Hi All,

book club at my house tomorrow night.  Here are the questions for discussion:

1. In the opening pages, we discover that the boy of the title has died. And yet, he is a catalyst for everything that happens afterward. How did you perceive the boy's role in the story--as an absence? A presence? A sort of invisible stage manager? Did you sometimes forget that he was no longer alive?  

2. Did you notice that the boy was not given a name in the novel. Why do you think the author did this and do you think it mattered?

3.Why do you think it was important to Belle, that Quinn finished the boy’s time helping Ona?

4. For the first time in her life, Ona gives away her secrets—to a child. What is it about the boy that Ona instinctively trusts?  

5."You reveal a character in two ways," the author has said. "One, how the character views the world. Two, how the world views the character." Does this insight apply to the characters here? Quinn, for example, is rightly regretful for his fatherly failings, and yet the boys in Resurrection Lane trust and rely on him completely. How do varying perceptions combine to make fictional characters feel real?  

 6. "I have deficiencies," the boy tells Ona. Does he? The author has said that she created the boy before the word "autism" or "Asperger's" entered the American lexicon. "He's just who he is," Belle says, bristling against labels.  Is Belle right? Does it matter?

7.The author has said, "If a writer can't make you like a character, she must at least make you understand him." Despite Quinn's flaws, do you like him? If not, did you understand why he behaves the way he does?  

8.When Ona explains the Guinness World Records to Belle and Quinn, she observes: "How tranquilizing it was to arm yourself with information, how consoling to unpack the facts and then plant them like fence pickets, building a sturdy pen in which you stood alone, cosseted against human fallibility." Is this why the boy made lists? Is there a calming aspect to list-making that appeals to a certain type of person?

9. At 104, Ona is young compared to the world's oldest citizens. This is a surprise to both her and the boy. Was it a surprise to you? Did meeting Ona change your assumptions about extreme old age?  

10.The Guinness World Records plays a role in the book. If you were to set a record, what would it be?  

Kaye

Houskeeping July

Hello all,

Just a reminder to post your questions up on the blog the week before.

In addition - when the questions post comes up, please comment if you are attending or not on the post. This will allow people to cater to the numbers.

Tamara, Georgia, Avis and Mel - you should now receive email updates and also have been sent an invitation to access the blog as an author (if you haven't already.)

Happy Reading

Trilby

July Bookclub rounding it up!

Trilby
Score: 5/10
Comment: An enjoyable page turner.

Mel
Score: 7/10
Comment: Eastern Mothers and and Western daughters.

Tahnee
Score: 6/10
Comment: Enjoyable read after some heavy going novels.

Avis
Score: 6/10
Comment: Fortune cookie say 'enjoyable read.'

Georgia
Score: 7.5/10
Comment: Good to read it older.

Tamara
Score: 6/10
Comment: A story of enduring female bonds...




 

august's book

Hi All

I won't be at tonight's book club meeting as I will be on my way to Darwin.
Book Club is at my place next month and the book I have chosen is The One in a Million Boy by Monica Woods.

Have a great meeting.

Kaye

July Discussion 'The Joyluck Club'

Afternoon ladies, 

I will be hosting bookclub at my house this week, I'll have the fire going and a lovely spread to share.. Look forward to seeing you all. (Give me a call if you need directions 0407 341 651, I'll leave the gate open.) 

Tamara x

Discussion questions are below. 

1.What are your thoughts on the structure of The Joy Luck Club? It is not a traditional novel told by one narrator, but the stories are very intricately connected. How did that affect your reading experience? What were some of the differences you noticed in the way that you read this book as opposed to other novels or collections of stories? 

2. Was there a particular story that has stayed with you the most? Why?

3. To what extent do these women experience acculturative stress? Does the initial stress endured by the first generation immigrant mothers create more or less conflict and challenge than that experienced by the second generation daughters? 

(Prompts for discussion: 

While Waverly was a prodigy and grew up to be successful in her career, Jing-mei (or “June” as she is called in America) has had more difficulty. Her parents also wished for her to be a “genius,” as if hard work alone could will it. 

Jing-mei Woo’s chapter “Best Quality” (p. 221) highlights the difference between Waverly and June’s expression of familial culture.) 

4. The goal of the mothers was to provide a better life for their children. Agree/Disagree. Is this singular to immigrant parents or universal to all parents? 

5. To what extent do the second generation daughters experience gratitude for their circumstance, comparative to their mother’s experience. 

(Prompt - Can a parent go too far with providing for their children, is this the case for any of the mothers with their daughters? Is this again singular to the immigrant parent or all parents?) 

(Prompt - It is a common conception that young Asian children are more driven than their peers and more likely to excel because their parents demand more of them. However, it is Waverly’s mother who influences Waverly to quit chess, due to a hurtful argument.)

6. To what extent does The Joy Luck Club perpetuate or challenge stereotypes of Chinese culture.

7.How are men portrayed in the novel? Discuss. 

8.How is marriage represented in the novel? 

(Prompt - Each of the women faces difficult choices when it comes to marrying—whether it be Lindo Jong being forced into an early union with a man she loathes, Ying-Ying St. Clair starting life over with an American man after being abandoned by her first husband, or Rose Hsu Jordan, who is facing divorce from a man whose family never understood her.)

9. When Jing-mei’s aunties tell her about her sisters, they insist that she travel to China to see them, to tell them about their mother. They are taken aback when Jing-mei responds. “What will I say? What can I tell them about my mother? I don’t know anything. She was my mother” (p. 36). How well do any of the mothers and daughters know each other in this book? Kind Regards,