Isn’t life grand?
* * * * *
Acknowledgments
I’ve been in many book clubs over the years. Each one is unique. In each club I shared stories, fictional and personal, none of which are included in this book! Rather, it is the sense of camaraderie, support and friendship that I’ve shared within my book clubs that I’ve tried to convey in this story. For that—and so much more—I’d like to thank:
Wednesday Night Book Club
Judy Beck, Paulette Collias, Ruth Ellen Cryns, Cindy Grotefeld, Anna Maria Kostecki, Jean Magee, Marguerite Martino, Mary Lyn Owen, Susan Pagadala, Mary Pellegrini, Carmel Perrone Pearson, Diana Rasche, Roberta Scotto, Joan Slanina and Grace Weber.
Charleston Book Club
Ann Apple, Dottie Ashley, Ann Bartko, Jan Buvinger, Betsy Clary, Cat Hancock, Jeanne Holladay, Judy L. McMahon, Laura Moore, Rhetta Mendelsohn, Susan Parsons, Cynthia Pearlman, Sherry Remillard, Susan Rosen, Ann Stein and Jane Steele.
Island Book Club
Judy Boehm, Marsha Byrd, Mary Hull Frazier, Nancy Hancock, Tish Lynn, Martha Miller, Paula Skinner and Lucy Stackpole.
And to my Gems, Leah Greenberg, Linda Plunkett, Susan Romaine and Emily Abedon.
Questions for Discussion
The books, poems and verses selected for each chapter were chosen by Monroe to structure the novel around the “Book Club” theme. How does the selected book or poem at the chapter heading influence the action within the chapter? How does this structure affect the novel as a whole?
In Chapter 16, the women offer several reasons why they think Doris might be depressed. Are they accurate? How well does the reader know Doris by this point? Have you recognized these symptoms in women you know?
Midge states to the club, “I’m not sure it’s always a good thing to confront friends.” She is referring to honesty, yet Midge is indirectly confrontational with barbs and humor. Discuss various forms of confrontation between the friends in this book.
Women are traditionally acknowledged to be skilled in making and sustaining relationships. How do the relationships between the women of the club affect their individual relationships with husbands, children, loved ones?
Gabriella states in Chapter 16 that “Books can really influence us.” Throughout the novel, the books the women read in the club influence them. Cite examples. Do you find this to be true in your life? After Annie’s surgery, the group wants to choose a book to help Annie through her upcoming struggles. How can books promote growth and healing? What do you think of the club’s desire to read and discuss the Bible?
“She heard the calling in her heart, in her soul, in every fiber of her being.” This describes Eve in Chapter 9. What is the calling Eve hears? How does it compare to the calling Buck hears in Jack London’s novel The Call of the Wild?
“When a lovely woman stoops to folly and... Paces about her room again, alone.” How does this line from “The Waste Land” describe Annie and her behavior at the Bridges’ party and the aftermath? Doris? What lessons did they eventually learn from these “follies”?
Annie tells Doris in Chapter 14, “So many women give, give, until they have nothing left. Then one day they wake up and look in the mirror and don’t know their own reflection.” Later in the book, Doris remembers this statement and looks into the mirror (Chapter 16). Describe her reaction to her own reflection at this important turning point. Doris refers to this statement again in her letter to the book club (Chapter 18). How has the character grown and evolved in the time between these references?
“Weeping comes in the evening, but joy comes in the morning,” refers to the epiphany Eve experiences in Chapter 15 when she realizes truths about herself, her husband and their marriage. What were these truths? How is this a turning point for the character Eve? Discuss the observation: “Now she was left to regret having lost the opportunity to find that young man again in the middle-aged one, the dreamer she’d fallen in love with.” Do you think this is a common observation for women who have been married for many years?
In Chapter 16, Eve states, “I believe that all women have these little epiphanies all throughout their lives.” Do you agree and if so, discuss what these epiphanies are. At what points do you believe women experience them? If not, why not?
In Chapter 16, Doris is alone with “the yellow wallpaper.” Later, she feels that “she wasn’t running away from anything, except perhaps the yellow wallpaper.” This refers to a short story written in 1892, “The Yellow Wall-Paper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. This story powerfully traces a woman’s descent into madness. How can a woman’s home become a prison rather than a sanctuary? Doris believes “she was left alone polishing furniture in this formidable, huge, empty house. Without a room of her own.” Compare and contrast Doris’s mood and the thoughts in the cottage versus at her large home in the city.
Three heroines from classic novels are discussed by the book club in Chapter 16: Emma from Madame Bovary, Anna from Anna Karenina, and Edna from The Awakening. What tragic ending did these three women share? Discuss the similarities and disparities between their situations and the choices each of them made. How did the social and moral conventions of their time period influence their choices? Might their choices have been different had these women lived in the twenty-first century? Consider Doris’s choice in the lake in light of this discussion.
Mothers and daughters are a continuing thread in this novel. Compare and contrast the relationships between Eve and Bronte, then Midge and Edith.
In the Epilogue, Eve states how tragedies “serve to box us in as clearly as any clever plot structure, forcing us to make a choice.” At the climax a character reveals her true self. Trace and discuss how each of the women in the club were forced to make a choice. Did you agree with their choice? What did Annie’s choice by the poolside reveal about her character?
The characters we care most about are often those we most identify with. Which character did you identify with? In the novel, the characters were not only good and loving, but at times, spiteful and angry. How did the characters’ flaws bring them to life as much as their goodness?
How did Midge feel she was different from the other women of the group? At a turning point, Midge recognized her need for intimacy in her life. Discuss the term “intimacy” and how it applies to her choice.
This novel is a story of women facing change: in their looks, in their health, in their relationships, in their goals and dreams and in their slef-perceptions. How have some of the characters moved from dependence, accomodation and denial to independence, original thought and acceptance? Do you think this is a natural evolution that comes with age or not? Discuss the evolution of Eve, Doris, Annie, Midge and Gabriella from the first chapter, “End of Story,” to the last, “New Beginnings,” and why Eve claims “there is no resolution.”
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ISBN-13: 9781460322499
THE BOOK CLUB
Copyright © 1999 by Mary Alice Kruesi
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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