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A Home at the End of the World
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1. Discuss the significance of the title A Home at the End of the World. Does it suggest hope, despair, or both?
2. Consider the structure of the novel. Why do alternating narrators work for this particular story? How would the story differ if an omniscient narrator or only one character told it? Is there one narrator whose voice you found especially compelling or identified with most?
3. If you read The Hours or Flesh and Blood by Michael Cunningham what similarities do you notice in Cunningham's narrative style or themes with A Home at the End of the World? What distinguishes this book from his two later novels?
4. The third chapter was an award-winning short story entitled White Angel published in The New Yorker prior to the novel. What makes that chapter particularly effective as a separate story? How does the rest of the novel deepen and expand on that story?
5. On page 6, Jonathan mentions his father's "beauty". Do you agree with him that it is unusual to speak of a father in that way? Why? Is male beauty or behavior portrayed in similarly unexpected or surprising ways in the novel?
6. As a young mother, Alice says of her relationship with her son Jonathan and his best friend Bobby: "Sometimes in those days I thought of Wendy from Peter Pan - an island mother to a troop of lost boys" (page 87). What do you think she means? How does the theme of "lost boys" figure into the novel as a whole? What role do the women play in relation to this theme?
7. Discuss the eroticism fueling Jonathan and Bobby's childhood friendship. Do you think they view their shared sexual experiences differently? How does the erotic component of their relationship change as the novel progresses? Is there anything that remains constant?
8. On page 179, Jonathan says, "We become the stories we tell about ourselves." How might this observation apply to Jonathan, Bobby, Clare, and Alice? Do you view the stories these characters tell themselves as a form of self-preservation, self-delusion, or both?
9. Do you think Jonathan, Bobby and Clare's attempt to redefine family succeeded or failed? Why? What do you think defines a family? What do you think the novel is ultimately saying about family?
10. What role does Erich play in the character's lives? In what ways do you think he is a catalyst for change? Discuss the significance of death in the novel.
11. In Bobby's final chapter, he thinks he spots a vision of Clare. "What I saw was just the wind blowing." he realizes. "It was either the wind or the spirit of the house itself, briefly unsettled by our nocturnal absence but to old to be surprised by the errands born from the gap between what we can imagine and what we can in fact create" (page 336). What do you think he means? Discuss the significance of this statement to the story as a whole.
Source reading group guide Picador.
I just wrote long answers to these questions but hit the wrong button on my mouse and they were deleted... not sure if I can face doing it all again. But I will try.1. Discuss the significance of the title A Home at the End of the World. Does it suggest hope, despair, or both?
Befroe I started reading, I thought this related to being out in the country, so it seemed okay, but with AIDS in the equation it obviously has a different meaning, more like despair. At the time there was no treatment.
2. Consider the structure of the novel. Why do alternating narrators work for this particular story? How would the story differ if an omniscient narrator or only one character told it? Is there one narrator whose voice you found especially compelling or identified with most?
I liked Bobby best in the Cleveland section, then I identified with Jonathan later. I thought the women were depicted quite negatively.
3. If you read The Hours or Flesh and Blood by Michael Cunningham what similarities do you notice in Cunningham's narrative style or themes with A Home at the End of the World? What distinguishes this book from his two later novels?
I've read The Hours but it's too long ago to recall enough to answer this.
4. The third chapter was an award-winning short story entitled White Angel published in The New Yorker prior to the novel. What makes that chapter particularly effective as a separate story? How does the rest of the novel deepen and expand on that story?
This is the chapter where all of Bobby's relationship with his brother Carlton is brought out, to the end of Carlton's life. I think it's the most moving section of the book, although there are some great observations later. Bobby feels he has to live not only for himself but also for Carlton and his parents, but instead of making him live life to the full, this seems to push him into a very safe existence, first in Cleveland, then going along with whatever Clare wants in New York.
5. On page 6, Jonathan mentions his father's "beauty". Do you agree with him that it is unusual to speak of a father in that way? Why? Is male beauty or behavior portrayed in similarly unexpected or surprising ways in the novel?
