Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie - Dec. 2019

December 2019 selection - Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie

The Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group will meet Thursday, December 12th at 7:00 p.m. in the meeting room of the Fairfax Library to discuss our December book, Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie.

Here are some links for additional background and information:

Author interview – short video

Overview of Antigone by Sophocles

You may not want to visit Istanbul after reading the ending of Home Fire, but here is a website with lots of info for a first-time visitor

The story of Parvaiz may remind you of The American Taliban who was from Marin County

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

Thurs. Jan. 9^th               Women Talking by Miriam Toews

Thurs. Feb. 13^th          Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips

Thurs. Mar. 12^th          The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery

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:

1. The opening section begins with Isma Pasha nearly missing her flight. Talk about her treatment at the hands of "immigration" officials at Heathrow. How did the indignities she suffered at their hands make you feel?

2. Isma's voice is one of compromise and accommodation: how else might you describe her?

3. Talk about Parvaiz Pasha and his quest to honor his father, Adil. What kind of man, husband, and father was Adil, and what did his faith mean to him? When Parvaiz's eyes are opened to the caliphate and its atrocities, did you wonder how he could have been so misled?

4. What do you think of Isma and Eaamon Lone's relationship? Do they have a genuine connection? Why doesn't Isma let on that she knows who Eaamon's father is?

5. What are your thoughts about Aneeka? How does she define herself in relation to her faith, and how does her attitude toward Islam differ from her sister's?

6. Talk about the vast differences between the two families, the Pashas and the Lones.

7. Consider Aneeka's relationship with Eamonn — she is clearly manipulating him, but does she have a higher purpose? As she puts it: "Why shouldn’t I admit it? What would you stop at to help the people you love most?"

8. After Isma informs the police that Parvaiz has left for Syria, Aneeka is appalled: "You betrayed us, both of us. Don't...expect me to ever agree to see your face again. We have no sister." Is Aneeka's anger justified? Would it have been bettier directed at her brother who betrayed them both? What do you think?

9. Where should Isma's loyalty lie: with her brother or her country? By informing the police of Parvaiz's intentions, did she make the right or wrong decision? Can there be a correct moral decision when faced with the impossible choice between family loyalty and duty to society?

10. What is mean by the title, "Home Fire." How does it differ from the World War I meaning, "keep the home fires burning."

11. Talk about the relevance of Home Fire in today's world. What do you see in the novel that illuminates and/or resonates with current concerns.

12. Kamila Shamsie has drawn inspiration from the ancient playwright Sophocles and his drama Antigone. Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus, was prohibited by law from burying her brother.

13. What differences, if any, would it have made if the characters in the book were American?

14. Should someone like Parvaiz be allowed back into Britain after joining ISIS? 

There There by Tommy Orange - Nov. 2019

November 2019 selection - There There by Tommy Orange

The Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group will meet Thursday, November 14th at 7:00 p.m. in the meeting room of the Fairfax Library to discuss our November book, There There by Tommy Orange.

Here are some links for additional background and information:

Description of 2013 Oakland Pow Wow

Check out the California Pow Wow website to find other pow wows

Urban Indian Wikipedia page

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

Thurs. Dec. 12^th          Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie

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:

1. The prologue of There There provides a historical overview of how Native populations were systematically stripped of their identity, their rights, their land, and, in some cases, their very existence by colonialist forces in America. How did reading this section make you feel? How does the prologue set the tone for the reader? Discuss the use of the Indian head as iconography. How does this relate to the erasure of Native identity in American culture?

2. Discuss the development of the “Urban Indian” identity and ownership of that label. How does it relate to the push for assimilation by the United States government? How do the characters in There There navigate this modern form of identity alongside their ancestral roots?

3. Consider the following statement from page 9: “We stayed because the city sounds like a war, and you can’t leave a war once you’ve been, you can only keep it at bay.” In what ways does the historical precedent for violent removal of Native populations filter into the modern era? How does violence—both internal and external—appear throughout the narrative?

4. On page 7, Orange states: “We’ve been defined by everyone else and continue to be slandered despite easy-to-look-up-on-the-internet facts about the realities of our histories and current state as a people.” Discuss this statement in relation to how Native populations have been defined in popular culture. How do the characters in There There resist the simplification and flattening of their cultural identity? Relate the idea of preserving cultural identity to Dene Oxendene’s storytelling mission.

