Saturday, January 5, 2013

One Amazing Thing - January 2013

January 2013 Book Selection

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group will meet Thursday, January 10th at 7 p.m. in the meeting room of the Fairfax Library to discuss our January book: One Amazing Thing by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni.

Discussion questions are below.

Here are some links for additional background and information:


A nice, succinct analysis of Chaucer’s work

TED talk by author Chimamanda Adachie  titled, “The Danger of a Single Story” (about 18  minutes long)

TheMoth is an amazing program that encourages regular people to get up and tell their story (usually in 10 minutes or less.) They’re very compelling.
If you use iTunes you can download their podcasts. You can also watch some of the stories on YouTube.



Coming up, we have the following titles to look forward to reading:

Please note that the next 3 meetings will be held on Tuesdays!


Tues., February 12   The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
Tues., March 12        Train Dreams by Denis Johnson
Tues., April 16          Packing for Mars by Mary Roach (OneBook/One Marin selection)


Thanks for reading with us. I look forward to seeing you at the Fairfax Library.

Beth Bailey-Gates
Friends of the Fairfax Library


DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
One Amazing Thing by Chitra Divakaruni

1. If you were to tell the story of one amazing thing that had happened in your life, what would it be? Would it be a memory of a gift, an experience, a person that you met, or an event that you witnessed? What made it amazing, and how did it change your life?
2. Would the experience of reading One Amazing Thing have been different had the narrative been from the point of view of just one person, or if the story was told by an outside figure removed from the events in the book?
3. If you were trapped in a similar dangerous situation as the characters in One Amazing Thing, how do you think you’d react? Was there an action or behavior by a character that resonated with you?
4. Out of the nine people in the visa office, did you identify with any in particular? Which one(s) and why?
5. Why was each character’s “one amazing thing” remarkable?
6. The book begins and ends with Uma Sinha, the graduate student. Why did the author choose Uma’s story to “bookend” the novel in this way? What about Uma set her apart from the members of the group, in your mind?
7. Which character’s story did you find the most unexpected? Conversely, were you able to predict what was to happen in any of the stories?
8. Refresh your memory with the stories of the female characters in the book. Did these stories have anything in common?
9. “Apologize to a woman and she would gain the upper hand. Mangalam knew better than to let that happen” (pg. 55). What did you first think of Mr. Mangalam, and did this change after you learned his story?
10. Discuss Mr. and Mrs. Pritchett. Were you surprised, as their stories unfolded, to discover their reasons for going to India?
11. Almost all of the characters experience or perpetuate some kind of cultural misunderstanding. What did you learn about some of the cultures and religions explored in the book?
12. What did you think of the book’s ending? What do you think the group’s fate was? Why did Uma’s story end where it did?
13. When writing of ethnicity, an author risks stereotyping. Uma is an American Indian girl who rebels against her parents’ wishes by having a relationship with a non-Indian man. Tariq is a young rebellious bearded Muslim, prone to violence. How does Divakaruni attempt to flesh out these characters? Are they three dimensional, or caricatures?
14. The symbol of the tiger crosses over between two stories in the novel. Mr. Pritchett speaks of his boyhood remembering, “Should anyone ask him what he wanted most in life, the boy wouldn’t hesitate. A dog, he would say-though this is not completely true. He would prefer a tiger.”1 When he finds the kitten, “he thinks it looks like a miniature tiger” In the next story, Malathi describes the dark secrets of the rich which the beauty parlor girl were privy to. She states, “we knew that to meddle in the affairs of the powerful was akin to riding the proverbial tiger”. What does Divakaruni’s use of the Tiger represent?
15. One Amazing Thing is a novel with an open ending. How did this affect your reading of the book? As a reader, did you choose to create your own ending?
16. The stories shared by the characters show how easy it is to divert young lives into unforeseen and restrictive channels, and how hard it is for people to realize their early dreams.. Do you think this is true for most people?
17. In One Amazing Thing, the different characters respond in very different ways to being trapped in a dangerous situation that is out of their control. Can you describe some of these responses? What kinds of people seem to respond most positively in such circumstances? What kinds of people respond most negatively? Are there mental habits we can learn that would allow us to deal better with such circumstances, should they occur in our lives? What do you have in your pockets or purse now that would help in a survival situation?
18. Language is an important theme in the book. Jiang surprises her granddaughter, Lily, by speaking English to tell her story. Why would she hide the fact that she speaks English in an American city from even her family? Malathi speaks English but asks Mangalam to translate from her native Tamil, but warns him that she’ll know if he changes her story. Uma is reading Chaucer’s tales which are written in Middle English, a language that bridges modern English with Old English. How does language identify people? Is it helpful or even important to be multi-lingual?
19. There are several stories in the book about love and marriage. Do any of the characters marry for love? What are the reasons people get married? Should you get married if you love someone? Are there any stories of unrequited love? Malathi says she would rather be a bride maker rather than a bride. Mrs. Pritchett said, “She’s ready to take a little risk, to follow the yellow brick road into romance and a house on a hill with all-white carpeting” (182). Was the young Vivienne (Mrs. Pritchett) making the right decision? Mangalam keeps a photo of his wife on his desk because his employers have told him that “It would make the Americans who came to the office feel more comfortable [ . . .] since Americans believed that the presence of a smiling family on a man’s table was proof of his moral stability” Do you believe this to be true?
20. Why did the author choose to have some of the character’s “amazing” stories told in the third person?


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