"Girls in White Dresses" Discussion #6

Where do you imagine Isabella, Mary and Lauren will be in five years? 

Did you enjoy reading the book?  What other books have you read that are similar?

Suggested Reading:

Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
Little Earthquakes by Jennifer Weiner
Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
How to Make an American Quilt by Whitney Otto
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

This concludes Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close.  In January, we will discuss The Last Policeman by Ben Winters.

"Girls in White Dresses" Discussion #5

From "Flushing Willard" 

When they were younger, Lauren and her friends talked about boys constantly.  They told each other every detail and dissected each sentence.  Bus as the years went by and they moved into separate apartments, it changed.  These weren't just random boys they were going to date and then break up with.  These were boys they might end up marrying.

What were Lauren's reservations about dating Mark?  What did Willard the goldfish's death mean to her?
Why is Lauren ready to call the turtle Mark gives her Rudy, when she wouldn't use that name for Willard the goldfish?

"Girls in White Dresses" Discussion #4

Throughout the book, questions of identity pop up.  How are the girls questioning their identity, their place in life?  Who seems to have created the strongest sense of self by the end of the book? 

from Jesus is Coming, near the end.

"I'm not changing my name back," Beth told them.  "I thought about it, but I'm going to stay Beth White."  Isabella didn't think this was a wise decision.

"Why wouldn't she go back to Beth Bauer?" she asked Lauren.  "She doesn't have any kids.  It's so weird."

"I don't know," Lauren said.  "Maybe she's afraid no one will remember who she is."

"Maybe," Isabella said.  The thought left her uneasy.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.  There will be new posts beginning Monday, Nov 26.  Feel free to comment on any posts so far over the weekend.

"Girls in White Dresses" Discussion #3

The Peahens

Several of the characters keep some pretty big secrets, such as the way Abby keeps her friends away from her hippy parents.  How does keeping her family background a secret affect Abby's life? When her friends finally meet her family, are they as horrified as Abby thinks?  If they had met during the girls' college years, would their reaction have been different?

"The neighbors are neglecting their exotic birds."  "The peacock bleated and bobbed around the pen, and the peahens followed.  One of the peahens was slower than the other one, and she limped as she tried to keep up."

What is the metaphor of the peahen?  Why is Abby so upset about the injured peahen?

Leave your thoughts as comment so others can share.

"Girls in White Dresses" Discussion #2

Ambivalence toward jobs, men, apartments, and children is a recurring theme.  Why do you think that is?  Did you feel ambivalence toward these things when you were in your twenties?  Are you ambivalent now?

"Connor screamed with all of his might.  He fought against it with everything he had.  All he wanted was to know what to expect.  His world didn't look like he'd thought it would, and she understood.  How could he ceep calm if he couldn't see?  Isabella lay on the floor of the playroom upstairs and listened.  She heard the screams and she knew exactly how he felt.  He was right--she could hear it on her insides." (end of chapter "Blind")

Does Isabella's realization of Connor's problem help her?  Who else could this passage describe?

What do you think about the "Summer of Yes"?  (also in "Blind")  Does it help the girls meet people outside of their immediate circle?

Leave your thoughts as comments - so that others can share.

eBooks available for "Girls in White Dresses" and "Last Policeman"

Two books, Girls in White Dresses, and The Last Policeman, are available from the Library's Overdrive ebook service.  They can be checked out and downloaded to an ereader for 14 or 21 days.

Find the Overdrive ebooks on the library web page.  You will have to have a Grace A. Dow Memorial Library card number, and live within our legal service area.  Please call the library reference desk if you have questions:  989/837-3449.

Girls in White Dresses Discussion #1

How does Close use humor to convey character?  Are the women themselves funny, or the situations they find themselves in?

Which "girl" did you most closely identify with, and why?  Were (or are) you like these girls in your 20's?

Let me know by making a comment.  Anonymous comments are accepted.

Jennifer Close, author of Girls in White Dresses

With a wry sense of humor, Jennifer Close brings us through those thrilling, bewildering, what-on-earth-am-I-going-to-do-with-my-life years of early adulthood. These are the years when everyone else seems to have a plan, a great job, and an appropriate boyfriend, while Isabella has a blind date with a gay man, Mary has a crush on her boss, and Lauren has a goldfish named Willard. Through boozy family holidays and disastrous ski vacations, relationships lost to politics and relationships found in pet stores, Girls in White Dresses pulls us deep inside the circle of these friends, perfectly capturing the wild frustrations and soaring joys of modern life. (from GoodReads)

Jennifer Close was born and raised on the North Shore of Chicago. She is a graduate of Boston College and received her MFA in Fiction Writing from The New School in 2005. She worked in New York in magazines for many years and then in Washington, D.C., as a bookseller. Girls in White Dresses is her first book.