5.  Tony Loneman’s perspective both opens and closes There There. Why do you think Orange made this choice for the narrative? What does Loneman’s perspective reveal about the “Urban Indian” identity? About the landscape of Oakland?

6. When readers are first introduced to Dene Oxendene, we learn of his impulse to tag various spots around the city. How did you interpret this act? How does graffiti culture work to recontextualize public spaces?

7. Discuss the interaction between Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield and Two Shoes that occurs on pages 50–52. How does Opal view Two Shoes’s “Indianness”? What is the import of the Teddy Roosevelt anecdote that he shares with her? How does this relate to the overall theme of narrative and authenticity that occurs throughout There There?

8. Describe the resettlement efforts at Alcatraz. What are the goals for inhabiting this land? What vision does Opal and Jacquie’s mother have for her family in moving to Alcatraz?

9. On page 58, Opal’s mother tells her that she needs to honor her people “by living right, by telling our stories. [That] the world was made of stories, nothing else, and stories about stories.” How does this emphasis on storytelling function throughout There There? Consider the relationship between storytelling and power. How does storytelling allow for diverse narratives to emerge? What is the relationship between storytelling and historical memory?

10. On page 77, Edwin Black asserts, “The problem with Indigenous art in general is that it’s stuck in the past.” How does the tension between modernity and tradition emerge throughout the narrative? Which characters seek to find a balance between honoring the past and looking toward the future? When is the attempt to do so successful?

11. Discuss the generational attitudes toward spirituality in the Native community in There There. Which characters embrace their elders’ spiritual practices? Who doubts the efficacy of those efforts? How did you interpret the incident of Orvil and the spider legs?

12. How is the city of Oakland characterized in the novel? How does the city’s gentrification affect the novel’s characters? Their attitudes toward home and stability?

13. How is femininity depicted in There There? What roles do the female characters assume in their community? Within their families?

14. Discuss Orvil’s choice to participate in the powwow. What attracts him to the event? Why does Opal initially reject his interest in “Indianness”? How do his brothers react to it?

15. Discuss the Interlude that occurs on pages 134–41. What is the import of this section? How does it provide key contextual information for the Big Oakland PowWow that occurs at the end of the novel? What is the significance of this event and others like it for the Native community?

16. Examine the structure of There There. Why do you think Orange chose to present his narrative using different voices and different perspectives? How do the interlude and the prologue help to bolster the themes of the narrative? What was the most surprising element of the novel to you? What was its moment of greatest impact?

Less by Andrew Sean Greer - Oct. 2019

October 2019 selection - Less by Andrew Sean Greer

The Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group will meet Thursday, October 10th at 7:00 p.m. in the meeting room of the Fairfax Library to discuss our October book, Less by Andrew Sean Greer.

Here are some links for additional background and information:

Images of Mexico City subway murals

Chow chow recipe

Proust’s bedroom in the Musée Carnavalet

Author Bio on his website

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

Thurs. Nov. 14^th          There There by Tommy Orange

Thurs. Dec. 12^th          Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie

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:

1. Have you ever had days, weeks, years, like what Arthur Less is feeling — times when nothing, absolutely nothing, seems to be going your way? What's your solution?

2. Everyone points to the books laugh-out-loud humor. What do you find particularly funny — dialogue, Arthur's haplessness and pratfalls, random observations, the entire tone of the book?

3. How would you describe Arthur? Are you sympathetic to him, or is he primarily a self-pitying guy in midlife crisis? Does he exhibit any humanity or is he too self-indulgent to connect with others? Or do you find yourself falling and rooting for him? Does your attitude toward him change during the course of the novel?

4. Talk about the writing seminar Arthur gives in Berlin — his inventiveness in attempting to get students to fall in love with literature.

5. What do you think of the consolation his former lover/mentor offers him during the phone call from Japan? Is turning 50 all that bad (for those who've been there, done that)?

6. So at the end of his peregrinations, what has Arthur Less come to understand about his life and life in general?

7. Finally, were you surprised by the big reveal at the end?

8. The novel’s opening line reads: “From where I sit, the story of Arthur Less is not so bad.” Arthur Less, the book’s protagonist, is introduced as nearly 50, with “washed-out” blonde hair and “watery” blue eyes. As we soon learn, he’s also a writer less successful than his peers. How do you see Arthur Less in the opening chapters? Do you see him as a hero, as a man deserving of pity, as something else?

