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Discussion
Questions
1. The book is divided into three parts: Utah, Los Angeles, and Mexico. How
do these three very different places shape Verna's understanding of herself
and the world? At the end of the book, why does she decide to return to Los
Angeles?
2. The Church of Latter-Day Saints is a rather secretive world, and Verna
opens a window into the day-to-day lives of Mormons in Utah. It is an
all-enveloping world, and we see how the members of the church built their
lives around its principles and community. Why did Verna and Leon decide to
leave the church, and what impact did that have on their future decisions?
What did you learn about Mormonism that you didn't know before, and how did
this affect your understanding of the characters?
3. Author Judith Freeman does not present a rosy view of marriage in this
book; from infidelity to violence to simple disillusionment, couples find
reasons to tear apart. Verna says that Leon left her, and that there was
nothing she could do to stop it. Is this true? Why does Vincent say that
Jolene left him? Inez's marriage to Carl is the most loving and positive in
the book, and it remains the defining relationship of her life. Do you think
it could have endured in the face of all the problems couples eventually
confront?
4. The Mormons in the book strive to demonstrate the good qualities of the
church: forgiveness, tolerance, and acceptance among them. But Verna's
family has trouble accepting Carl's wife Inez. Is this racism, or is it
merely the result of the remoteness and insularity of small-town life? Verna
says that Christobel "was of our family, but not in it. We could never
enfold her, take her in as one of us, not in a million years, and that was
our shame." There seems to be a paradox of simultaneous exclusion and
acceptance in the Mormon church. How does this paradox play out in the
characters' lives?
5. Vincent is an odd character—he is cold to Verna when they first meet,
then he befriends her, then he rebuffs her advance, and finally he declares
that she is his muse. Freeman portrays him as an uptight, rich, fragile
intellectual. What is the attraction between them? They see the world in
such different ways, from their favorite music, to the way they talk, to the
way they grew up. Do you think it was right for Verna decide to return to
him in the end?
6. Inez and Jim have the most obviously disastrous marriage—his jealousy
and violence make him dangerous for her. She makes a difficult choice in
deciding to leave him. Do you think she could have done it if Verna hadn't
come back into her life? Her decision to leave for Mexico also changes the
lives of many other people: how are Verna, Christobel, Duluth, and Jim
affected?
7. Vincent believes that every family has a central story and that one or
two events will act as defining points, collecting about them emotions and a
sense of common identity. What are these events in Verna's life? How do they
act to pull people in her family together? Sometimes other people, like
Duluth, are involved-does this make them family in some sense, for having
shared in the family's story of itself?
8. Verna is a remarkable narrator, because she seems innocent of the
pretensions and egotism that other characters have. She is almost
transparent, giving the reader a clear view of the events and people in her
life, while being hard to decipher herself. How does Verna's first-person
narration shape the novel? And how does her innocence as a character affect
her decisions?
9. The escape at the chinchilla farm seems to be one of the defining events
in Verna's childhood. Verna and her brother Stanley had loved tending to the
exotic little animals, and they were terrified of being accused of letting
them escape. Why is Verna so fascinated by them? What is it about the farm
that lends itself to the title of the book?
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