A Visit from the Goon Squad Discussion #5

One part of the definition of "goon" is:

A bully or thug, esp. one hired to terrorize or do away with opposition.  How does that fit with this book?  How successful was Egan in expressing this concept?

In "A to B", Bosco says, "You don't look good anymore twenty years later, especially when you've had half your guts removed. Time's a goon, right?  Isn't that the expression?"

In "Pure Language", Bennie and Scotty are talking about what has happened to their lives.  " 'Time's a goon, right? You gonna let that goon push you around?' "  Scotty shook his head. " 'The goon won.' "


What are your thoughts about the passage of time?  What is your life story?  Is time a goon?

On November 1, we will begin discussing Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close.

A Visit from the Goon Squad Discussion #4: Sasha & Ted in Italy

"Good-bye, My Love" (p.157)  Sasha's Uncle Ted goes to Italy to search for Sasha, who had been missing for two years.  His journey is being paid for by his sister, Sasha's mother. 

Do Ted's recollections of her childhood explain Sasha's behvior?  To what extent is Sasha's "catalog of woes" representative of her generation as a whole?  How do Ted's feelings about his career and wife color his reactions to Sasha?

What does the flash-forward to "another day more than twenty years after this one" (p.175) imply about the transitory moments in our lives?

Discussion #3: Lou

Lou is in three consecutive stories:  "Ask me if I care", "Safari", and "You (Plural)". 

"Ask me if I care" is about Bennie and Scotty, Jocelyn and Rhea and Alice who are in high school in 1979.  Jocelyn has met Lou, a record producer from LA, who picked Jocelyn up hitchiking.    "... I'm waiting for Bennie. But Bennie is waiting for Alice, who's waiting for Scotty, who's waiting for Jocelyn . . . Jocelyn loves Scotty back, but she isn't in love with him. Jocelyn is waiting for Lou ...." (p.39 in my edition) Does this scenario seem familiar?  Do you think Jocelyn could run away to Lou's house in LA today without the police being called?  What kind of man is Lou?

In "Safari", Rolph and Charlie, Lou's oldest children, are on safari with Lou, his current girlfriend Mindy, and various hangers-on.  These events take place before the events in "Ask me if I care".  Why do you think the author has arranged her chapters in this order?  Does it add anything to the impact of the narrative?

In several stories, the narrator steps back and gives a quick summary of the rest of a character's life.  In "Safari", it is the 19-yr-old Samburu warrior who is part of the entertainment one night.  "The warrior smiles at Charlie.  ... Thirty-five years from now, in 2008, this warrior will be caught in the tribal violence between the Kikuyu and the Luo and will die in a fire. ..."  What does this information add to the narrative?  Did you find it disruptive or interesting?

Discussion #2: Bennie Salazar

Bennie Salazar is introduced at the beginning of "The Gold Cure" as being awash in "shame memories".  As the day goes on, he begins a list of these memories as a way of eradicating them.  Do you think this is a positive way to deal with the memories?  What does Bennie think the gold will do for him? 

On another note, do you agree with Bennie's opinion that digitization has ruined music?

 Bennie feels that music is "Too clear, too clean.  The problem was precision, perfection; the problem was digitization, which sucked the life out of everything that got smeared through its microscopic mest." (p. 24 in my version)

A Visit from the Goon Squad - Discussion #1

When we first meet Sasha, she tells her date, “I’m always happy…Sometimes I just forget.” Is this an accurate description of her? In the same chapter, we see her ‘writing [her] story of redemption, of fresh beginnings and second chances’. Do you feel that she got that second chance? Is it possible for someone with a chronic compulsion like hers to ever give up their self-destructive behavior; in short, by the end of the book do you think she’s cured of her kleptomania?  (from Between the Lines)

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

A Visit from the Goon Squad is a mash-up of interlinked stories with Bennie Salazar, aging rock producer; Sasha, his kleptomaniac assistant; and the people intersecting their lives.  Egan received the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for this work.  She was interviewed on Morning Edition - NPR in 2010.

The book is divided into Part A and Part B.  We will discuss the stories of Part A through October 15.  Discussion of Part B will begin on October 16 (or thereabouts).  Get ready to tell everyone what you think of Bennie, Sasha, Scotty, Alice, Jocelyn and Rhea.  How much do their lives from the late 70's to the late 90's resemble yours?

Discussion - "What You Do Out Here, When You're Alone"

How has Max and Lilli's move to the suburbs changed their relationship?

Why had they left Harley in jail that second night?  How did his "accident" the second night in jail factor into Max and Lilli's guilt?