9. When we meet the character of Freddy, Arthur Less’s soon-to-be-former-lover, he is described as “dreamy, simple, lusty, bookish, harmless, youthful.” It is Freddy’s marriage invitation that Less so studiously avoids — choosing to go on a round-the-world trip simply to avoid having to decline the invitation without a good reason. What do you make of this decision? Have you ever found yourself doing something similarly absurd?

10. Arthur Less’s trip itinerary is as a follows: New York to interview a more popular writer, Mexico City for an obscure conference, Turin for an unknown award, Berlin for a teaching gig, Morocco for someone else’s birthday, India for a writer’s retreat (possibly during the monsoon), Japan for an article. And somewhere along the way he will turn 50. Does his sojourn remind you of any others in literature?

11. The book Arthur Less is writing is about a man on a journey through a place and his past, as he looks back on a series of disappointments. Freddy complains that Less is always writing “gay Ulysses.” Do you see echoes of or references to Ulysses or the Odyssey throughout “Less”?

12. Less’s other major relationship in the book is with the famous poet Robert Brownburn. In the chapter “Mexican,” Less recalls a day of losing his ring in the grocery store, and how, in telling Robert about it, Robert saw Less’s infidelities written across his face. “That’s what it was like to live with genius,” he writes. How does Robert’s success and genius impact their relationship at the time, and how does it influence him in the end?

13. So much of Less’s focus during the round-the-world trip is on his own mishaps and foibles — or his perceived mishaps and foibles. Getting into a car with what he believes is the wrong driver because the name was a letter off. Believing he can speak German well when in fact he is bungling the words. Bringing athletic bands to every country that he will only half use. Do you see these as actual mishaps and foibles or is it a problem of perception for Less? Do you identify with that feeling at all?

14. The book alternates between Less’s trip in the present to memories of his youth — mostly memories involving nostalgia or regret. And yet the narrator tells us that Less also understands the pleasures of age: “comfort and ease, beauty and taste, old friends and old stories….” How does Less’s grappling with age play a role in the book? Is it something you can relate to?

15.  In a scene at a party in Paris, Less is told that in fact he is not a bad writer, as he had come to believe, but a bad “gay writer,” in that he is not telling the narratives the gay writing community wants him to. What do you make of this critique?

16. In several countries, simply being around Less seems to make other characters sick. Why?

17. Arthur Less is self-deprecating throughout the book to a fault; in one of many descriptions he calls himself insignificant compared to other writers he knows, “as superfluous as the extra a in quaalude.” (Earlier, though, he asks if there is “any more perfect spelling” than the word quaalude “with that lazy superfluous vowel.”) Did you find these negative descriptors by Less funny or frustrating or silly or all of these? How does Greer complicate these descriptions by having some of them echo back?

18. A number of people try to tell Less about what happened at Freddy’s wedding. And while the wedding dominates his thoughts, he doesn’t listen to them. What is keeping him from hearing the story? What do you think (or hope) happened?

19. In the book, “Less” is always referred to by his last name, while Javier only by his first, and Robert Brownburn by both. Why do you think Greer chose to refer to the characters in these different ways?

20. What lines in the book made you laugh out loud?

21. Toward the end of the book, Less reunites with his supposed enemy and Freddy’s father, Carlos. When they meet, Carlos tells him that he believes that people’s lives are half-comedy and half-tragedy and that those just appear at different times. What do you make of this theory?

22. Were you surprised (or glad) to find out who the narrator was? Do any elements of the book change for you when you revisit them with Freddy as the narrator in mind?

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Odessa Moshfegh - Sept. 2019

September 2019 selection - My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Odessa Moshfegh

The Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group will meet Thursday, September 12th at 7:00 p.m. in the meeting room of the Fairfax Library to discuss our September book, My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh.

Here are some links for additional background and information:

Author Interview with some interesting video/audio clips interspersed.

Check the Washington Post’s DEA prescription database to see how many opioid prescriptions have been filled in this and other areas around the country

WebMD provides a lengthy list of medications available to treat depression

WebMD has the New Guidelines for Treatment of Depression (hint: they include drugs)

What is a grackle?

