The Weight of Small Things (34 page)

Authors: Sherri Wood Emmons

Tags: #Fiction, #Contemporary Women, #General, #Psychological

BOOK: The Weight of Small Things

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Please turn the page for a very special Q&A
with Sherri Wood Emmons.

Your first two novels were told in the first person, through the eyes of a child narrator. Why did you write this book in third person?

I wanted to try something new. Writing in the third person doesn’t come as easily to me as writing in first person, so it was a new challenge. And there are three different stories going on in the book, so third person made more sense.

It seems like everyone in this book is in a state of upheaval.

I think at about thirty, most people go through a time of reexamination. You are ten years out of college, too old to be a protégé, and it’s time to take stock of your life and decide if you are on the path you want. My life was in a state of upheaval in my early thirties, and a lot of my friends’ lives were, too. I think it’s the age.

Why did you title the book
The Weight of Small Things
?

The title reflects the way small decisions we make can add up to change our lives. Every day, each one of us makes choices—or chooses not to make choices—and the weight of those choices ultimately determines who we are. Sometimes the choices are big ones and the implications are obvious. But so often it’s the little choices, the ones that seem almost inconsequential, that set us on a new path.

How did you decide on this story?

This is actually the first story I ever started writing, and I began it twenty years ago when I had just turned thirty and my own life was in flux. The story and the characters are fiction, but the situations they are facing and the decisions they are making will feel familiar to many people in that age group, I think. They certainly felt real to me.

Corrie Philips, the main character, begins with a pretty good life—a nice husband and beautiful home, a job she enjoys. Yet she can’t seem to simply relax and enjoy her life. At times she seems almost ungrateful for her situation. Why can’t she simply appreciate her life and forget about her past?

Corrie carries a huge weight through life—guilt over the abortion she had after college, responsibility for her mother and siblings, and a deep-down belief that she doesn’t deserve the marriage and home she has built. At some level, she is always waiting for the other shoe to drop, and that prevents her from owning her own happiness.

What I think is interesting about Corrie is the way she grows into herself. As her pregnancy progresses and she feels her baby moving inside her, she finally allows herself to simply feel joy. And that allows her eventually to accept that she can have happiness, that she deserves happiness, and that she can take care of herself.

Bryn seems an unlikely friend for Corrie. In some ways she is Corrie’s opposite—free-spirited, unconcerned with what other people think, and always up for fun. What makes the friendship between Corrie and Bryn believable?

I think each fills a void in the other’s life. Bryn helps Corrie to loosen up, see things differently, and think for herself. But Corrie helps Bryn, too. She provides constant and steady friendship and a reliable sounding board, and she is always there to encourage Bryn in her adventures.

The friendship works because they are opposites in many ways. But they are alike in some ways, too. Both are kind, fiercely protective of the people they love, creative, and stubborn. Everyone should have a friend like Bryn!

What are you working on now?

I’m very excited about book number four. It’s told in the first person by two narrators, a young girl and her new stepmother, as they travel around the country with a man who is harboring some very dark secrets.

A READING GROUP GUIDE

THE WEIGHT
OF SMALL THINGS

Sherri Wood Emmons

ABOUT THIS GUIDE

The suggested questions are included to enhance
your group’s reading of Sherri Wood Emmons’s
The Weight of Small Things.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1.
Corrie Philips seems to have an ideal life. Why can’t she let go of the past and enjoy the present?

2.
Is Corrie a sympathetic character? Why or why not?

3.
Bob insists to Bryn that she tell Paul about her pregnancy. Do you think a man always has the right to know when his partner is pregnant? Are there times when it’s okay to keep that information from him?

4.
What responsibility, if any, does Corrie have for her mother’s situation?

5.
Corrie believes that her inability to conceive a baby is punishment for having had an abortion. What does your faith tradition teach about God’s judgment? How does that apply to a woman who has terminated a pregnancy?

6.
What role does Maya play in the story? How would the story be different without her presence?

7.
Corrie accuses Daniel of trying to play God. Is that a fair assessment? Are Daniel’s decisions reasonable ones?

8.
Bob has taken his wayward wife back twice after her infidelities. Do you think a partner should be given a second chance after an affair?

9.
Bryn’s relationship with Paul began when she was his student. Is it ever okay for a teacher to be in a romantic relationship with a student? Why or why not?

10.
Bob and Bryn begin their relationship very soon after his divorce. Is Bryn right to worry about being a rebound girlfriend? Can their relationship last?

11.
Corrie and Daniel’s relationship is renewed while she is married to Mark. Is the relationship doomed to fail? Why or why not?

12.
What is the significance of the title,
The Weight of Small Things
?

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