Yes, I think it's weird! As a girl I certainly never thought my father was beautiful. I appreciate male beauty but I think one's own parents are always icky.
6. As a young mother, Alice says of her relationship with her son Jonathan and his best friend Bobby: "Sometimes in those days I thought of Wendy from Peter Pan - an island mother to a troop of lost boys" (page 87). What do you think she means? How does the theme of "lost boys" figure into the novel as a whole? What role do the women play in relation to this theme?
I think this sums up the role of women in the novel very well. They don't have lives of their own other than looking after men and babies.
7. Discuss the eroticism fueling Jonathan and Bobby's childhood friendship. Do you think they view their shared sexual experiences differently? How does the erotic component of their relationship change as the novel progresses? Is there anything that remains constant?
The sexual relationship between the two comes from Jonathan. Bobby seems to me to be asexual. He is fond of Jonathan, and later of Clare, and so he allows sex to happen, but it doesn't seem important to him. Jonathan realises this and looks elsewhere after he goes to college. Maybe Clare realises too in the end, because she knows Bobby won't leave with her.
8. On page 179, Jonathan says, "We become the stories we tell about ourselves." How might this observation apply to Jonathan, Bobby, Clare, and Alice? Do you view the stories these characters tell themselves as a form of self-preservation, self-delusion, or both?
These questions are giving me a much more negative view of the book than I had when I read it! I gave it 5 stars, I'm questioning that now.
9. Do you think Jonathan, Bobby and Clare's attempt to redefine family succeeded or failed? Why? What do you think defines a family? What do you think the novel is ultimately saying about family?
I think they failed because ultimately the mother-child bond could not admit other relationships. Ostensibly Clare left because she was worried about the effect of Erich's illness on Rebecca, but really I think it's clear she was jealous of Jonathan's relationship with Rebecca and wanted to cut him out.
10. What role does Erich play in the character's lives? In what ways do you think he is a catalyst for change? Discuss the significance of death in the novel.
11. In Bobby's final chapter, he thinks he spots a vision of Clare. "What I saw was just the wind blowing." he realizes. "It was either the wind or the spirit of the house itself, briefly unsettled by our nocturnal absence but to old to be surprised by the errands born from the gap between what we can imagine and what we can in fact create" (page 336). What do you think he means? Discuss the significance of this statement to the story as a whole.
1. When I think of a home at the end of the world, I think of New Zealand, or maybe Patagonia, certainly not somewhere as close to things as upstate New York! Figuratively, I think of it as a sanctuary, and in the book the house becomes one, especially for Erich.2. I thought that the different narratives worked particularly well, especially as they were read by different people in my Audible version. I was particulaly fond of Jonathan as a child, especially when he yearned for his father's touch, but he became much less likeable as an adult who repressed his emotions. Bobby was the most interesting character, but the adult reader slurred his words so I became irritated when he was speaking.
3. Like Rosemary, I read The Hours too long ago to be able to comment.
4. Because I listened, rather than read, I did not notice that this chapter might be particularly effective as a separate story. It was, however, vividly written.
5. I don't think it is at all unusual to be aware of the beauty of a parent, nor did I find male beauty or behaviour portrayed unexpectedly. What I did find irritating were the way Alice and later Clare kept on harping about their age. I did not think that their obsession with youth was either normal or attractive. I tried to remember whether I ever worried about looking older in my thirties, forties or fifties, and I don't think I did! I suppose this comment is meant to highlight Jonathan's homosexuality, but I don't find admring beauty the perogative of homosexuals.
6. Alice had a particularly close relationship with Jonathan, but she coped well with his intense friendship with Bobby. I think every parent thinks of their adolescents as lost in some way. Clare is an unusual female role, in that she is very close to Jonathan without having a sexual relationship with him and being tolerant of his gay affairs. At the end we realise what a lost soul Jonathan really is.
