Little Gale Gumbo (49 page)

7. For most of their lives, Josie is considered the fragile sister, while Dahlia is believed to be the strong one. Do you agree with that assessment? If not, why?

8. Both Josie and Dahlia are devoted to their mother, but see their roles as daughters very differently. While Josie feels a responsibility to protect her mother and help keep the peace with Charles, Dahlia is constantly encouraging Camille to stand up to him, much to Josie's dismay. In your experience, have you observed similar situations among siblings?

 

9. Charles spends most of the book as an arrogant bully who tries repeatedly to disrupt his wife and daughters' new home until he is finally sent to prison for what everyone believes will be the rest of his life. But when he emerges, he is clearly a broken and bitterly subdued man. Did you feel any sympathy for him by the end of the book, and at any point did you believe he might have the capacity for redemption?

 

10. For much of the novel, Dahlia is at odds with many of the residents of Little Gale Island, from the time she is a rebellious teen up until she has a well-established business. Yet for all of her frequent grumblings about the island's conservative and judgmental views of her, she never leaves. What, or who, do you think keeps her there?

 

11. For all the anguish that Charles causes Camille, it might be hard to understand why she never divorces him. Why do you think she chooses not to legally end her marriage, even after she falls in love with Ben?

 

12. The island ultimately provides a safe and nurturing environment for Ben's and Camille's children, but it could be argued that living remotely as they grew kept the sisters and Matthew from moving on in certain ways. In what ways do you think the island nurtured their emotional development, and in what ways did it inhibit it? In your own life, have you ever felt held back by a place or a person? What did you do to move forward?