Discussion Questions Part One

[Debbie]

Hey peeps here are the discussion Questions that I found on the author's website
there are 17 of them so I'm going to split them in 3 posts.
Remember Spoilers are okay because this is a whole novel discussion so you don't have to be careful of that.
Have Fun and keep your fingers crossed that I get the book sometime this month LOL :)


1. On the surface, Vivian’s and Molly’s lives couldn’t be more different. In what ways are their stories similar?

2. In the prologue Vivian mentions that her “true love” died when she was 23, but she doesn’t mention the other big secret in the book. Why not?

3. Why hasn’t Vivian ever shared her story with anyone? Why does she tell it now?

4. What role does Vivian’s grandmother play in her life? How does the reader’s perception of her shift as the story unfolds?

5. Why does Vivian seem unable to get rid of the boxes in her attic?

[April]

Vivian and Molly's lives are similar in the way that both of them know what it is like not to be in control of where they live, who they live with. They have to rely on others to take care of them and to treat them well. They have been in situations where they left one family with no idea where they were going or what their futures would hold.

I think giving up her daughter was the hardest thing Vivian had ever had to do. She was so afraid of loving someone with everything she had only to have them taken away from her. There had been so much loss in her life so far, she couldn't bear for it to happen again. She closed off that part of her life, deciding never to talk about it (even to her second husband) and resigning herself to the fact that she would never know what happened to her daughter.

I don't think she thought anyone else (besides Dutchy) would ever be able to come close to understanding her story. No one else would be able to know exactly what it was like to be on that train, being passed up based on no real reason, having people treat you more like a servant than a daughter. I think hearing a little about Molly's life, reminded Vivian of her own experiences and made her want to share her story. If anyone could relate to being passed from home to home and never quite feeling like they belonged anywhere, it would be Molly.

At first we learn of Vivian's happy memories of her grandmother, like when she gave her the Claddagh cross. Then we begin to see the fights that erupted between her mother and grandmother. The more we read on, Vivian questions how her grandmother could pay for her family's passage, knowing she would never be able to see them again.

Each box represented who Vivian was at that time in her life. They contained all the memories, good and bad, that led her to become the woman she is today. She never had much to remember her previous life, before starting another. No photographs, nothing really except her necklace. These things she held on to were her reminders of where she came from. Getting rid of the boxes would be like erasing part of her story.

[Edie]

I was truly taken aback by the "other big secret" Vivian doesn't mention in the prologue. Vivian wonders why her grandmother (her symbol of family, safety, and comfort) gave up her family and sent them to America, and Vivian also knows the hardships of being an orphan. Yet Vivian gives up her own child--her child with Dutchy! I know builds a shell around herself, to keep the outside from hurting her but the hurts, the shame and regret of that one big decision bottled up inside her shell must have gnawed at her over those years terribly.

It's been a few weeks since I read this now, but didn't the boxes contain the good memories? I think the human spirit does try desperately to cling to hope.

[Ang from OZ]

Okay, I am going to start with a few of my fav quotes from the book

"Why you're as handy as a pocket in a shirt"

"You can't find peace until you find all the pieces"

1. I think Molly and Vivian's life's are more similar than different, both have had to deal with the hardships of being "Orphans" I think perhaps they are different because they grew up in different era's.

2. I don't think Vivian mentioned her other secret because she wasn't ready to deal with it, I think she packed the feelings and hurt in one of her "so called boxes" to deal with later.

3. Why did Vivian share her story with Molly? Well I think Molly and Vivian are kindred spirits. And that no one else would have understood or connected with Vivian and her hardships like Molly did. I think Vivian thought it was her way of helping Molly deal with what was going on in her own life. As well as closure on certain things for Vivian.

4. Vivian's Grandmother to me was her life line to all things good in life.

5. I believe the boxes to Vivian were a part of herself. All those little bits and pieces made up part of what Vivian was and is. And helped to shape the woman she is now. By going through the boxes I think Vivian was able to finally be at peace with what happened to her in her younger years.