Mary Coin June 2016

June 2016 Book Selection

The Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group will meet Thursday, June 9th at 7 p.m. in the meeting room of the Fairfax Library to discuss our June book Mary Coin by Marisa Silver.

Discussion questions are below.

Here are some links for additional background and information:

Sod houses in Nebraska

2008 Modesto Bee article  and PBS article about the woman behind the photo

Library of Congress video (11.5 min) about the FSA photo collection and another video (14.5 min.) with the history and tips for researching the collection.

Link to photo on Library of Congress website and the other photos taken

Dorothea Lange info

We will NOT meet in July or August and will resume our monthly discussions Thursday, September 8^th.

After a fun summer for everyone, we have the following books to look forward to reading and discussing:

Thurs. Sept. 8^th         Circling the Sun by Paula McLain

Thurs. Oct. 13^th         Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon

Thurs. Nov. 10^th        Season of the Witch by David Talbot

Thurs. Dec. 8^th          Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf

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

Mary Coin by Marisa Silver

1. Were you familiar with Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother photograph before reading Mary Coin? If so, what assumptions did you bring to your reading experiences about the photograph? The photographer?

2. When readers are first introduced to Mary, she is in the midst of her adolescence. How would you characterize her as a teenager? Do these personality traits stick with her throughout the novel? How does her grandfather’s legacy as the “Cherokee Murderer” impact her?

3. After being photographed in the Indian princess garb, Mary remarks that “she felt the queer nature of her power, how it made her feel strong and diminished all at once.” (46) How is this sentiment echoed throughout the novel? Relate this statement to Vera’s perspective of power behind the camera.

4. On page 6, Walker asserts that he tells his children “all his foundational stories, no matter how humiliating.”  When considering his relationship with his own father, why does Walker approach parenting in this way? Is it  effective? Explore other ways that his childhood has influenced his personal and work-related decisions in adulthood.

5. Mary and Vera both contend with economic hardships throughout the course of the novel, eventually becoming the breadwinners for their families. How do these experiences affect their self-image? Their relationships with their children? Their spouses?

6. The words “For sure, you’ll be lame so” echo in Vera’s mind throughout the novel, yet on page 119 she also notes that her limp is one of her greatest advantages. How does photography help her overcome her self-consciousness?

7. Vera initially views photography solely as an occupation, while Everett is an “artist.” How does her conception of her career change over the course of the novel? Does she ever see herself as an artist? Discuss her ambitions in relation to the expected gender roles of the time.

8. Compare the marital history of Mary and Vera. Are their marriages borne out of love? Necessity? What do they learn from their failed marriages? How do they assert independence in their relationships?

9. On page 224, Walker states that “his image of his grandfather must be a construct derived from largely from photographs” rather than his own recollections. What does this imply about the influence of objects and photographs on memory? Do photographs manipulate—or even create—memories? Relate to modern-day culture. Does our constant documentation via cell phone photography and social media manipulate memory?

10. Walker, Mary, and Vera all express guilt over how they have raised their children. Discuss their concerns and characterize their parenting styles. How do they interact with their children? What do they celebrate about parenthood? What do they regret?

11. When Mary travels to the Goodwill in Chapter 31, she realizes “how silly the idea of owning was in the end.” (272) Given this, why do you think she buys back all of her items? Explore this in connection with the culture of poverty that Mary was raised in.

12. On page 184, Vera admits that she is “embarrassed” by her most famous photograph. Why does she have that reaction? Is she ever comfortable with her fame?

13. The scene where the famous photograph is taken is described twice in the novel, once from Mary’s point of view, once from Vera’s. Discuss the differences in the way the two women experience this encounter. What are the ethical ramifications for both women?

14. When Mary visits the gallery in Chapter 36, she is looking at the photograph when she overhears someone say “You can see it all in her face.” Discuss the irony of this arrangement. What does this assert about the relationship between the viewer and the subject in art? About perception and truth?

15. Discuss the last line of the novel: “There is no erasure.” Why do you think the author chose to end Mary Coin on this note?

