Part 13 (1/2)
by Joan Wickersham.
Reading Group Guide.
ABOUT THIS READING GROUP GUIDE.
The questions, discussion topics, and suggestions for further reading that follow are designed to enhance your group's discussion of The News from Spain and of Wickersham's near magical ability to capture the mystery and complexity of love.
ABOUT THE BOOK.
In seven beguiling stories Joan Wickersham explores the pa.s.sion and vulnerability, cruelty and tenderness of love in all its forms. The News from Spain presents a fascinating array of characters, settings, and perspectives: a long-married couple struggles with the repercussions of the husband's infidelity; a woman caring for her dying mother reconsiders their bond-and her own romantic relations.h.i.+ps; a young girl discovers that the search for connections and affection can lead to selfish and reckless acts; a paralyzed dancer weighs the cost of her dependence on her adored, unfaithful husband; and a widow and a young mother develop a surprisingly deep sense of trust and understanding during a brief afternoon conversation. In two clever and engaging stories Wickersham travels back in history. In one, she weaves vignettes about Mozart and his librettist into the story of two close friends and their love affairs; in the other, she imagines a love triangle among a journalist, a doctor, and the wife of a president.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION.
1. The book opens with a succinct yet palpable description of the motel Susanne and John are staying in: ”The rooms smelled of disinfectant and of bodies.... Outside, the wind was dazzling and salty” (this page). How does this establish an emotional backdrop to the narrative that follows? Which physical details in the descriptions of the wedding party (this page) and the meeting between Susanne and Barnaby (this page) offer insights into the psychological state of the characters?
2. Compare Barbara and Barnaby's reasons for getting married (this page) to Susanne's reflections on her marriage (this page). Do their points of view represent the real choices open to them or are they based on compromise and rationalization? Why are Barnaby and Susanne reluctant to share their thoughts with each other? Are there limits to the trust enjoyed between friends? If so, why?
3. Harriet and Rebecca know that between them ”love has always had to be proved. It is there; and it gets proved, over and over” (this page). In what ways does Harriet's illness become a testing ground for both of them? Is it surprising or unusual that ”they were having, in the middle of all this dire stuff, a good time together” (this page)? Why does their intimacy deteriorate during the periods Harriet when enjoys relatively good health?
4. How do the complexities of the mother-daughter relations.h.i.+p affect Rebecca's approach to the men in her life and influence the course of her affairs with Peter and with Ben?
5. The third story in the book, told in the second person, presents the point of view of an unnamed young girl; it is also the only story divided into distinct sections. What effect do these techniques have on the reader's impressions of the protagonist, the events described, and the other characters?
6. The narrative of the third story captures the awkwardness and excitement of becoming a teenager-of finding a place within a school's social structure, discovering the opposite s.e.x, flouris.h.i.+ng under a special teacher's care, and observing often puzzling adult behavior. In what ways do each of the mini-chapters in this story set the stage for scandalous revelation and the girl's reaction to it (this page)? Why is the summation (”The Rest of the Story” and ”The End”) related from an adult point of view?
7. What part do memories and dreams play in the dancer's attempts to reconcile herself to her physical helplessness? When her husband leaves for the tour, ”They kiss-familiar, fond, nothing more, except she thinks there is a careful brightness between them, an implicit understanding that to regret, or even acknowledge any awareness of, their mutual unerotic kindness would be pointless and unwise” (this page). Is this the best (or only) way for these characters to deal with their situation, or would they benefit from more openness and honesty?
8. What do the details about Malcolm's private life add to the central portrait of the dancer's troubled marriage? Are there similarities between the two relations.h.i.+ps? Between the dancer and Malcolm, the ch.o.r.eographer and Tim? What do the scene in the bathtub and the story the dancer tells Malcolm ill.u.s.trate about the power of illusion and fantasy in our lives?