7. I think Jonathan was more invested in his relationship with Bobby when they were young, but he easily left both his mother and Bobby behind when he went to college. He and Bobby became close again, but Bobby craved intimacy and he found it in Clare,
8. The stories we all tell about ourselves have element of sef-delusion!
9. I thought they did a very good job of making a family. Bobby was the main catalyst in widening the family that Clare and Jonathan started to include Erich at the end.
10. Erich was in love with Jonathan. but couldn't tell him, probably because he knew that his love was not reciprocated. He was peripheral to the story, in my opinion.
11. Bobby sensed that Clare was leaving permanently, whereas Jonathan had not a clue. Her leaving was more devastating for Bobby, as Rebecca's father, than it should have been for Jonathan, who doted on her despite not being her father. I felt that the family could have been successful if Clare had stayed.
1. I agree with both Pip and Rosemary although I personally read this as a hopeful story so I am more leaning on the sanctuary and a safe place idea.
2. I listened to this on audio and the alternating voices work really well. The reader I liked most was Alice with her southern accent and I appreciated her candour and clear sightedness. I found all the narratives compelling and enjoyed building up a better picture of life. This would have been lost with an omniscient narrator as there would be no secrets left for the reader to interpret themselves.
3. I have read The Hours but cannot remember it.
4. As an effective short story it encompasses one persons thoughts and feelings about family and it is not essential to know anything more about the relationship than what we are told. In terms of moving the novel on it explains why Bobby is so lost and directionless.
5. It did seem weird the way he spoke about his father and about being in love with him and I would say that is still an unusual way for a boy to view his father traditionally this is how a boy would view his mother (Oedipus Complex). Take away the familial relationship and there is nothing unique about male beauty.
6. Jonathon is clearly gay from a very young age and as such is lost outside the "norm". Bobby is a drifter with a tragic family history and he is looking for security. The women in the novel are very much there to guide and support the men who do in fact seem lost and directionless without them. It is also the women who have to make the tough decisions and to choose themselves over the men.
7. Teenagers discovering sex. For Jonathon I would say it was love for Bobby it was an experiment a way of belonging. Jonathon is only sexually attracted to men throughout whereas Bobby seems to be bisexual. What remains is their reliance on each other and a shared past.
8. I think they are all self-delusional to a point. They tell themselves their alternate lifestyle is the new way of living and that it will last but the ever practical Alice sees through this and knows that men and women will view children differently.
9. I think they failed because they didn't stay together. It was too much for Clare to accept the death and risk of death around Rebecca. That said family is defined by people who love and care for each other so if Clare had stuck it out it would have been a successful. I don't believe there is a fixed criteria for a family.
10. Erich is a past lover of Jonathon he raises the spectre of AIDs and of death. His coming causes Jonathon to fear his own mortality, it brings out the caring side of Bobby and it makes Clare realise she doesn't want her child to grow up surrounded by loss and death in that way it is a catalyst for Clare leaving. It also shows the reader the different way Jonathon views his love for Bobby and his sexual activity with other men.
11. I think Bobby hoped it was Clare returning he knew she was leaving for good when she asked him to go with her and he chose to stay with Jonathon I don't think he regrets that decision but he regrets the lost oppurtunity. Houses are all haunted by the memories of the people who live there.
2. I listened to this on audio and the alternating voices work really well. The reader I liked most was Alice with her southern accent and I appreciated her candour and clear sightedness. I found all the narratives compelling and enjoyed building up a better picture of life. This would have been lost with an omniscient narrator as there would be no secrets left for the reader to interpret themselves.
3. I have read The Hours but cannot remember it.
4. As an effective short story it encompasses one persons thoughts and feelings about family and it is not essential to know anything more about the relationship than what we are told. In terms of moving the novel on it explains why Bobby is so lost and directionless.
5. It did seem weird the way he spoke about his father and about being in love with him and I would say that is still an unusual way for a boy to view his father traditionally this is how a boy would view his mother (Oedipus Complex). Take away the familial relationship and there is nothing unique about male beauty.