Euphoria May 2016

May 2016 Book Selection

The Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group will meet Thursday, May 12th at 7 p.m. in the meeting room of the Fairfax Library to discuss our May book Euphoria by Lily King.

Discussion questions are below.

Here are some links for additional background and information:

Author website

Brief bio of Margaret Mead and longish obit of Gregory Bateson

Four minute audio interview with Margaret Mead about anthropology

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

Thurs. June 9^th         Mary Coin by Marisa Silver

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

Euphoria by Lily King

1. Set against the lush tropical landscape of 1930s New Guinea, this novel charts British anthropologist Andrew Bankson’s fascination for colleagues Nell Stone and her husband, Fen, a fascination that turns deadly. How far does the setting play a role in shaping events? Is there a sense that the three have created their own small universe on the banks of the Sepik River, far removed from the Western world? If so, by whose rules are they playing?

2. “She tried not to think about the villages they were passing…the tribes she would never know and words she would never hear, the worry that they might right now be passing the one people she was meant to study, a people whose genius she would unlock, and who would unlock hers, a people who had a way of life that made sense to her” (p. 8). In the light of this quote, discuss Nell Stone’s passion and need for anthropology and find ways in which they differ from Bankson’s and Fen’s. Talk about the significance of her childhood dream of being carried away by gypsies.

3. Continue your discussion by considering Nell’s statement: “If I didn’t believe they shared my humanity entirely, I wouldn’t be here…I’m not interested in zoology” (p. 55). Find instances in the novel in which she demonstrates this. How far do you agree, as Nell states, that it is an anthropologist’s role to encourage self-analysis and self-awareness in the tribes he/she studies?

4. Over the course of the novel we learn a great deal about Bankson’s childhood and young adulthood. Talk about the reasons and life events that brought him to anthropology. What has led him to the brink of suicide? How seriously do you think he views his statement: “The meaning of life is the quest to understand the structure and order of the natural world --- that was the mantra I was raised on. To deviate from it was suicide” (p. 32).

5. Given his upbringing and his father’s passion for “hard” science, Nell’s focus on humanity instead of zoology must hold great appeal for Bankson. What else draws him to Nell, leaving him with “Fierce desires, a great tide of feeling of which I could make little sense, an ache that seems to have no name but want. I want” (p. 86). What exactly does Bankson want?

6. Discuss the ways in which Bankson’s attitude toward his work changes as he gets to know Nell and her research methods. Consider his acknowledgment of the limitations of an anthropologist’s work and discuss how far it is possible to ever get to know another’s culture. Take into account Bankson’s interest in the objectivity of the observer.

7. Take your discussion of the previous question a step further by considering whether it is ever possible to truly know another person. Apply your observations to Bankson’s views of Nell and Fen.

8. The theme of possession, of ownership, runs throughout the novel, twisting like the river Sepik itself through the relationships and conversations of the protagonists. Talk about Nell’s search for “a group of people who give each other the room to be in whatever way they need to be” (p. 88). Has she found this kind of freedom in any of the tribes she has studied? In any of her relationships? Talk specifically about Fen and Bankson.

9. Further your discussion by focusing on the idea of words and thoughts as things to be owned --- as Nell states, “once I published that book and my words became a commodity…” (p. 91). How has this impacted her relationship with Fen? Consider her statement “I only know that when F leaves and B and I talk I feel like I am saying --- and hearing --- the first wholly honest words of my life” (p. 198).

10. On several occasions during the novel, Nell refers to an Amy Lowell poem, “Decade.” Why do you think the poem holds such meaning for her? How does the poem’s central idea --- of feelings for a lover changing from the sweet, almost painful intensity of red wine into the blissful satisfaction of bread --- relate to her and her own relationships?

11. While Nell declares later that “He is wine and bread and deep in my stomach” (p. 247), do you believe that Bankson was able to give Nell the freedom she was looking for? How or how not? Could it have led inevitably to her death?