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

Thurs. Oct. 10^th           Less by Andrew Sean Greer

Thurs. Nov. 14^th          There There by Tommy Orange

Thurs. Dec. 12^th          Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie

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:

1. What do you think of our narrator? Is she mentally ill? Or is she the sanest character you've ever come across in literature? Perhaps she's something in between.

2. On the surface, our narrator seems to have it all—good looks, money, education, and a Manhattan apartment. What then is her reason for wanting to sleep the year away? Her motive isn't suicide, so what is she trying to escape … or find?

3. Follow-up to Question 2: The narrator says she's seeking "great transformation." But what kind of transformation—from what … into what?

4. Talk about the state of the world (at least in the U.S) during the year the narrator is checking out; how does the author portray the era? We know that 9/11 is around the corner. Why might the author have chosen to set her story in this particular time, in New York City, and right before the World Trade Center cataclysm? In what way does your knowledge of what is to come (9/11) affect your reading experience or your understanding of the book?

5. Did some (many?) of the narrator's observations and quips ("Caffeine was my exercise") get you laughing? How would you describe her type of humor?

6. If you were Reva, the narrator's friend, what would you do or say to the narrator? What do you make of Reva?

7. Why does the narrator decide that if she can't make art (she tells Reva she has no talent), then she'll become art. What about her project makes it "art"? Once the public sees the completed film, what is their reaction? How would you have reacted?

8. Why does Ping Xi want to film the narrator as she burns her birth certificate? The narrator thinks, "He needed fodder for analysis. But the project was beyond issues of 'identity' and 'society' and 'institutions.' Mine was a quest for a new spirit." What does the narrator mean—and why is her "project beyond" identity and society, etc.?

9. Toward the end, the narrator does experience a transformation. She attends the Metropolitan Museum of Art and begins to re-engage. Talk about the nature of that change. How has she been altered?

10. Follow-up to Question 9: As she looks at the paintings of great artists hanging in the museum, the narrator wonders about the artists' lives and whether "they understood …that beauty and meaning had nothing to do with one another." She wonders if the painters would have preferred spending their days walking through fields of grass or being in love. What do those notions mean? Are these thoughts the transformation she hoped to achieve? Do her thoughts suggest a new understanding of life or of consciousness …or of what?

11. Despite the museum guard's warning to step back, the narrator reaches out to touch the canvass of a painting. Why is touching so important?

The Lightkeepers by Abby Geni - August 2019

August 2019 selection - The Lightkeepers by Abby Geni

The Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group will meet Thursday, August 8th at 7:00 p.m. in the meeting room of the Fairfax Library to discuss our August book, The Lightkeepers by Abby Geni.

Here are some links for additional background and information:

Farallon Islands live webcam

Life on the Farallon Islands video from KQED

Take a boat trip to the Farollones to whale watch

Plan to poison mice on Farallon Islands put on hold last month

The life of a nature photographer and some fun photos of them at work

Six reasons not to keep a pet octopus

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

Thurs. Sept. 12^th         My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

Thurs. Oct. 10^th           Less by Andrew Sean Greer

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:

1. Describe Farallon: the weather, animal populations (birds, sharks, and rodents), its stream, even the granite bed rock. In what way does the archipelago itself become a character rather than simply a setting in the novel? Also, consider Farallon's history, as well as how it got its epithet— "Island of the Dead."

2. Follow up to Question #1: If you are familiar with the 1963 Alfred Hitchcock film The Birds (based on a Daphne du Maurier short story), what are some of the parallels between the film and The Lightkeepers?

3. How would you describe Miranda? Why, for instance, is the isolation of the Farallon Islands suited to her personality? How does she eventually find her way out of her seclusion? In other words, how does she change by the novel's end?

4. Talk about the letters Miranda writes to her mother. What purpose do they serve in the story, and what do they reveal about Miranda (both the fact that she writes them and the content of the letters themselves)?

5. Miranda's relationship with her fellow housemates has "the dynamic of a family, minus any semblance of warmth." How would you describe the various characters in that "family"—Andrew and Lucy, Galen, Mick, Forest, and Charlene—and their relationships with one another?

6. Miranda finds comfort, even relief, from the others in the natural world of Farallon. What are some of the connections she makes with creatures. How does she come to view the biologists and their relationship to nature? What effect do their studies have on island life?

7. Were you surprised by the novel's climax? Do you find it somewhat implausible? If so, does it detract from your enjoyment of the novel?