6. Jonathon is clearly gay from a very young age and as such is lost outside the "norm". Bobby is a drifter with a tragic family history and he is looking for security. The women in the novel are very much there to guide and support the men who do in fact seem lost and directionless without them. It is also the women who have to make the tough decisions and to choose themselves over the men.
7. Teenagers discovering sex. For Jonathon I would say it was love for Bobby it was an experiment a way of belonging. Jonathon is only sexually attracted to men throughout whereas Bobby seems to be bisexual. What remains is their reliance on each other and a shared past.
8. I think they are all self-delusional to a point. They tell themselves their alternate lifestyle is the new way of living and that it will last but the ever practical Alice sees through this and knows that men and women will view children differently.
9. I think they failed because they didn't stay together. It was too much for Clare to accept the death and risk of death around Rebecca. That said family is defined by people who love and care for each other so if Clare had stuck it out it would have been a successful. I don't believe there is a fixed criteria for a family.
10. Erich is a past lover of Jonathon he raises the spectre of AIDs and of death. His coming causes Jonathon to fear his own mortality, it brings out the caring side of Bobby and it makes Clare realise she doesn't want her child to grow up surrounded by loss and death in that way it is a catalyst for Clare leaving. It also shows the reader the different way Jonathon views his love for Bobby and his sexual activity with other men.
11. I think Bobby hoped it was Clare returning he knew she was leaving for good when she asked him to go with her and he chose to stay with Jonathon I don't think he regrets that decision but he regrets the lost oppurtunity. Houses are all haunted by the memories of the people who live there.
Mod
Before reading the book I would say the title probably sounded a little ominous to me but after reading it I would now say hopeful.
2. Consider the structure of the novel. Why do alternating narrators work for this particular story? How would the story differ if an omniscient narrator or only one character told it? Is there one narrator whose voice you found especially compelling or identified with most?
I like books with alternating narrators, it is nice to get each characters perspective. I enjoyed all the characters and they each had their own back stories. I had sympathy for Bobby the most.
3. If you read The Hours or Flesh and Blood by Michael Cunningham what similarities do you notice in Cunningham's narrative style or themes with A Home at the End of the World? What distinguishes this book from his two later novels?
I have read The Hours back in 2016, I don’t remember the particulars but just that I liked the book. One of the similarities is multiple narrators but that is all I can remember.
4. The third chapter was an award-winning short story entitled White Angel published in The New Yorker prior to the novel. What makes that chapter particularly effective as a separate story? How does the rest of the novel deepen and expand on that story?
This chapter titled Bobby is where tragedy happens to the family. They were a family of four until an accident changed everything. Four became three became two and then one. Bobby is affected by this tragedy his whole life, always searching for a family.
5. On page 6, Jonathan mentions his father's "beauty". Do you agree with him that it is unusual to speak of a father in that way? Why? Is male beauty or behavior portrayed in similarly unexpected or surprising ways in the novel?
On page 10 Jonathan says “When I had altered my face I looked long into the mirror, considering the effect. My blackened eyes glittered like spiders above the lush white froth. I was not ladylike, nor was I manly. I was something else altogether. There were so many different ways to be a beauty.”
Bobby talking. “When she dresses up you can see what it is about her, or what it was. She is responsible for Carlton’s beauty. I have our father’s face.”
6. As a young mother, Alice says of her relationship with her son Jonathan and his best friend Bobby: "Sometimes in those days I thought of Wendy from Peter Pan - an island mother to a troop of lost boys" (page 87). What do you think she means? How does the theme of "lost boys" figure into the novel as a whole? What role do the women play in relation to this theme?
I think Alice likes being in Jonathon’s good graces, she decides to be his friend instead of his parent. She talks of secrets “I was a mother who got stoned with her son.” “I felt young and slender, full of devious promise. There would be a life after Cleveland.” Alice always resented having moved to Cleveland. Alice states further “I was the character I wanted to be.”
Now that I have finished the novel, Bobby and Jonathan were lost boys, searching for family, love, etc the entire novel. Alice and Clare were the caretakers of the “lost boys”.