12. How far would you consider Nell to be the epitome of a young, independent accomplished woman? Talk about her character, her personality, work habits and motivations. Then discuss her disturbing relationship with Fen, and her inability to escape his harm. How did she end up in such an untenable situation?

13. In one journal entry, Nell writes: “I am angry that I was made to choose, that both Fen & Helen needed me to choose, to be their one & only when I didn’t want a one & only” (p. 92). Consider Nell’s relationship with Helen as compared to her relationship with Fen and talk about the reasons she may have chosen Fen over Helen. Do you think that she made this decision or it was made for her?

14. Set against a distant backdrop of a Western world mired in doubt and economic depression, the novel can be seen to depict a search for understanding, for a sense of order. Look at the ways in which the study of the tribes of New Guinea reflects the protagonists’ desperate search for meaning --- a search that can lead to a sense of failure or instead to Nell’s euphoria when “at that moment the place feels entirely yours” (p. 50). Find instances of despair and disillusionment for Nell, Fen and Bankson in their various work experiences. How do they react?

15. What do the three of them really see in the tribes of New Guinea? To what extent, when unlocking the puzzles of the Kiona and the Tam, are they searching for meaning within themselves? How important is it to impending events that the Tam tribe appears to be female-dominated?

16. In the context of the previous two questions, talk about the significance of the Grid to the three anthropologists. What does it represent to them? Why does Bankson refer to a “shift in the stars” caused by the Grid?

17. Discuss the glimpses the novel gives into the world of 1930s colonialism --- in the conversations with Westerners in New Guinea and in Australia; and in Bankson’s, Nell’s and Fen’s attitudes to the tribes they study and the Western society to which they must eventually return. How, if at all, do Nell, Fen and Bankson take colonial approaches toward their research practices and anthropological subjects? What is the role of Xambun as he rejoins his tribal village after being recruited by a Western company? Is it possible to live between the two worlds?

18. Fen briefly mentions a dark family secret, then continues the conversation to discuss the primitive world versus the “civilized world”: “Nothing in the primitive world shocks me, Bankson. Or I should say, what shocks me in the primitive world is any sense of order and ethics. All the rest --- the cannibalism, infanticide, raids, mutilation --- it’s all comprehensible, nearly reasonable, to me. I’ve always been able to see the savageness beneath the veneer of society” (p.137–38). What does this say about Fen? How far do you agree with his comment, especially in the light of events that follow in the novel?

19. For all of Nell and Bankson’s heartfelt conversations, and Bankson’s keen observations of her at work, there are many important things left unsaid. Nell states: “You don’t realize how language actually interferes with communication…how it gets in the way like an overdominant sense” (p. 79). Should Bankson have understood further Nell’s sadness within her marriage, Fen’s physical abuse? As a reader, do we miss the clues too?

20. Discuss Fen’s obsession with the flute, and the reasons why it ultimately leads to the destruction of so much: the anthropologists’ relationship with the Tam tribe, Fen’s relationship with Nell and Bankson. If Xambun had not been killed, would it have been acceptable for Fen to take the flute?

21. Continue your discussion to consider whether an anthropologist must always betray in some way the tribes he/she works with. How does Nell writing books about the people she studies differ from Fen selling the flute to a museum? Was Nell’s work in the field beneficial to the Tam or to the children of Kirakira? Are her reasons for working with them ultimately as selfish as Fen’s need to profit from the flute? How morally responsible are Bankson and Nell for Xambun’s death?

22. Fen justifies taking the flute so that he can restore balance to his relationship with Nell: “There has to be a balance. A man can’t be without power --- it doesn’t work like that” (p. 238). Contrast this with Nell’s thoughts on balance: “[P]erhaps a culture that flourishes is a culture that has found a similar balance among its people” (p. 144). Do you think they are talking about the same thing? Does balance always need to rest on power?

23. Trace Bankson’s emotional and intellectual development throughout the course of the novel, ending with his visits from his biographer. How do you think his experience with Nell and Fen affected and changed him? Talk about what may have kept him going after Nell’s death. Why did he not revert back to his suicidal path? Consider the quote that holds so much meaning for him from war poet Edward Shillito’s “Hardness of Heart”: “Tears are not endless and we have no more.”

