For those of you that haven't or couldn't attend book club lately, we'll be publishing the previous months' discussion questions here. I hope eventually to post discussion questions for all of the books we've covered since I took over a couple of years ago and beyond, all the way to the beginning over a decade and a half ago. It will take a while. Until then, we will be posting discussion questions on a weekly basis. Here are the questions from a 2008 title, The Mistress's Daughter. We hope these questions spark discussions of your own.
The Mistress's Daughter
by A.M. Homes
Summary:
The "fierce and eloquent" (New York Times) memoir by the award-winning author of May We Be Forgiven and This Book Will Save Your Life
The acclaimed writer A. M. Homes was given up for adoption before she was born. Her biological mother was a twenty-two-year-old single woman who was having an affair with a much older married man with a family of his own. The Mistress's Daughter is the ruthlessly honest account of what happened when, thirty years later, her birth parents came looking for her. Homes relates how they initially made contact and what happened afterwards, and digs through the family history of both sets of her parents in a twenty-first-century electronic search for self. Daring, heartbreaking, and startlingly funny, Homes's memoir is a brave and profoundly moving consideration of identity and family. -- Publisher Description
"A compelling, devastating, and furiously good book written with an honesty few of us would risk." —Zadie Smith
"I fell in love with it from the first page and read compulsively to the end." —Amy Tan
Discussion Questions
As part of the process of discovering herself, Homes pursues genealogical research, uncovering her family tree and even having her DNA mapped. To what degree have you ever been interested in discovering your family history? Why does ancestry matter to us?
What do you believe is the source of identity—nature or nurture? Use your own experiences growing up to make your argument.
Adoption is a popular topic in the news and a current celebrity trend. What are your views? Would you consider adopting a child?
What was your reaction to Homes’s birth mother? Her father? Her adoptive parents? Where did your sympathies lie in reading the book?
Do you think Homes would have been better off not knowing her birth parents? Explain your answer.
How do you define “family”? How did you develop that definition?
Had you read any other memoirs before this? If so, which ones and what did you enjoy about them? If not, how did the experience of reading a memoir differ from reading a novel?
If you could ask Homes one question, what would it be?
People write memoirs for a number of personal reasons but the books usually center on one theme or event. If you were to write a memoir, which theme or event would you focus on? What title would you give your book?
Questions by Reading Group Guides
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