"After This" Discussion Questions

Background

I used discussion questions from BookBrowse (http://www.bookbrowse.com/reading_guides/detail/index.cfm?book_number=1875) as a jumping-off point for my own, although not all similarities have been obscured. The opening question worked particularly well as a warm-up.


After the program, I dutifully wrote up the following summary for the library’s “Events Evaluation” webpage.


For the most part, everyone participated in equal measure, offering thoughtful, mostly positive comments and observations. I abandoned my prepared list of questions early on, but not because they didn't work. After the first two, the discussion developed its own momentum. A number of participants offered their own prepared questions, for which they were eager to have feedback. Only two members of the group had previously read anything by McDermott, which makes me even happier with the selection of "After This". Grateful comments all around after the program concluded.


Introduction
In her sixth novel, Alice McDermott takes us on an elliptical tour of John and Mary Keene and their four children: Jacob, Michael, Annie, and Clare. In this most understated of family sagas, McDermott provides us with a series of vignettes that span the years from just after World War II into mid-1970s. The characters and setting are vintage McDermott: Irish-Catholic Long Island suburbanites. As with all her fiction, there are many passages, skillfully observed scenes, worth savoring, which make the audio version of the book a distinct challenge, especially while driving.

Questions
1. Had you previously read any books by Alice McDermott? If not, is she an author with whom you were familiar? What were your expectations as you began reading this novel?
2. McDermott’s writing style has been praised for its effective use of imagery and understatement. How well are these elements put to use in telling the story of the Keene family?
3. In another writer’s hands – Colleen McCullough or John Jakes, for example – After This might have been stretched out to 3 times its length. How successful were you in filling in the blanks of the Keenes’ lives?
4. What examples of McDermott’s understatement stopped you in your tracks? (The essence of Pauline: It would be Pauline’s way to say, No you didn’t. It would be Pauline’s way to refuse the decorum of the fib, to embrace the painful honesty.)
5. Mary is the first character that we get to know in the book. She is 30, with no husband in sight, works full-time in a Manhattan office, and lives with her father and brother. What kind of path did you think her life was going to take at this time? After the first 8 pages of the book, how well did you feel that you knew Mary?
6. What about the two men we know about in Mary’s life before she married John: her brother’s friend George and Mike Shea. How did they shape your understanding of her life as a married woman and mother unfolded?
7. Why does Mary continue to remain friends with Pauline throughout her life? Is Pauline a difficult person because she never married, or did she never marry because she's such a difficult person?
8. Why does the wind always seem to be blowing during the first quarter of the novel? (The bitter April wind in Manhattan, the windy beach on Labor Day, the downed tree.)
9. In the first decade of the 21st century, how far removed are we from the type of family life depicted in After This? What does the future hold for Clare and Gregory?
10. What’s the significance of the novel's title?
11. How important is the church in the lives of the Keene family? How does the role of the church change from one generation to the next? Why did McDermott use Sister Lucy's story (page 214) as one of her vignettes?
12. The 27 customer reviews of After This on amazon.com comprise a wide spectrum of reactions. 10 people gave the book 5 stars, 8 gave it 4, 3 gave it 3 stars, 2 gave it 2 stars, and 4 gave it 1 star. Here’s what Arlene had to say: The author spends so much time giving details about episodes and I kept thinking "so what?" It seems like much detail was given to meaningless aspects of the story and so much was left out that would have been more interesting. Each chapter was like a short story unto itself, and then just dropped. No interaction between the family members themselves, just insanely boring details about their individual lives. I wish I HAD just borrowed it from the library and not been out my money. If Arlene was sitting with us right now, how would you respond to her?
13. If characters in books could be given awards, I’d nominate Mrs. Antonelli for a “best supporting” role. How does the chapter in which she appears – when Jacob takes Clare out of school under false pretenses – help to fill in the gaps of what we know about the Keenes? Why do you think that McDermott seemingly stuffs this chapter full of personal memories?
14. How would you describe this book to a friend how had never previously anything by McDermott?