The Wandering Falcon April 2016

April 2016 Book Selection

The Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group will meet Thursday, April 14th at 7 p.m. in the meeting room of the Fairfax Library to discuss our April book The Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad.

Discussion questions are below.

Here are some links for additional background and information:

Brief overview of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA)

Economist article from 2009 describing Waziristan

Season Two of the podcast, Serial, looks deeply into the kidnapping of Bowe Bergdahl, who was held by the Taliban in the FATA areas. Their website has lots of maps and information.

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

Thurs. May 12^th        Euphoria by Lily King

Thurs. June 9^th         Mary Coin by Marisa Silver

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 Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad

1.       How would you describe life within an itinerant tribe? What intrigues you about this kind of existence? Would you be cut out for the harsh realities of desert life?

2.       How would you describe the interactions between the tribes? How do they settle disputes? Is there any common ground that the tribal groups share? Were you surprised by the diversity or sheer number of tribes in this region?

3.       How would you describe the interactions between the tribes and the “civilized” culture? What are the challenges or injustices that they endure? What is lost in translation, and why are there so few voices of support? For example, do you think the Baluchs had a fair trial? Or, do you think the conflict with bureaucracy snuffed out the Kharot tribe and their flock?

4.       “The pressures were inexorable. One set of values, one way of life had to die. In this clash, the state, as always proved stronger than the individual. The new way of life triumphed over the old” (page 52). How is life changing for the tribes with modernization accelerating around them? What will be lost when their culture is extinguished—or do you think their way of life can be preserved?

5.       What have you learned about this remote corner of the world? Have you researched or looked into the geopolitical importance of the FATA today?

6.       What is Tor Baz’s influence on the events and people that inhabit the book? What is his journey like, and what events shape him? Is he a sympathetic, likable character? Where are his alliances?

7.       How does honor—and revenge—play a role in the lives of the tribesmen?

8.       Why do you think the author switched to a first person voice for the story “The Guide”? The speaker is a foreigner to the region, and is in search of something profound. What is it? Does he find it?

9.      What roles are open to women in tribal life? How would you describe the female characters’ lives?

10.   Did you enjoy the vignette style of this book? Do you think the author was successful in painting a vibrant, energetic world through such small windows? Did you find yourself transported?

11.   In a way, this book tells an important “nonfiction” story through a fiction lens. What importance does the role of fiction play in helping us understand the world?

The Martian March 2016

March 2016 Book Selection

The Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group will meet Thursday, March 10th at 7 p.m. in the meeting room of the Fairfax Library to discuss our March book and the One Book/One Marin selection, The Martian by Andy Weir.

Discussion questions are below.

Here are some links for additional background and information:

Challenges of traveling to Mars

Will we ever colonize Mars?

Two sites with photos of Mars – National Geographic and EarthSky.org

Mars 2020 Project

Sir Francis Drake High School White Mountain Mars project

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

Thurs. Apr.14^th          The Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad

Thurs. May 12^th        Euphoria by Lily King

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 Martian by Andy Weir

1. How did The Martian challenge your expectations of what the novel would be? What did you find most surprising about it?
   
   2. What makes us root for a character to live in a survival story? In what ways do you identify with Mark? How does the author get you to care about him?
   
   3. Do you believe the crew did the right thing in abandoning the search for Mark? Was there an alternative choice?
   
   4. Did you find the science and technology behind Mark's problem-solving accessible? How did that information add to the realism of the story?
   
   5. What are some of the ways the author established his credibility with scientific detail? Which of Mark's solutions did you find most amazing and yet believable?
   
   5. What is your visual picture of the surface of Mars, based on the descriptions in the book? Have you seen photographs of the planet?
   
   7. Who knew potatoes, duct tape, and seventies reruns were the key to space survival? How does each of these items represent aspects of Mark's character that help him survive?
   
