"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?