Leaving Eden (25 page)
Reading Group Questions and Topics for Discussion
What is the significance of the title
Leaving Eden
? How does it work on both a literal and a figurative level?
Tallie’s mother, Deanie, quotes the poet Robert Frost: “Home is the place that, when you go there, they have to take you in.” How does this indicate Deanie’s attitude about her hometown? In which ways does she stand out there? How are Tallie’s feelings about Eden similar and different?
What is Tallie’s reaction to Deanie’s departure and subsequent return? How does Tallie feel inadequate compared to her mother? In which ways does she feel abandoned by her? How are mother-daughter relationships presented in the novel, including those between Goody and Deanie, Mrs. Reynolds and Sarah, and Mrs. Wilkins and Sue Beth?
“A person’s as big as her dreams,” Tallie recalls her mother saying. At the beginning of the novel, what are Tallie’s dreams, big and small? How does she measure her dreams against the ones of those around her? Why does she adopt Deanie’s dream as her own? Does she ever believe it’s truly her own aspiration?
Tallie doesn’t believe that anyone she knows, other than herself and her mother, has the capacity to dream. How is she proven right or wrong? What actions, both good and bad, do Deanie and Tallie undertake in order to realize their dreams?
How does Tallie characterize the relationship between her parents, and how accurate is her viewpoint? Does the partnership seem imbalanced? What do you think attracted Deanie to Luddington, and vice versa? What role does Tallie play in their relationship? What is the dynamic of the family unit before Deanie’s departure, and afterward?
What is Tallie’s relationship with her father like both before and after Deanie’s death? How do they both cope with their grief? Do you think that Tallie is stronger than her father? In which ways does Tallie need someone to take care of her? In which ways is she older than her years, and how is she younger?
Were you surprised to learn that Deanie’s abandonment of Tallie was actually her death from cancer? What techniques does Deanie use to brave her illness? How do humor and laughter play a part? In which ways does imagination alleviate her pain? How do the people around her cope with her sickness and death?
How does Martha Lee serve as a foil to Tallie’s mother? What does Tallie learn from their friendship? Does Martha Lee act maternally toward Tallie, or is she more of a nontraditional mother figure? What does Tallie admire about Martha Lee, and what would she like to change? What aspects of Martha Lee’s personality are reflected in Tallie’s? In Deanie’s?
Tallie compares everyone she comes in contact with to her mother. “Not like Mama” is her constant refrain. How does Deanie’s presence guide Tallie in her day-today life and overall? In which ways does Tallie most miss her mother’s influence? How do other women, like Martha Lee and Raylene, attempt to fill that void?
Tallie is upset when a social worker comments that she idolizes her mother. How accurate is his statement? Why does Deanie provoke such strong feelings in those who surround her? How does Tallie’s trip to California cast Deanie in a more realistic light?
Tallie keeps many things to herself, from her feelings for Spy Reynolds to her plans to flee to California. How does her “secret self” compare to the persona she projects to the outside world? Do others in Eden—everyone from Deanie to Luddington to Spy to Martha Lee—also possess a hidden identity? How do they express or hide that facet of their personality?
Physical appearances play a pivotal role in the novel. How does Deanie’s striking resemblance to Natalie Wood shape her life? How is Tallie driven by insecurities about her appearance? Why is
Glamour Day
so important to her, as well as to the ladies at the Klip-N-Kurl?
How does Tallie’s makeover on
Glamour Day
affect her behavior toward Spy? What about Spy is so appealing to Tallie? How does her initial impression of him differ from how she comes to feel about him? Why does Spy, in turn, find Tallie intriguing? Does this surprise her?
Why does Martha Lee decide to attend
Glamour Day
? Why does she take Tallie’s spot? What facets of her personality does this reveal?
Did the disclosure of Sarah’s drowning surprise you? In which ways, both subtle and overt, does it affect Tallie’s behavior? Why do you think Tallie skipped Sarah’s funeral? How is this characteristic or uncharacteristic of her personality?
What is Tallie’s initial conception of the Reynolds family? How do they appear to the outside world? How does their outward demeanor conceal secrets?
Initially, why doesn’t Tallie believe the rumors that Sarah killed herself? What are the clues that point to Sarah’s suicide? How does Mrs. Reynolds stand in sharp relief to Tallie’s mother, particularly in relation to her children? How does Spy react to these forces and the emotions they unleash within him?
Why does Spy come to Tallie after he has been arrested? What compels her to make love to him? What is her attitude toward the possibility of having his baby? How are her feelings similar and different to her mother’s feelings toward Sasha?
Why did Deanie make a special trip to find Sasha? What do you imagine their reunion was like? Do you think Deanie would have believed Sasha’s assertion, “It takes more than an accident of blood to make a family”? Why or why not?
What is Sasha’s attitude toward Tallie when she shows up on her doorstep? Do you think that Tallie was surprised to discover an older sister? How does Tallie react to the secrets that Sasha reveals about their mother? Do you think that Tallie and Sasha will ever be in contact again?
What about her visit to Natalie Wood’s grave evokes such a strong emotional response from Tallie? Why do you think that her father undergoes a significant change at this point in the novel?
“Wanting is a powerful thing,” Anne LeClaire writes in Leaving Eden. How does LeClaire present the different forms of desire? How is desire a positive force in Tallie’s life and in the lives of those around her? In which ways is it detrimental?
What propels Martha Lee to fall in love and get married? How do you envision her life together with Tallie’s father? How do you think Tallie will adjust to having Martha Lee as her stepmother?
Why does Tallie initially begin to keep her book of sayings and advice? What does it grow into?
The last line of the book is from Tallie’s journal: “The Queen of Cures is Love.” How does this theme resonate throughout the book? What other lessons has Tallie learned?
about the author
Anne D. LeClaire is a novelist and short story writer who teaches and lectures on writing and the creative process. She has also worked as a radio broadcaster, a journalist, an op-ed columnist for
The Cape Cod Times
, and a correspondent for
The Boston Globe
. Her work has appeared in
The New York Times,
Redbook,
and
Yankee
magazine, among others. She is the mother of two adult children and lives on Cape Cod.
Leaving Eden
is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
A Ballantine Book
Published by The Random House Ballantine Publishing Group
Copyright © 2002 by Anne D. LeClaire
Reader’s Guide copyright © 2003 by Anne D. LeClaire and The Random House Ballantine Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by The Random House Ballantine Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
Ballantine and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc. Ballantine Reader’s Circle and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
The epigraph from “Dream Boogie” by Langston Hughes is from
The Collected
Poems of Langston Hughes
edited by Arnold Rampersad, published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1994.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2003091797
eISBN: 978-0-307-41580-6
v3.0
