~*~Jan Book Club Discussion Time~*~

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-26-2003
~*~Jan Book Club Discussion Time~*~
69
Wed, 01-17-2007 - 8:35am

For those of you who are participating in our January Book Club----we are discussing today, the first half of the book!


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iVillage Member
Registered: 10-09-2004
Wed, 01-17-2007 - 5:27pm

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 01-17-2007 - 8:19pm

Okay, I'm not sure I can get up to speed here because I'm so far behind today but I'll try. I'm cutting and pasteing from my other post.


When David hands his baby girl over to Caroline and tells Norah that she has died, what was your immediate emotional reaction? At this early point, did you understand David’s motivations? Did your understanding grow as the novel progressed?





My immediate response was what a jerk, how dare he make a decision for her. I tried to remember that this was happening in 1964 when men did make the decisions for their wives and for the most part the wives accepted it. However I did not understand his motivation at all, I have no patience for the mind-set of "if I would react in one way then everyone would". Just because his mother lost it when his sister died (and I'm not saying it would be easy) he just assumed that all women would react the same way or that everyone would feel the way he did. He didn't give his wife enough credit for being an individual and having her own ideas and thoughts, it was a case of "women" can't deal with that so I'll protect her. As the book went on he still didn't seem to get it (until maybe near the end) that all women were not like his mother (especially his wife) and that not everyone reacted the way he did to emotional situations.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 01-17-2007 - 8:20pm

David describes feeling like "an aberration" within his own family (p. 7) and describes himself as feeling like "an imposter" in his professional life as a doctor (p. 8). Discuss David’s psyche, his history, and what led him to make that fateful decision on the night of his children’s birth.


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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 01-17-2007 - 8:21pm
When David instructs Caroline to take Phoebe to the institution, Caroline could have flatly refused or she could have gone to the authorities. Why doesn’t she? I think part of it was the time period. Women did not contradict men and especially if that man was your boss, a Dr. (big authority figure) and someone you were in love with. Was she right to do what she did and raise Phoebe as her own? It certainly was better than the life she would have had in the insitution. She likely would have died as a result of poor medical care. Was Caroline morally obligated to tell Norah the truth right from the beginning? Or was her moral obligation simply to take care of Phoebe at whatever cost? Not sure on that one, yes she kept the baby, but he was the father who gave it away, who's obligation was bigger. Why does she come to Norah after David’s death? I never figured that part out to be honest.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 01-17-2007 - 8:23pm
Though David wanted no part of her, Phoebe goes on to lead a full life, bringing much joy to Caroline and Al. Her story calls into question how we determine what kind of life is worth living. How would you define such a life? I think for most of us, we have a preset definition of a "good" life and it is difficult to accept that someone who has less (a good job, a relationship, family, materials goods) can also have a good life. That they can be happy just working in a copy shop. I'm guilty of that as well. In contrast to Phoebe’s, how would you describe the quality of Paul’s life as he grew up? I think Paul had a good life in the sense that the opportunities were there for him, however his parents were both so wrapped up in their own little worlds and spent all their time thinking about themselves, that he was pretty much left on his own. They loved him but it wasn't a loving upbringing.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 01-17-2007 - 8:23pm

Throughout the novel, the characters often describe themselves as feeling as if they are watching their own lives from the outside. For instance, David describes the moment when his wife is going into labor and says "he felt strangely as if he himself were suspended in the room . . . watching them both from above" (p. 10). What do you think Edwards is trying to convey here? Have you ever experienced similar feelings in your own life?

Okay, confession, I'm not someone who thinks about my feelings and that very much. So I don't really get him. Okay we all have moments where we go "holy crap, I can't believe this is happening to ME" either for good or bad. But we don't sit and ponder it for years on end. Get over it.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 01-17-2007 - 8:24pm
There is an obvious connection between David and Caroline, most aptly captured by a particular moment described through David’s point of view: “Their eyes met, and it seemed to the doctor that he knew her—that they knew each other—in some profound and certain way” (p. 12). What is the significance of this moment for each of them?

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 01-17-2007 - 8:25pm

After Norah has successfully destroyed the wasps’ nest, Edwards writes that there was something happening in Norah’s life, "an explosion, some way in which life could never be the same" (p. 139). What does she mean, and what is the significance of Norah’s "fight" with these wasps?


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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 01-17-2007 - 8:26pm

The secret that David keeps is enormous and ultimately terribly destructive to himself and his family. Can you imagine a circumstance when it might be the right choice to shield those closest to you from the truth?

Yes I can, but I don't think he was very good at it. There are people who have secrets just as large but they don't let it rule their life, they are able to lock it in that compartment and literally forget about it. He was useless at that and everything he did was a result of thinking about it, ruminating on it.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 01-17-2007 - 8:27pm

What do you think Norah’s reaction would have been if David had been honest with her from the beginning? How might Norah have responded to the news that she had a daughter with Down’s Syndrome? How might each of their lives have been different if David had not handed Phoebe to Caroline that fateful day?


I think she would have accepted the baby immediately. I get the sense that he could not have convinced her to send it to an institution. How might their lives have been different? Its impossible to say. Maybe they would have been happier, but maybe he married her for the wrong reasons anyway. Raising a Downs Syndrome child at that time was very very difficult and they talk about Caroline's stuggle with getting education and help so maybe that challenge would have driven them apart anyway. Strong marriages have been destroyed by the stresses of handicapped children before. Would David have been more accepting of Paul's music choices? Not likely, he was a product of his upbringing and the time he was raised. So its impossible to say if their life would have been "better" or ended on a better note. It would have been different obviously.

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