7. Discuss the eroticism fueling Jonathan and Bobby's childhood friendship. Do you think they view their shared sexual experiences differently? How does the erotic component of their relationship change as the novel progresses? Is there anything that remains constant?
I liked Rosemary’s answer that Bobby was asexual, I hadn’t thought of that but it made sense.
8. On page 179, Jonathan says, "We become the stories we tell about ourselves." How might this observation apply to Jonathan, Bobby, Clare, and Alice? Do you view the stories these characters tell themselves as a form of self-preservation, self-delusion, or both?
Jonathan says “For the occasion of sex I always slipped over into an identity that was not quite my own. When rabbity when making love I was like my own hypothetical older brother, a strong, slightly cynical man who lived adventurously, without the rabbity qualms that beset my other self.”
Clare says “…aging woman in love with gay man gets pregnant to compensate herself for the connections she failed to make.”
9. Do you think Jonathan, Bobby and Clare's attempt to redefine family succeeded or failed? Why? What do you think defines a family? What do you think the novel is ultimately saying about family?
I think it failed because Clare left, she could no longer take the situation and wanted out. I think family is defined by the people you choose to love.
Bobby says of their threesome “We needed all three points of the triangle. We needed mild manners, perversity, and a voice of righteousness.”
“I look into her scared, aging face. I think I know what frightens Clare - a certain ability to invent our own futures has been lost. Now we are following a plan that got made in a haphazard way along a highway in Pennsylvania. Now the good things are the predictable ones, and surprises mean bad news.”
Clare said “All right, I liked it best when the boys were gone.”
Jonathan says “You think Bobby and I are each half a man. That’s why you ended up with the two of us. Together we add up to one person in your eyes. Right?”
10. What role does Erich play in the character's lives? In what ways do you think he is a catalyst for change? Discuss the significance of death in the novel.
Jonathan’s relationship with Erich showed that he could not commit to an adult relationship. When Erich moves in it is one more immature man that Clare has to take care of, I think that was the tipping point for change for Clare. Clare also says “Jonathan can take care of Erich. It’s time he started to take more responsibility, don’t you think?”
When Clare and Rebecca leave, the boys turn their attention to Erich, almost babying him.
Bobby says “We here are in the other world, a quieter place, more prone to forgiveness. I followed my brother into this world and I’ve never left it, not really.” “We both have devotions outside the world of living. It’s what separates us from Clare, and from other people.”
11. In Bobby's final chapter, he thinks he spots a vision of Clare. "What I saw was just the wind blowing." he realizes. "It was either the wind or the spirit of the house itself, briefly unsettled by our nocturnal absence but to old to be surprised by the errands born from the gap between what we can imagine and what we can in fact create" (page 336). What do you think he means? Discuss the significance of this statement to the story as a whole.
I think he means creating a family through friendship.
1. Discuss the significance of the title A Home at the End of the World. Does it suggest hope, despair, or both?To me it suggested hope, especially after reading the poem in the epigraph which concludes with the line “Recognize his unique and solitary home.” The first brief chapter suggests this as well – passing the farm which Bobby imagines as a home where all things are possible.
2. Consider the structure of the novel. Why do alternating narrators work for this particular story? How would the story differ if an omniscient narrator or only one character told it? Is there one narrator whose voice you found especially compelling or identified with most?
We need to understand why each of them “arrive” at the farm in the condition that they are in (although it’s important to note that we do not get a chapter with Clare until the guys meet her – so she gradually fills us in on her childhood and adolescence, whereas we are “there” as the guys experience important moments). This gives the reader insight into each character that the other two don’t possess – we get their perspectives on the others but only WE know what each is thinking and what they are thinking about each other (if that makes sense). Additionally, if we only had one narrator, we wouldn’t get a sense of why they each choose their unique life on the farm, why they each long for a family but cannot necessarily form or fit into a traditional one. Finally, Bobby is so quiet, we need his chapters to understand his motivations and feelings; he doesn’t articulate them even with Clare and Jonathan. I don’t think there is one I identified with the most – as I read each chapter, I kind of adopted each character in turn.
