Do you think Fern is a sympathetic character? Maxwell notes, "Other people see that [she]...perhaps expects more of life than is reasonable" (p. 71). Do you agree with this observation? What exactly are reasonable expectations in life?

As Linda Richman would say, I'll give you a topic:

"What we, or at any rate what I , refer to confidently as memory--meaning a moment, a scene, a fact that has been subjected to a fixative and thereby rescued from oblivion--is really a form of storytelling that goes on continually in the mind and often changes with the telling. Too many emotional interests are involved for life ever to be wholly acceptable, and possibly it is the work of the storyteller to rearrange things so that they conform to this end. In any case, in talking about the past we lie with every breath we draw." (p. 27)

Discuss.

(Afterwards feel free to discuss one of Linda's actual topics? The Mormon Tabernacle Choir was neither Mormon nor a tabernacle nor a choir. Discuss.)

So Long, See You Tomorrow

William Maxwell was born in Lincoln, Illinois, where So Long, See You Tomorrow is set. Along with publishing his own writing, he worked as an editor of the New Yorker for forty years, editing the likes of John Updike, J.D. Salinger, and Eudora Welty. Like David Wroblewski described, So Long is part fact, part fiction. The affair and its tragic consequences between the farmer and his friend’s wife were actual events taken from the Illinois State Historical Library. And at the age of ten, Maxwell suffered the death of his mother from the 1918 influenza epidemic. He wrote of his loss, "It happened too suddenly, with no warning, and we none of us could believe it or bear it... the beautiful, imaginative, protected world of my childhood swept away." This life changing event would be at the center of many of his works.

I’ll put out a few questions over the next few days but please feel free to start your own post if there is something you want to discuss. Look at the comments on the last post for some good questions from Larisa. I’m really interested in hearing what everyone thinks about the book.

Question #1

Why does the narrator view his father’s happiness as a threat (p.17)? What does he mean when he says, “It was not the kind of happiness that children are included in”? The narrator admits that it still troubles him yet he does “not even begin to understand it.” Do you?

Question #2

Maxwell quotes the Spanish philosopher, José Ortega y Gasset, as saying that life is "in itself and forever shipwreck" (p. 22). What does this mean? (I admit that I looked this up online and tried to read about the existentialist philosophy and it hurt my sleep deprived head. So any help would be appreciated.) How do the narrator's and Cletus's life illustrate this idea?

Question #3

Alberto Giacometti’s sculpture “Palace at 4 a.m.” reminds the narrator of his father’s new house. Go here and click on the MOMA Multimedia to listen to what the curator has to say about this piece. How do you think this sculpture relates to the relationships in the book?