"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 #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.