   8. How is Mark's sense of humor as much a survival skill as his knowledge of botany? Do you have a favorite funny line of his?
   
   9. To what extent does Mark's log serve as his companion? Do you think it's implicit in the narrative that maintaining a log keeps him sane?
   
   10. The author provides almost no back story regarding Mark's life on Earth. Why do you think he made this choice? What do you imagine Mark's past life was like?
   
   11. There's no mention of Mark having a romantic relationship on Earth. Do you think that makes it easier or harder to endure his isolation? How would the story be different if he was in love with someone back home?
   
   12. Were there points in the novel when you became convinced Mark couldn't survive? What were they, and what made those situations seem so dire?
   
   13. The first time the narrative switched from Mark's log entries to third-person authorial narrative back on Earth, were you surprised? How does alternating between Mark's point of view and the situation on Earth enhance the story?
   
   14. Did you believe the commitment of those on Earth to rescuing one astronaut? What convinced you most?
   
   15. To what extent do you think guilt played a part in the crew's choice to go back to Mark? To what extent loyalty? How would you explain the difference?
   
   16. How does the author handle the passage of time in the book? Did he transition smoothly from a day-to-day account to a span of one and a half years? How does he use the passage of time to build suspense?
   
   17. Unlike other castaways, Mark can approximately predict the timing of his potential rescue. How does that knowledge help him? How could it work against him?
   
   18. When Mark leaves the Hab and ventures out in the rover, did you feel a loss of security for him? In addition to time, the author uses distance to build suspense. Discuss how.
   
   19. Where would you place The Martian in the canon of classic space exploration films like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Apollo 13, and Gravity? What does it have in common with these stories? How is it different?
   
   20. A survival story has to resonate on a universal level to be effective, whether it's set on a desert island or another planet. How important are challenges in keeping life vital? To what extent are our everyday lives about problem-solving and maintaining hope?

21. The Martian is an intellectual exercise as much as a novel. It has been described as a “procedural” and “Holmesian.” Does a novel need more of an emotional underpinning to capture readers?

Station Eleven February 2016

February 2016 Book Selection

The Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group will meet Thursday, February 11th at 7 p.m. in the meeting room of the Fairfax Library to discuss our February book, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel.

Discussion questions are below.

Here are some links for additional background and information:

Story about the “ghost fleet” of ships off Singapore shores

Someone google mapped the locations of the Traveling Symphony

Arthur’s idyllic Delano Island is based on Denman Island in British Columbia where the author grew up

Ten things we wished we’d known before going off the grid

Interview with Prof. Joseph Tainter about sustainability and the collapse of civilizations

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

Thurs. Mar. 10^th        The Martian by Andy Weir (the One Book/One Marin selection)

Thurs. Apr.14^th          The Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad

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

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

1.    1. Now that you’ve read the entire novel, go back and reread the passage by Czeslaw Milosz that serves as an epigraph. What does it mean? Why did Mandel choose it to introduce Station Eleven?

2. Does the novel have a main character? Who would you consider it to be?

3. Arthur Leander dies while performing King Lear, and the Traveling Symphony performs Shakespeare’s works. On page 57, Mandel writes, “Shakespeare was the third born to his parents, but the first to survive infancy. Four of his siblings died young. His son, Hamnet, died at eleven and left behind a twin. Plague closed the theaters again and again, death flickering over the landscape.” How do Shakespearean motifs coincide with those of Station Eleven, both the novel and the comic?

4. Arthur’s death happens to coincide with the arrival of the Georgia Flu. If Jeevan had been able to save him, it wouldn’t have prevented the apocalypse. But how might the trajectory of the novel been different?

5. What is the metaphor of the Station Eleven comic books? How does the Undersea connect to the events of the novel?

6. “Survival is insufficient,” a line from Star Trek: Voyager, is the Traveling Symphony’s motto. What does it mean to them?

7. The prophet discusses death: “I’m not speaking of the tedious variations on physical death. There’s the death of the body, and there’s the death of the soul. I saw my mother die twice.” Knowing who his mother was, what do you think he meant by that?