8. What is the derivation of the book's title—The Lightkeepers. Who, in the novel, are the eggers and who are the lightkeepers?

9. Is there an underlying message within the book? What major issues are raised?

10. Bonus question: For Shakespeare lovers: Miranda's name?

From LitLovers.com

Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston - June 2019

June 2019 selection - Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston

The Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group will meet Thursday, June 13th at 7:30 p.m. (30 minutes later than usual) in the meeting room of the Fairfax Library to discuss our June book, Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston.

Here are some links for additional background and information:

My son’s American history textbook includes this fact: “…of approximately 10 million men, women, and children who crossed from the Old World to the New between 1492 and 1820, the vast majority, about 7.7 million, were African slaves.”

This article in The Nation discusses the link between capitalism and slavery.

Many of you heard about the Clotilda being located in South Carolina last month

Both the author and Cudjo Lewis had a wealthy, white patron, Charlotte Osgood Mason

This 3-min newsclip discusses a documentary about Africa Town

Interesting article about the history of the word, intersectionality

Two songs my son was recently listening to both seemed to have roots in slave spirituals:

Broken Bones by Kaleo (an Icelandic band)

Bottom of the River by Delta Rae

We’ll take the month of July off for summer vacation. After that, we have the following books to look forward to reading:

Thurs. August 8^th        The Lightkeepers by Abby Geni

Thurs. Sept. 12^th         My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

Thurs. Oct. 10^th           Less by Andrew Sean Greer

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

Beth Bailey-Gates

Friends of the Fairfax Library

Reading and Discussion Guide

·         Oral history is an important facet of maintaining and passing on African history. Hurston positions Cudjo Lewis as a griot throughout the text. His recollection of the events of his life and those following his being sold into slavery are verified by other historical texts, and Hurston is quite confident in the veracity of his stories. Consider the way history is preserved within your own family context.

·         As is pointed out in the book, one of the most important things about printing and distributing Cudjo’s story is the fact that at the time of its writing, the world was inundated with stories from every perspective but that of the slave.  Hurston writes in her original introduction:

“All these words from the seller, but not one word from the sold. The Kings and Captains whose words moved ships. But not one word from the cargo. The thoughts of the ‘black ivory,’ the ‘coin of Africa,’ had no market value. Africa’s ambassadors to the New World have come and worked and died, and left their spoor, but no recorded thought” (pg. 6). 

Does this consideration make the experience of reading Cudjo Lewis’ story even more powerful for you?

·         Cudjo spares no feelings in sharing that the events that brought him under bondage were done by his fellow Africans — the powerful Dahomey nation had made quite the business out of attacking other tribes who had slighted them, killing many and selling those who they let survive to the white men. This is a complicated and uncomfortable history for some Black Americans to accept. Alice Walker struggles with this in her foreward. Was this a painful history to read about for you? Have you heard about the practice of some African nations selling their captives to American and European slavers?

·         Hurston returns time and time again to Cudjo’s loneliness. He had lost essentially his entire immediate family and his homeland, and the toll this has taken on him is quite evident. One of the most touching lines of the book was him describing how he felt without his wife.

De wife she de eyes to de man’s soul. How kin I see now, when I ain’ gottee de eyes no mo’?” (pg. 93).

·         Part of the reason why the book was never published while Hurston was alive was because editors wanted her to rewrite the text “in language not in dialect” (pg. xxii). She refused, feeling that the story must be told in Cudjo’s own words and tone. Was the experience of reading in dialect difficult for you? Did it make Cudjo feel more or less believable to you? Why?

Days Without End by Sebastian Barry - May 2019

May 2019 selection - Days Without End by Sebastian Barry

The Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group will meet Thursday, May 9th at 7 p.m. in the meeting room of the Fairfax Library to discuss our May book, Days Without End by Sebastian Barry.

Here are some links for additional background and information:

Author Interview

Interesting article about the Indian Wars that has lessons for later wars

Irish soldiers in the Civil War have their own website

The business of bounties for scalps in US history

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

Thurs. June 13^th             Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston

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

The McNulty family has featured in several of Barry’s novels – including The Secret Scripture and The Temporary Gentleman – how do you feel about the continuous thread between the books?

