Monday, August 27, 2018

The House Girl, Tara Conklin


The House Girl

By Tara Conklin

(Tansley Reads Rating: 69%)
 
Icebreaker

Have you ever discovered anything unusual or interesting in your family history?

 

Questions

 

1.  What did you think about the idea of the law suit/reparation for the slaves?  Did you think it had any chance of being successful? [Is this the way to begin to right the wrong or would some other approach be better?]

 

2.  Josephine was Lu Ann’s “house girl” but more than that – Lu Ann taught her to read and write and allowed her to sketch with her.  What prompted Lu Ann to treat Josephine this way?

 

3.  Throughout this story few, if any, of the families are intact, even Grace fictionalizes family portraits.  How successful have the characters in this book been at creating family connections?

 

4.  Why did Oscar never tell Lina the real reason Grace was not in her life any longer? 

 

5.  What made Lina so determined to discover all she could about Josephine’s life?

 

6.  Why do you think Josephine left without her son after discovering his whereabouts?

 

7.  On an empty page in her favourite book, Grace Sparrow writes “who is free?”  Who experiences a lack of freedom in this story?  Do you think these characters achieve freedom by the end of the novel?

 

8.  Throughout this story there are examples of trust being betrayed (Samual betraying the Rounds, Garrison betraying Lina), how do they and we move on from that and trust others?

 

9.  Conklin introduces Caleb Harper and Dorothea Rounds as additional narrators, speaking through their letters.  What did their narrations add to the story?

 

10.  Why does the Stanmore Foundation attempt to suppress the truth about Josephine and Lu Anne Bell?

 

11.  Throughout this novel there is a bit of a haze over the racial background of some of the characters, does this matter for the story?

 

12 Oscar has placed the word “enough” on his portrait of Grace.  What do you think this means?  When have other characters in the story had “enough”?

 

13. What did you think of the ending of each of the two main characters stories? What do you think Lina will do next?

 

14. Quick round: What did you think of the book? Is there anything you want to discuss that we missed?

 

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