8. Certain items turn up again and again, for instance the comic books and the paperweight—things Arthur gave away before he died, because he didn’t want any more possessions. And Clark’s Museum of Civilization turns what we think of as mundane belongings into totems worthy of study. What point is Mandel making?

9. On a related note, some characters—like Clark—believe in preserving and teaching about the time before the flu. But in Kirsten’s interview with François Diallo, we learn that there are entire towns that prefer not to: “We went to a place once where the children didn’t know the world had ever been different . . . ”. What are the benefits of remembering, and of not remembering?

10. What do you think happened during the year Kirsten can’t remember?

11. In a letter to his childhood friend, Arthur writes that he’s been thinking about a quote from Yeats, “Love is like the lion’s tooth.”. What does this mean, and why is he thinking about it?

12. How does the impending publication of those letters affect Arthur?

13. Arthur remembers Miranda saying “I regret nothing,” and uses that to deepen his understanding of Lear, “a man who regrets everything,” as well as his own life. How do his regrets fit into the larger scope of the novel? Other than Miranda, are there other characters that refuse to regret?

14. Throughout the novel, those who were alive during the time before the flu remember specific things about those days: the ease of electricity, the taste of an orange. In their place, what do you think you’d remember most?

15. What do you imagine the Traveling Symphony will find when they reach the brightly lit town to the south?

16. The novel ends with Clark, remembering the dinner party and imagining that somewhere in the world, ships are sailing. Why did Mandel choose to end the novel with him?

Lovers at the Chameleon Club January 2016

January 2016 Book Selection

The Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group will meet Thursday, January 14th at 7 p.m. in the meeting room of the Fairfax Library to discuss our January book, Lovers at the Chameleon Club: Paris 1932 by Francine Prose.

Discussion questions are below.

Here are some links for additional background and information:

Video interview with author, Francine Prose

Article discussing the book with terrific links for additional information

Brassaï biography with some of his Paris photographs

Henry Miller in Paris with Brassaï

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

Thurs. Feb. 11^th        Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Thurs. Mar. 10^th        The Martian by Andy Weir (the One Book/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

Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932

1. The story of Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932 centers around Lou Villars. Who is she? What do we learn about her as the novel progresses? What three adjectives would you use to describe her?

2. The novel is told in the voices of the various contemporaries of Lou. How does this method of narration add to the drama and depth of the story? Do you trust one viewpoint more than another? Did you like one narrator more than another?

3. There is another voice in the novel that is not part of Lou's circle—or even of the time—Nathalie Dunois. What does her voice add to the story? When you learn about Nathalie later in the book, how does it affect your understanding of Lou? What is Francine Prose trying to convey to us about the nature of narrative truth? Can we trust any of the characters in the book? Can we ever trust personal narrative—whether in fiction or nonfiction? What are the implications for our understanding of these characters—especially Lou?

4. Discuss Lou's circle—the photographer Gabor Tsenyi, his girlfriend Suzanne Dunois, Baroness Lily de Rossignol, the Chameleon Club's manager, Yvonne Nagy, the American journalist Lionel Maine, German racer Inge Wallser, and even the collaborator Jean-Claude Bonnet. What impact did they have on Lou's life and outlook? Describe a few of them as individuals and their relationships with each other. What do they each think of Lou? What do Lou's subsequent actions hold for each of their lives? Choose one character and tell the story from his or her viewpoint.

5. What precipitated Lou's actions before and during the war? Was it spurned love, lost opportunity, or something more? Think about her character. Might Lou have acted the same way even if circumstances were different? How much influence did the Nazis have over her? Think about her childhood. How did the circumstances of her youth shape her? What about notions of nationalism and cultural chauvinism? Did they color who she was? Do you think she ever really considered the consequences of her choices?

6. Talk about the Chameleon Club. What purpose does it serve in the novel? Who were its patrons and what drew them there? What about Lou? How were places like the Chameleon Club indicative of their time?