1. Thomas escapes famine in Ireland for war and horror in the US. However, at times he finds moments of happiness and safety. How well did Barry balance these contradictions?
2. Thomas and John were part of both the Indian Wars and the Civil War – how did the descriptions of these differ in the narrative?
3. The relationship between Thomas and John is central to the novel – how different would their experience be in the US military today?
4. How does the introduction of Sioux child Winona, into the complicated relationship of Thomas and John, challenge our preconceptions of the family dynamic?
5. Both Thomas and John work in their youth, as cross-dressing entertainers. How does this experience impact their lives going forward?
6. Thomas’ descriptions of war and battles are very violent. How do you think that violence affected him? How might it have affected John Cole?
7. “The ones that don’t try to rob me will feed me. That how it is in America.” This is one of the last lines in the novel. Does this sounds like an accurate description of the country? How will Thomas and John fare in the country now?
8. Since 2012, applicants to California state colleges and universities are asked to share their sexual identification ie. transgender, lesbian, gay, heterosexual, bisexual etc. Does this indicate that life is better or easier for people who identify in ways other than heterosexual?

The Leavers by Lisa Ko - April 2019

April 2019 selection - The Leavers by Lisa Ko

The Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group will meet Thursday, April 11th at 7 p.m. in the meeting room of the Fairfax Library to discuss our April book, The Leavers by Lisa Ko.

Here are some links for additional background and information:

Video visit to Fuzhou, China

Psychology Today article about trans-racial adoption

Fuzhou Garment Company website

2018 NYC Immigrant Annual Report (with lots of colorful graphs)

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

Thurs. May 9^th              Days Without End by Sebastian Barry

Thurs. June 13^tt              Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston

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

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What relevance, if any, does The Leavers have to the immigration issues dividing much of the world today? What are your opinions regarding immigration. Did this book alter those opinions...or confirm them?
2. How is Polly Guo portrayed in this work? Do you admire her...or not? Does she engender sympathy? Does your attitude toward her change during the course of the novel? Early on she is ambivalent about Deming's birth, placing him in a bag and leaving him underneath a city bench...only to return to him, of course. Is she to blame for her ambivalence?
3. Talk about Polly's turbulent past and how it shapes who she has become. She seems driven by dreams of her own. What are those dreams?
4. How would you describe Deming when he arrives back in the U.S. as a six-year-old? What kind of family do Polly and Leon provide for Deming and Michael? What kind of life do they lead in the Bronx? Consider Polly's job in the nail salon. 
5. Deming is utterly bewildered by his mother's disappearance. Talk about the effect it has on him as he grows into adolescence and young adulthood? Consider this observation: "If he held everyone at arm’s length, it wouldn’t hurt as much when they disappeared." Or this one: "He had eliminated the possibility of feeling out of place by banishing himself to no place." 
6. What role do Ko's music and his gambling play; how do they help assuage his pain? At one point, after a performance with his band, Deming slips out, thinking to himself, "It felt good being the one making the excuse to get away." What does he mean?
7. What do you think of Kay and Peter Wilkinson? Are they clueless? Insensitive? Well-meaning?
8. Polly's story is told in the first person while Deming's is in the third person. Why do you think the author made that choice? Is Polly's tale meant to be a journal for Deming?
9. Polly is the one who sees the nature of the immigration system firsthand. How is the system portrayed in the novel? 
10. Lisa Ko says the novel was inspired by a 2009 New York Times article about an undocumented immigrant from China who spent 18 months in detention. She had been arrested at a bus station on the way to Florida for a new job. Does knowing that the novel has its roots in a true story have any impact on how you understand it?
11. From Deming to Daniel and Peilan to Polly, do you think the name changes of the main characters helped them to find a fresh start, or further complicated their search for belonging?
12. The Leavers asks us to grapple with a complicated image of motherhood in Polly’s experience. Did you empathize with her? Did your view of her change as more of her story is revealed?
13. A major theme throughout the book is the fantasy of alternate selves. As Polly accepts that she is having her child, Ko writes, “Peilan continued on in the village, feeding chickens and stray cats and washing cabbages, as Polly lived out a bonus existence abroad. Peilan would marry Haifeng or another village boy while Polly would walk the endless blocks of new cities.” Likewise, Polly and Deming have a game of finding their “doppelgangers” and imagining the lives the alternate Deming and Mama would lead. Why do you think Polly and Deming keep returning to these ideas?
14. Similarly, as Polly and Deming make choices, face different situations, and develop in their stories, Ko continually asks us to consider the way we move into differing versions of ourselves and how how those selves must co-exist, sometimes painfully. Have you had a life experience that brought you to a different version of yourself? What truly changes and what stays the same about Polly and Deming?
15. The novel often goes backwards and forwards in time, and the viewpoint changes with Polly’s story in first person and Daniel’s in third person. How do you think structure relates to the larger narrative, and how did it affect your connection with the characters?
16. Discuss Deming / Daniel. How is he personally accountable for his choices? Are they a result of nature or nurture? Whose actions toward him left the greatest impact, for better or worse – Peter and Kay’s, his mother’s, Roland’s, Vivian’s, even government policy?
17. What was your first impression of the title of this book? How did revisiting The Leavers inform what you might suspect to happen as plot twists appeared throughout the story? Discuss the power a title has in reference to a greater book.
18. The Leavers won the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize, an award that was “created to promote ­ction that addresses issues of social justice and the impact of culture and politics on human relationships.” What did you get out of this novel? If applicable, compare it to other novels written on a similar subject.
19. Deming plays a concert at the beginning of the novel and again at the end, neither of which could be considered a success by most standards. Compare these performances and consider what they convey about the journey he has been on.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

