How about you? When do you omit some of the truth and when do you feel comfortable sharing? How do people react to Sophie as she shares her truths, whether Libby or Deputy Logan or Belinda? Are there times it would have been better for her to have shared more or less? “The truth will probably come out eventually, won’t it?” page 62 When she meets her new neighbor Libby, she shares the truth, thinking, Sophie starts out her relationship with Martin by sharing how they came to be a married. How did your perspective of the investigator change once you met him in conversational style? Or did it? Secrets Throughout the interrogation the reader is given the stenographer’s notes, in a clipped, question/answer format. In particular, the investigator doesn’t become a person until the final pages of the novel. How did this style draw you in or keep you aloof as you read? Meissner intersperses the investigation with Sophie’s narration in the present. What did you find most interesting about the novel’s description of an historical account? How did the novel help you feel or engage with an historical event? Writing Style We are taken in and through the earthquake, from the moments it is first felt to its terrible aftermath- the homeless, the fires, the rebuilding.
Here are a small selection of discussion topics for The Nature Of Fragile Things that may help your book group launch a discussion relevant to your groups’ interests. Marshal investigating Martin Discussion Topics Libby Reynolds: Mother with a young son who lives across the street from the Hockingsĭeputy Ambrose Logan: U.S. Husband to Sophie, Belinda and Candace.īelinda Bigelow: Marries Martin, aka James Bigelow, 4 months after Sophie and Martin marry, arrives at Sophie’s house night before earthquakeĬandace Hocking: Martin’s (at least second) wife, Kat’s mother, dying of consumption Martin Hocking: polygamist, con-artist and murderer. Sophie Hocking: 22 year-old immigrant who left Ireland to escape her old life then moved to San Francisco as her old life encroached upon her
If this isn’t a period of history that you are familiar with, the San Francisco Museum has many photographs, newspaper clippings, eyewitness accounts in museum all available online including a photograph of the camp set up in Golden Gate Park where Sophie, Kate and Belinda took refuge. Most of the novel unfolds during and following the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.
Internet Resources Historical: San Francisco Earthquake I found the novel to be a page turner with insight and characters that I enjoyed sharing my time with. From being immersed in the aftermath of the San Francisco Earthquake to being buoyed by the strength of the women, I felt an attachment to the characters while at the same time thoroughly enjoying the underlying mystery. The Nature of Fragile Things was a novel I didn’t anticipate having the depth of discovery that I found.
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