7. Discuss the Paris that is recreated in the pages of the novel. How is the city itself a character? What is intriguing about Lou Villar's Paris? Would you have liked to visit this Paris? Can you feel the winds of change shifting in the novel? How does Francine Prose create mood and atmosphere? How do both add to the story as it unfolds?

8. In her biography of Lou, Nathalie writes, "Not only does creative work mine the rich veins of the unconscious, it also has an uncanny ability to obtain what the artist needs, from the world." How does creative work "mine the rich vein of the unconscious"? How does it have "an uncanny ability to obtain what the artist needs, from the world'? Use examples from this work or another to explain your understanding of Nathalie's words.

9. What is the role of art in the novel? How is it used to elevate the spirit and how can it be used for evil? Think about the period. How did the Nazis use art to promote their cause?

10. Would Lou feel at home with the political atmosphere today—the divisions between left and right, the anger over immigration, the "takers" and the "makers"? How does Lou's world compare to today? Use examples from the story to illustrate your ideas.

11. Late in the novel, the Baroness confides, "During the Occupation we learned to live with fear and humiliation, anger and insults, the witnessing of horrific scenes one could hardly believe were real." How did their lives and their art change as the political situation shifted —as their feelings of freedom turned to terror as fascism took hold?

12. At the end of the novel, well after the war, we learn that Lionel Maine is obsessed with the end of the movie Carrie, from Stephen King's horror novel. Why do you think that final scene—of the dead Carrie's arm punching through the ground where she is buried—affects him so much?

13. What are your impressions of Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932? Did it meet your expectations? What made your group choose to read the novel? What did you take away from your reading? If you've read other stories that bring to life this period and place, how do they compare to Lovers at the Chameleon Club?

14. What is the significance of Pablo Picasso’s story of the artist in Malaysia who learns he is living with cannibals when he goes on to describe French culture? “The French are cannibals. Those Malays or whoever have nothing on the French. .. Picasso said that he and I, an American and a Spaniard, were the same to the French. They would eat us when they get hungry…

Outline December 2015

December 2015 Book Selection

The Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group will meet Thursday, December 10th at 7 p.m. in the meeting room of the Fairfax Library to discuss our December book, Outline by Rachel Cusk.

Discussion questions  are below.

Here are some links for additional background and information:

Essay by Rachel Cusk published in McLean’s

Interview with Rachel Cusk about her books and recent play, Medea

A video conversation with Rachel Cusk

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

Thurs. Jan. 14^th        Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932 by Francine Prose

Thurs. Feb. 11^th        Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Thurs. Mar. 10^th        The Martian by Andy Weir (the One Book/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

Outline by Rachel Cusk

1. What do we learn about the almost anonymous narrator, Faye, throughout the book?

2. Each character speaking to Faye discusses their relationships. How do the characters feel about their relationships? Do these revelations tell us anything about Faye’s relationships?

3. How does the author describe success vs failure through the conversations in the book?

4. Is this a feminist novel?

5. The New Yorker review says the romantic relationships described by the characters Faye talks to “diminish” the parties. The Guardian review says Cusk writes, “a cool-headed meditation on the doomed nature of relationships.” Do you agree with these assessments? Can you find examples in the book?

6. The narrator, Faye, can’t explain why her marriage ended, saying, “among other things a marriage is a system of belief, a story, and though it manifests itself in things that are real enough, the impulse that drives it is ultimately mysterious.” How would you reply to her? Consider her musings on the realities behind her airplane seatmate’s description of the failure of his marriages.

7. Faye tells her neighbor (p. 170), “I had come to believe more and more in the virtues of passivity, and of living a life as unmarked by self-will as possible. … I had decided to want nothing at all.” Does Outline reflect her passivity? Is it possible to live a life passively?

8. What is the significance of the broken glass ceiling panel told by Penelope in Faye’s writing class?

9. Melete describes a former student who appears at all of her readings and makes faces. She calls his behavior “madness” Do you agree? Could there be another reason?

10. In Chapter 9, the students discuss their animal stories and other stories from their lives. Do any of their stories stand out to you?