3. If you read The Hours or Flesh and Blood by Michael Cunningham what similarities do you notice in Cunningham's narrative style or themes with A Home at the End of the World? What distinguishes this book from his two later novels?
I have seen and read The Hours. In terms of narrative structure, both books move between different narrators, although in The Hours, the women never know each other, and we only realize some of the connections by the end. Both books are concerned with people who do not fit into conventional society and are even stifled by it (to the point where they contemplate or even commit suicide, in the case of The Hours). Both books are also concerned with the impact of AIDs on the gay community, as well as the way individuals respond to its threat. It struck me that Alice in A Home... is a lot like Clarissa in The Hours – both fill their days by attending to trivial details and trying to forget how dissatisfied they are (and in this respect are doubles for Mrs. Dalloway).
4. The third chapter was an award-winning short story entitled White Angel published in The New Yorker prior to the novel. What makes that chapter particularly effective as a separate story? How does the rest of the novel deepen and expand on that story?
It’s pretty self-contained, revealing almost all you need to know about Bobby’s family and why he is the way he is. You know that family is going to dissolve. You know that Bobby will be traumatized and shut down emotionally. It also contains one of the novel’s major themes in a nutshell – the dreams of Carlton’s generation. As Bobby puts it, “He has arranged a blind date with between our parents’ friends and his own. It’s a Woodstock move. He’s plotting a future in which young and old have business together.” And it shows the failure of that dream in the tragedy of Carlton’s death (so needless and so sad). The rest of the novel will explore how Bobby and Jonathan and Clare attempt to do something similar (break from tradition) by creating a non-traditional family. It also hints that they (like Carlton) will fail.
5. On page 6, Jonathan mentions his father's "beauty". Do you agree with him that it is unusual to speak of a father in that way? Why? Is male beauty or behavior portrayed in similarly unexpected or surprising ways in the novel?
I did find it unusual partly because it is so rare to portray men as objects of desire – in traditional novels and Hollywood movies, they are the ones who desire, not the ones who are gazed upon with desire. Given that Colin Farrell plays Bobby in the movie, I expected Bobby to look like him, and I was surprised that Cunningham devotes a lot of time to descriptions of male bodies that are not idealized but are still attractive to others – Bobby, for example, is hairy and portly, and Erich has a pinched, sharp face and receding hairline.
6. As a young mother, Alice says of her relationship with her son Jonathan and his best friend Bobby: "Sometimes in those days I thought of Wendy from Peter Pan - an island mother to a troop of lost boys" (page 87). What do you think she means? How does the theme of "lost boys" figure into the novel as a whole? What role do the women play in relation to this theme?
She likely means that, although she is still young (like Wendy, only slightly older than the boys), the only role she can play in their lives is that of mother. In one of the Jonathan’s later chapters, he states that he and Bobby have bond that does not have room for another friend, even for Clare. That may be why Clare also plays mother to a troop of lost boys (and one little Tinkerbell, now that I think of it). Both Bobby and Jonathan are outcasts from mainstream society, and Erich becomes part of their lost boy tribe as well. By the end it is just a group of lost boys caring for each other.
7. Discuss the eroticism fueling Jonathan and Bobby's childhood friendship. Do you think they view their shared sexual experiences differently? How does the erotic component of their relationship change as the novel progresses? Is there anything that remains constant?
I don’t think it was “erotic” for Bobby as it was for Jonathan. Bobby later admits that he cannot “desire” sexually the way other people do, perhaps because he shut down emotionally after his brother’s death. Even though he is attached to Clare and Rebecca, he lets them go, knowing they won’t be returning. Jonathan would never have been able to do that, especially with Rebecca. Although Jonathan and Bobby do not have sex as adults, they are very comfortable with each other’s bodies in a way that most men are probably not (e.g. the night on the roof with ice cubes, dancing together, etc.).
8. On page 179, Jonathan says, "We become the stories we tell about ourselves." How might this observation apply to Jonathan, Bobby, Clare, and Alice? Do you view the stories these characters tell themselves as a form of self-preservation, self-delusion, or both?
