The Love Season (37 page)

Don’t Miss Elin Hilderbrand’s Other Nantucket Novels

The Blue Bistro

“A wonderful, wonderful love story, the kind that you read, then recommend to many many friends….”—James Patterson, bestselling author of
Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas

Summer People

“Striking not only for the ingenuity of its riveting plot, but also for the acute sense of character and the finely tuned craftsmanship with which Elin Hilderbrand brings it’s every nuance to life.”—Madison Smart Bell, author of
Anything Goes

Nantucket Nights

“Things get more twisted at every turn, with enough lies and betrayals to fuel a whole season of soap operas…readers will be hooked.”
—Publishers Weekly

The Beach Club

“Elin Hilderbrand’s first novel…holds up as a surprisingly touching work…a work of fiction you’re likely to think about weeks after you put it down.”
—People
magazine

Available from
St. Martin’s Paperbacks

1. What
   is
   the love season? Is it a place in time? An environment? A feeling? Take a moment to discuss the meaning of the title.
   
2. A show of hands: Who has been to the island of Nantucket? How is it similar or different than portrayed in
   The Love Season?
   Others: Does this book make you want to go there for a visit?
   
3. The action in
   The Love Season
   centers around two elaborate meals: the one Marguerite prepares for Renata, and the dinner party at the Driscoll’s. What is the significance of food—how it’s prepared, served, and appreciated—in
   The Love Season?
   Discuss the dynamics, and politics, of the dining table.
   
4. In what ways is reading a good novel like eating a good meal? Are readers ever truly satisfied at “The End”? Or are they always left hungry for more?
   
5. What are the themes of hunger and nourishment that resonate throughout Marguerite’s life? And in this novel?
   
6. Renata believed that Marguerite was like a shipwreck
   —she had, somewhere within her hull, a treasure trove of information about Candace
   . Do you think, in the end, that Renata found the answers she was looking for? Can one individual ever reveal the “truth” about another’s life? How is it possible to discover someone’s essence after death?
   
7. Talk about the characters’ lives off the island of Nantucket—in Paris, Morocco, and New York City. What did these outside locations reveal about the inner lives of Marguerite, Candace, and Renata respectively?
   
8. During a moment of romantic desperation, the younger Marguerite had asked herself:
   Did love fall into categories, or was it a continuum? Were there right ways to love and wrong ways, or was there just love and its object?
   How might the more “modern” Renata answer these questions? How would you?
   
9. Discuss the symbolism of Renoir’s
   Les Parapluies
   painting as it’s represented and referenced in the book. (You may wish to have a reproduction of it on hand during your meeting as well.)
   
10. Marguerite, during her early visits with Porter, played a game called “One Word.” What word would each member of your group use to describe
    The Love Season?