Safekeeping: Discussion Questions

[Erika]

Hi, everyone. Since I work for the company that published SAFEKEEPING, I'm aware that there are suggested discussion questions on the company's website. If you'd like to use them to kick off the conversation, check https://figtreebooks.net/books/safeke....

[Amy]

A Five Star Read - Simply precious!

This was the selection for the Jewish Book Club, of which I appear to be the sole monthly reading member. It looked great, so I thought try again. Plus my friend from Westchester was also reading it, and she wrote me to tell me that she loved it and thought I would too. She was right.

I loved everything about this story. 6 (plus) very unusual and compelling characters, each interesting and complex and broken in some way. The story begins in New York, with Adam, a troubled but good hearted kid who has lost his way, and recently lost his grandfather, the only stable and loving person in his life, who has shaped his existence. His grandfather's legacy is a 700 year old brooch, about which this story centers, and will unfold. For reasons he can barely understand or explain, and to make something meaningful happen in his life, Adam travels to a Kibbutz in Israel, (set in the last dying days of the Kibbutzim) to find an old lover and return the brooch. He arrives at the Kibbutz, broken, and alone, and the Kibbutz is dying. As is its founder, Ziva, passionate, idealistic, pioneer, and early Zionist. There are many more characters, trying to fix and heal their lives, but fascinating, there is Claudette, the French orphan with OCD, Ofir, a young bombing victim, Ulya, a Russian 1/8 Jew who is just trying to survive, and get to New York at any cost, Ziva, Adam, Ziva's son Eyal, Ulya's Arab lover, Dov, a young idealist, and a dog named Golda. The story is wonderful, and traces through the history of each of the characters. And really shows the experience of the Kibbutz and what that was about. And how and whether any or some or all of the characters ultimately find healing, transcendence, or freedom. My heart stays with this book and each of the characters within it. Plus it just made my top ten.

[Erika]

So glad that you responded this way to SAFEKEEPING, Amy!

Amy wrote: "A Five Star Read - Simply precious!

This was the selection for the Jewish Book Club, of which I appear to be the sole monthly reading member. It looked great, so I thought try again. Plus my frie..."

[Jan]

We ended up with two discussion threads for Safekeeping by Jasmine Hope. This one had fewer posts, so will lock it. Any further posts by future readers may be written on the other discussion thread, also in the 2016 Books/Discussions folder.