What do you think of Max's decision to return to a simpler life and take Harley with him?  Do you agree?

Philipp Meyer

Now 38, Meyer spent 10 years teaching himself how to write.  In his interview with the New Yorker, He says he "decided I would throw everything away, everything I’d heard in college and everything else. I decided I would trust only myself."

His first novel, American Rust, was published in 2009.  It is set in a dying steel town in Pennsylvania, where two unemployed young men try to figure out what to do with their lives. 

In "What You Do Out Here, When You're Alone", Max and Lilli are blown apart by an "accident" that left their son in a coma.  They each have to come to grips with their guilt, and who will care for their comatose son.

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2010/06/14/100614fi_fiction_20under40_qa_philipp-meyer#ixzz27PWZprtD

One Last Question for "An Arranged Marriage"

What is the significance of the word "dumbstruck" to Amina

"An Arranged Marriage" discussion

The month is passing quickly.  Here are a few questions to think about with regard to "An Arranged Marriage" by Nell Freudenberger.

What do you think about Amina's plan to marry an American to get her to the United States?  Do you think she was honest with George about why she wanted to get married?

Whose viewpoint did you feel the narrator was taking?  Did it feel like the story was told mostly in one person's point of view?

Do you think Amina and George will have a happy marriage?


Next week I'll post information about our last story, "What You Do Out Here, When You're Alone" by Philipp Meyer

Nell Freudenberger

Nell Freudenberger is the author of "An Arranged Marriage" (p. 147).  A native New Yorker, Freudenberger spent a year teaching English in Thailand, and has traveled through other Asian countries.  In her interview for the 20 Under 40 project, she said that she "thought seriously about applying to medical school, and also about staying on in Asia". 

Freudenberger has since published a novel, The Newlyweds, based on Amina, the main character in "An Arranged Marriage".

More articles about Nell:

• Salon
• LA Times
• Glamour

"The Train of Their Departure" Discussion #2

Assuming that everything in the final paragraph happens, what do you think of Polina's choices?

How would you characterize the society that Polina, Maxim and Alec live in?  Would you want to live there?

Would you want to read the book, Free World, that incorporates this story?  Why?

Next week, I will post information about our second story, "An Arranged Marriage" by Nell Freudenberger.

"The Train of Their Departure" Discussion #1

From The New Yorker Q&A with David Bezmozgnis:

I wanted to write about the peculiarities and contradictions of romantic life in the Soviet Union. I was six when I left the Soviet Union, so I never experienced this life, but I grew up around many people who did. The Soviet Union seems to exist in the American imagination as a dour place, when it wasn’t like that at all. Except when it was.

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2010/06/14/100614fi_fiction_20under40_qa_david-bezmozgis#ixzz25cs9JcYz

Post your reactions as comments.

·         What was your emotional reaction to the story as a whole? 

·          How did the story reflect this dichotomy of Soviet life --  "dour" - "not dour"?

There will be another discussion thread started in a few days; but feel free to bring up you own thoughts as comments.

David Bezmozgis

David Bezmozgis is the author of our first story, "The Train of Their Departure".  The story was first published in the New Yorker's 20 under 40 issue in 2010.  Bezmozgis published his first book, Natasha and Other Stories in 2004.   He received the Toronto Book Award and the Commonwealth Writer's Prize for First Book for Natasha.  If you want to read the title story, "Natasha", it is included in the Best American Short Stories 2005.

Bezmozgis was born in Riga, Latvia, in 1977.  He immigrated with his parents to Toronto in 1980.  He attended McGill University, receiving a BA in English Literature, and the University of California's School of Cinema-Television, receiving an MFA.  His first feature film, Victoria Day, was released in 2009. 

I looked for this story online.  If you are a New Yorker subscriber, you can read it here.  Otherwise, you can check out a copy of the book at the library.

The Free World (2011) is his first novel.

New York Times article about the 20 Under 40 list.

Welcome!

The library is sponsoring an online book discussion group.   We will choose novels or short stories to read and post discussion questions.  This is where you come in.  Read the books and post your comments.  The library will have extra copies of the books being read.

In September, we will discuss three stories from the 20 Under 40  collection of stories from The New Yorker.  This is collection was carefully selected by the New Yorker's fiction editors in 2010.  All of the authors were under forty at that time. All of the stories appeared in the New Yorker Magazine.

The three stories are:

• The Train of Their Departure by David Bezmozgis (begins p.73)
• An Arranged Marriage by Nell Freudenberger (begins p.147)
• What You Do Out Here, When You're Alone by Philipp Meyer (begins p.237)

In the coming days & weeks, some background information about the authors will be posted.  We will talk about The Train of Their Departure first, beginning approximately September 5, and move on from there.

Check catalog for book