March 2019 selection - Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

The Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group will meet Thursday, March 14th at 7 p.m. in the meeting room of the Fairfax Library to discuss our March book, Eleanor Oliphant isCompletely Fine by Gail Honeyman.

Here are some links for additional background and information: 

Author Interview

Listen to the Carpenters’ Top of the World

Map of Glasgow

Emily Dickinson’s Wild Night poem

Coming up, we have the following book to look forward to reading and discussing:

Thurs. Apr. 11^th           The Leavers by Lisa Ko

Thurs. May 9^th             Days Without End by Sebastian Barry

Thurs. June 13^th          Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston

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

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Knowing the truth about Eleanor’s family, look back through the book to revisit her exchanges with her mother. Did you see what was ahead? How did Honeyman lay the groundwork for the final plot twist? 

2. What are the different ways that the novel’s title could be interpreted? What do you think happens to Eleanor after the book ends? 

3. Eleanor says, “These days, loneliness is the new cancer—a shameful, embarrassing thing, brought upon yourself in some obscure way. A fearful, incurable thing, so horrifying that you dare not mention it; other people don’t want to hear the word spoken aloud for fear that they might too be afflicted” (p. 227). Do you agree? 

4. What does Raymond find appealing about Eleanor? And why does Eleanor feel comfortable opening up to Raymond? 

5. Eleanor is one of the most unusual protagonists in recent fiction, and some of her opinions and actions are very funny. What were your favorite moments in the novel?

6. “Did men ever look in the mirror, I wondered, and find themselves wanting in deeply fundamental ways? When they opened a newspaper or watched a film, were they presented with nothing but exceptionally handsome young men, and did this make them feel intimidated, inferior, because they were not as young, not as handsome?” (p. 74). Eleanor’s question is rhetorical and slightly tongue-in-cheek, but worth answering. What are your thoughts? If men don’t have this experience, why not? If they do, why is it not more openly discussed? 

7. Eleanor is frightened that she may become like her mother. Is this a reasonable fear? What is the balance of nature and nurture? 

8. Is it possible to emerge from a traumatic childhood unscathed? 

9. Eleanor says, “If someone asks you how you are, you are meant to say FINE. You are not meant to say that you cried yourself to sleep last night because you hadn’t spoken to another person for two consecutive days. FINE is what you say” (p. 226–227). Why is this the case? 

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles - Feb. 2019

February 2019 selection - A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

The Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group will meet Wednesday, February 13th in the meeting room of the Fairfax Library to discuss our February book, A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.

Here are some links for additional background information:

Four-minute tour of the Hotel Metropol in Moscow

Interesting review and analysis of the novel

Author interview

Coming up, we have the following book to look forward to reading and discussing:

March 14 - Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Thanks for reading with us!