I liked this line when I read it, but I’m not sure how to answer this question. We become who we pretend to be, I guess, and many (all?) of us are lying to ourselves about why we do things, what we want out of life, and/or the people we choose to share our lives with. Alice is a good example of this; as she says, she stayed in a “safe” little life out of fear and convinced herself that she was happy or at least content because she had a nice kitchen and a clean home.
9. Do you think Jonathan, Bobby and Clare's attempt to redefine family succeeded or failed? Why? What do you think defines a family? What do you think the novel is ultimately saying about family?
It seemed successful for a while. At least Bobby and Jonathan were truly happy with the life they created. Clare’s happiness was complicated by her role as mother (a thankless role, it seems). After Rebecca is born, she takes priority, so even if Clare was happy there (and she doesn’t seem to be), she would have left because it was the right thing to do for her daughter. When Rebecca is grown and has lived in the world, she can return to the idyllic farmhouse if she chooses, but first she must experience the real world.
As for what it is saying about family... it’s cliché , but it seems to be saying that all families have secrets, all families have problems. You can make a family that you choose yourself or stick with the one you are born into, but they are all flawed. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t care about the people in them and treat them well, but you shouldn’t look for something that doesn’t exist (maybe that is the home at the end of the world).
10. What role does Erich play in the character's lives? In what ways do you think he is a catalyst for change? Discuss the significance of death in the novel.
Initially, Erich functions to reveal the substance of Jonathan’s love life – he keeps himself at a remove, only has one-night stands, and rushes through even those encounters. It struck me that he wasn’t entirely comfortable with his sexuality. It also relates to the theme of “the stories we tell ourselves.” Jonathan thinks that if he finds “the one,” that will magically make him a fully realized person (“Like many of us,” he says of Clare, “she had grown up expecting romance to bestow dignity and direction.) And Erich (like everyone else) is flawed, so he can’t be the “the one” for Jonathan.
When Erich returns, suffering from AIDS, he reveals how each one of them responds to death. Bobby, who has experienced the worst and most tragic death, ironically responds to him with the most compassion and care, inviting him to return, realizing that he has no one else to care for him. Clare can care for his physical needs but does not attach herself to him emotionally. Jonathan sees his potential future in Erich and realizes that he can’t expect anyone to care for him if he cannot care for someone else.
Death takes many different forms in the novel, but it strikes me that it is a catalyst for change, both good and bad. The tragic death of the too-young Carlton warps Bobby’s family into something ugly and doomed. The expected death of Bobby’s father frees Alice. Erich’s impending death makes Clare realize that she must take Rebecca away.
In Bobby's final chapter, he thinks he spots a vision of Clare. "What I saw was just the wind blowing." he realizes. "It was either the wind or the spirit of the house itself, briefly unsettled by our nocturnal absence but to old to be surprised by the errands born from the gap between what we can imagine and what we can in fact create" (page 336). What do you think he means? Discuss the significance of this statement to the story as a whole.
This seems related to Jonathan’s line above, “We become the stories we tell about ourselves.” These stories are not necessarily accurate, but they can become our truths, our lives. And we can dream all sorts of lives with all possible variations of lovers and families and friends, but that doesn’t mean they are sustainable as reality. And it’s not just Bobby and Jonathan and Clare, it’s always been this way.
Before the phenomenal success of this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Hours, Michael Cunningham published A Home at the End of the World to critical acclaim. It's the boldly affecting story of a love triangle between two men and a woman: Jonathan, headstrong and lonely; Bobby, dreamy and vulnerable; Clara, charismatic and adventurous. Challenging conventional notions of family and sexuality, the story spans four decades, reflecting many of the cultural changes and contradictions of America itself. In many ways more relevant than when it first appeared, A Home at the End of the World is an unflinching re-examination of the definition of family and gender roles, determined to explore unanswered questions raised by Sixties and Seventies counter-culture that dog us to this day.
Source reading group guide Picador.