveling around me, a breaking free from the past. With it came the memory of Ruby’s smile, her laughter ringing through me, filling my mind.
“Welcome,” I whispered, my words lost in the ringing all around us.
There had been a homecoming at Frances-DiCamillo.
READERS GROUP GUIDE
Chapter 1 begins, “The first person to hold Ruby was the last person to let her go. That was her mother, Kitty.” What do you think Lucy meant by this statement?
Lucy, by no choice of her own, has never lived in a traditional family, but she has been sheltered first by Ruby and then by Kitty. Do you think Lucy calling her mother and grandmother by their first names indicates a healthy adaptation of family for her? a confused sense of family? What is the relationship of Lucy to her mother, Ruby? to her grandmother, Kitty? How are these different or the same?
What is the significance of the names Lucy and Ruby—in general and specifically to each of them?
What do you think of Kitty’s question upon Ruby’s death? How can God allow terrible things to happen? Why doesn’t he protect children from horrible things?
What questions and issues does Lucy tuck away when Ruby dies? Do you think Kitty’s efforts to keep so many secrets were to shield Lucy from pain or to protect herself? Were her intentions noble or selfish?
Could Lucy have become whole without learning the truth about Ruby? about Kitty? Why or why not? Did Kitty ever become whole?
Each woman in the novel has artistic talents and interests—piano, art, quilting, literature. What parallels do you see between Lucy’s artistic pursuits and those of Ruby and Kitty? And what parallels do you see in other aspects of the story?
Why do you think Lucy and Kitty keep so many of Ruby’s things?
How might the references to air and breath and to Ruby’s and Lucy’s asthma inhalers be symbolic?
When Lucy, with Max, first sees the fountain in La Rosaleda, how might its streams be meaningful to her?
What does the scenery in the novel—gardens, vineyards, La Rosaleda—evoke? Do the roses and vines bear any significance to the rest of the story? What parallels do you see?
In the end, what did Lucy mean by “a homecoming”?
TINA ANN FORKNER writes contemporary fiction that challenges and inspires. Raised in northeastern Oklahoma, she graduated with honors in English from California State University, Sacramento, ultimately settling in the wide-open spaces around Cheyenne, Wyoming, where she now resides with her husband and their three children. Tina spends her time working on novels, writing articles, and serving on the Laramie County Library Foundation Board of Directors. Ruby Among Us is her debut novel. Visit her online at www.tinaannforkner.com.
RUBY AMONG US
PUBLISHED BY WATERBROOK PRESS
12265 Oracle Boulevard, Suite 200
Colorado Springs, Colorado 80921
A division of Random House Inc.
Copyright © 2008 Tina Ann Forkner
Emily Dickinson poem #561 is taken from The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, ed. Thomas H. Johnson. Boston, MA: Little Brown and Co.
Ruby Among Us is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published in the United States by WaterBrook Multnomah, an imprint of The Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House Inc., New York.
WATERBROOK and its deer design logo are registered trademarks of WaterBrook Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Forkner, Tina Ann.
Ruby among us : a novel / Tina Ann Forkner. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-49905-9
1. Mothers and daughters—Fiction. 2. Intergenerational relations—Fiction. 3. Domestic fiction. I. Title.
PS3606.O7476R83 2008
813′.6—dc22
2008001777
v3.0