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- At the beginning of the novel, Madeline is enraged over Ziggy
not being invited to Amabella’s birthday party. Why do you think
Madeline becomes so angry about such a seemingly small injustice? Do
you think Madeline is the kind of person who just looks for a fight,
or do you think she was justified in feeling so upset? And do you
think that by tackling both ends of the spectrum —from schoolyard
bullying and parents behaving badly in the playground to displays of
domestic violence in all its incarnations—that the author is trying
to say something about the bullying that happens out in the open
every day?
- There is a lot of discussion about women and their looks. On the
beach Jane’s mom shows that she has rather poor body image. Jane
observes that women over 40 are constantly talking about their age.
And Madeline says, "She didn’t want to admit, even to herself, just
how much the aging of her face really did genuinely depress her. She
wanted to be above such superficial concerns. She wanted to be
depressed about the state of the world…." [p. 82] Do you think this
obsession with looks is specific to women, particularly women of a
certain age? Why or why not?
- There are a lot of scenes in which the characters say they wish
they could be violent: Jane says she wants to throw Ziggy into the
wall when he has a tirade in the bathtub, that she would hit Renata
if she was in front of her, and then she stops just short of kicking
Harper. Do you think the author is trying to show the reader Perry’s
side and have us sympathize with him? Or, rather, that feeling
violent is a natural impulse but one that people learn to suppress?
- When Ziggy has to do his family tree, Madeline comments, "Why
try to slot fractured families into neat little boxes in this day
and age?" [p. 184] A lot of Madeline’s storyline is about the
complications that arise from the merging of new modern families.
What kind of problems exist among families and extended families now
that didn’t when you were a child?
- When Jane recounts what happened the night she got pregnant, she
focuses on what the man said rather than on what he did. Why does
Jane feel more violated by two words – fat and ugly—than by the
actual assault? Jane seems to think the answer is "Because we live
in a beauty-obsessed society where the most important thing a woman
can do is make herself attractive to men." [p. 196] Do you agree?
- The power of secrets is a theme throughout the novel. Jane
remembers, "She hadn’t told anyone. She’d swallowed it whole and
pretended it meant nothing, and therefore it had come to mean
everything." [p. 220] Do you think this is a universal truth, that
the more you keep something secret, the more power it takes on?
- Gwen, the babysitter, seems to be the only one to suspect what
is going on with Celeste and Perry. Celeste then realizes she’s
never heard Gwen talk about a husband or a partner. Do you think the
author intended to intimate that perhaps Gwen had had an abusive
husband or partner and that she left him? And in light of what
happens at the end with Bonnie, do you think it’s only people who
have personally experienced abuse who pick up on the signs?
- At one point Jane thinks she and Ziggy will have to leave
Pirriwee because "rich, beautiful people weren’t asked to leave
anywhere." [p. 362] Do you think different rules apply to rich
people? Do you think being rich allowed Perry to get away with
things longer than would have been likely if he hadn’t had money?
- Bonnie says, "We see. We fucking see!" [p. 421] Were you
surprised to learn about Bonnie’s history? Were you surprised to
discover that all along Max had been seeing what Perry was doing to
Celeste?
- What did you make of the interview snippets to the reporter? Do
you think the author used them almost like a Greek chorus to make a
point?
- Madeline muses, "Maybe it was actually an unspoken instant
agreement between four women on the balcony: No woman should pay for
the accidental death of that particular man. Maybe it was an
involuntary, atavistic response to thousands of years of violence
against women. Maybe it was for every rape, every brutal backhanded
slap, every other Perry that had come before this one." [p. 430] And
then Madeline thinks, " Sometimes doing the wrong thing was also
right." Do you agree with this statement? Do you agree with what the
women decided to do? Do you think there’s a stronger bond between
women than there is between men? Were you surprised that women who
ostensibly didn’t like one another—Madeline and Bonnie, Madeline and
Renata—ended up coming together to help one another out?
- At one point in the book, Susi says that, in Australia, one
woman dies every week because of domestic violence. In the United
States, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or
boyfriends every day. Every nine seconds in the United States a
woman is assaulted or beaten. Domestic violence is the leading cause
of injury to women—more than that caused by car accidents, muggings,
and rapes combined. Are you surprised by these statistics? Why or
why not? Clearly, the author chose Celeste—the picture-perfect mom
and/ wife as well as an educated lawyer—to be the victim of domestic
violence in order to make a point. Do you think it’s plausible
that someone like her would fall victim to abuse such as this?
- Madeline comments that "there were so many levels of evil in the
world." [p. 433] Discuss the implications of this statement in light
of the novel and the novel’s different storylines.
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