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. In the transcript at the opening of A Gentleman in Moscow, the head of the tribunal and Count Rostov have the following exchange: "Secretary Ignatov: I have no doubt, Count Rostov, that some in the galley are surprised to find you charming; but I am not surprised to find you so. History has shown charm to be the last ambition of the leisure class. What I do find surprising is that the author of the poem in question could have become a man so obviously without purpose. Rostov: I have lived under the impression that a man’s purpose is known only to God. Secretary Ignatov: Indeed. How convenient that must have been for you. "

To what extent is A Gentleman in Moscow a novel of purpose? How does the Count’s sense of purpose manifest itself initially, and how does it evolve as the story unfolds?

2. Over the course of Book Two, why does the Count decide to throw himself from the roof of the Metropol? On the verge of doing so, why does the encounter with the old handyman lead him to change his plans?

3. The Count’s life under house arrest is greatly influenced by his relationship with four women: Nina, Marina, Anna, and Sofia. What is the nature of the Count’s relationship with each of these women? How do those relationships differ from his relationship with the members of the Triumvirate—Andrey and Emile?

4. The majority of A Gentleman in Moscow is told in the third person from the Count’s point of view. There is, however, an overarching narrator with a different perspective than the Count’s. Initially, this narrator appears in footnotes, then in the Addendums, then in the historical introductions of 1930, 1938, and 1946. How would you characterize this narrator? How does he differ from the Count in terms of his point of view and tone of voice? What is his role in the narrative?

5. In the 1946 chapter, Mishka, Osip, and Richard each share with the Count their perspective on the meaning of the revolutionary era. What are these three perspectives? Are you inclined to agree with one of them; or do you find there is some merit to each?

6. One of the pleasures of writing fiction is discovering upon completion of a project that some thread of imagery has run through the work without your complete awareness–forming, in essence, an unintentional motif. While I was very conscious of the recurrence of tolling bells, keys, and concentric circles in the book, here are a few motifs that I only recognized after the fact: Packages wrapped in brown paper such as the Maltese Falcon, Mishka’s book of quotations, the Russian nesting dolls discovered in the Italians’ closet, and the Count’s copy of Montaigne (in Paris). The likeness of stars such as the freckles on Anna’s back and the beacon on the top of the Shukhov radio tower. Sailors (often in peril) such as Robinson Crusoe, Odysseus, Admiral Makarov, and Arion in the myth of Delphinus. What role do any of these motifs play in the thematic composition of the book?

7. How does the narrative incorporate the passage of time, and does it do so effectively? Thematically speaking, how does the Count’s experience of Time change over the course of the novel and how does it relate to his father’s views as embodied by the twice-tolling clock? Do you agree with the Count’s conclusion that we experience time differently as we grow older?  What does the novel suggest about the influence of individuals on history and vice versa?

8. At the opening of Book Five, the Count has already decided to get Sofia out of Russia. What occurs over the course of Book Four to lead him to this decision? Why does he choose to remain behind?

9. Near the novel’s conclusion, what is the significance of the toppled cocktail glass in Casablanca?

10. This is a novel with a somewhat fantastical premise set half a century ago in a country very different from our own. Nonetheless, do you think the book is relevant today? If so, in what way?

11. Is there a danger that Towles’ sympathetic portrayal of the Count glosses over the part many Russian aristocrats played in the oppression of the peasants and later, the working classes which eventually led to the Revolution?

12. How did you interpret the ending of the novel? Was it a satisfactory conclusion to the story?

13.  A reviewer, Annalisa Quinn, comments that “Towles never lets anyone merely say goodbye when the could bid adieu, never puts a period where an exclamation point or dramatic ellipsis could stand.” How did you feel about the author’s apparent delight in extravagant language?

14. During his time at The Metropol the Count forges friendships which crow age, class and political boundaries. How does he make friends so easily? What is the novel’s overall message about friendship?

15. In a review of A Gentleman in Moscow Ron Charles points out that “the whole enterprise depends on how deeply you fall in love with the Count.” Did you fall in love with Count Rostov as a character? Why or why not?

16. How are work and purpose portrayed in the novel? Do you agree with the implication that a sense of purpose is an essential ingredient for a fulfilling life?

17. Discuss the different ways in which the historical events taking place outside the Metropol are conveyed to the reader. Do these snippets of information tell us enough about the state of the Soviet Union during this period? Is the light tone of the novel at odds with the horrors of Stalinist Russia?

18. One of the Count’s favorite stories is the evolution of the moths of Manchester. Is his story also one of evolution? Are there any other evolutions throughout the novel?