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1. The city of Paris becomes a
character in its own right throughout the novel. What is the
significance of Paris to the story itself? What does it mean to Margie
when she lives there and to Madeleine as she reads about it?
2. What are the family patterns that are carried through the three
generations of women—Margie, Simone, and Madeleine? How are they similar
and how are they different?
3. Madeleine has a difficult relationship with her mother, Simone. Did
you feel sympathy for Simone at any point? Have you experienced a
mother-daughter dynamic like this in your own life?
4. How are Margie and Madeleine’s relationships with their mothers
similar? How are they different? Do you think the habit of parents
placing expectations on their children is a breakable pattern?
5. Madeleine and Margie want independent lives, but both have been very
sheltered. In what ways are they prepared or unprepared for the
realities that face them?
6. The story takes place during two different time periods: 1924 and
1999. What do those years have in common, and how do they affect the
story?
7. Madeleine escapes to her home town of Magnolia in the same way that
Margie escapes to Paris. Do these two cities have anything in common?
How are they different? Do they impact Madeleine and Margie in similar
or different ways?
8. Margie wants to write, Madeleine to paint. How does their art affect
both their lives and what happens in the story?
9. Did Margie make the right choice? What were the consequences of her
decision?
10. At the end of the novel, Madeleine gets a studio to paint in—a room
of her own. What is the significance of this space for Madeleine? How
does it affect her character?
11. How have circumstances for women changed between the different time
periods of Margie and Madeleine’s stories? In what way are they the
same?
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