East Hope (49 page)

Katharine Davis
is also the author of
Capturing Paris
. She grew up in Europe, taught French for many years, and worked as a docent at the National Gallery of Art. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia, and York Harbor, Maine. She can be reached at
www.katharinedavis.com
.

CONVERSATION GUIDE

 

 

 

This Conversation Guide is intended to enrich the individual reading experience, as well as encourage us to explore these topics together—because books, and life, are meant for sharing.

Q. Where did you get the idea for your novel
East Hope
?

 

A. This novel actually grew out of a short story that I wrote almost ten years ago. For that story a line of dialogue had popped into my head: “How's my favorite redhead?” I envisioned a man saying this to a woman as she enters a house to attend a dinner party. With that image I had the beginning of a character, and I let my imagination go to work. The woman, whom I named Caroline, was ill at ease in that situation. I wondered why she felt uncomfortable, what had brought her to this house, why she was alone. In my story I decided that she was recently widowed, and uneasy with the attention of this man, her husband's best friend. In this early version the reader learns of Caroline's financial difficulties, her loneliness now that her only child is away at college, and her husband's emotional distance and unhappiness in the months before he died. When her husband's friend brings her home in a thunderstorm, she rejects his advances, knowing that a love affair would not be the answer—end of story. Yet over time I kept going back to Caroline and wondering what would happen if she succumbed. What would be the result of that liaison? If it didn't work out, what would she do? Might she want to escape somehow? If so, where? As a writer, I realized I wasn't finished with this character's story. As a reader, I wanted to learn more.

 

 

A. Maine is a state with a definite mystique. The coastline is breathtaking, with thousands of islands dotting the shoreline, and a northern light, whose soft angles reflect gloriously off the water. There are forests, rivers, lakes, and mountains, with Mount Katahdin marking the end of the Appalachian Trail. Much of the state is vast and remote, without paved roads. It is a state of great contrasts. A summer retreat for some of the very wealthy, it is also the home of hardworking locals who make their living from fishing the cold waters or farming the rocky ground. The city of Portland offers museums, art galleries, and sophisticated dining, but nearby tiny towns on remote islands, such as Monhegan, with its year-round population of sixty-five, offer few amenities. Long, lightfilled summer days follow long, cold winter nights, when it grows dark by midafternoon. Maine has always attracted adventurers, artists, writers, loners, and eccentrics. Its people are often fiercely independent. I wanted Caroline to attempt to rebuild her life in a place that fostered strength and independence. To my mind, geography deeply affects all of us, and sometimes going to an entirely new place forces us to see with fresh eyes exactly who we are. Also, I love Maine and spend part of each year there, so I was eager to write about it.

 

A. A small village on the coast of Maine served my characters in
East Hope
by forcing them to confront their problems in a completely new environment, one in which mere physical survival couldn't always be taken for granted. On the one hand, Caroline and Will are more vulnerable, more at risk outside their usual settings, but being totally “away” also frees them. The lack of distractions in East Hope helps them to realize what's really important to them.

 

 

A. Without meaning to I probably did just that. I've always loved houses, though not the large, fancy residences of the very rich. I'm drawn to smaller places, old houses with character and the patina of lives well lived. Simple things can make such a difference: garden flowers on a table, photographs of family and friends, good reading lamps next to comfortable chairs. And, of course, with shelves and shelves of books, you are always in good company.

 

Q.
East Hope
is told from two alternating points of view—Caroline Waverly's and Will Harmon's. Which character is more important to you? Whose story interests you more?

 

A. Initially in the writing I was completely focused on Caroline: What happens to a woman when everything she has counted on disappears—husband, home, a happy relationship with her child? Being a woman, I'm drawn to women's stories, but when I considered whom Caroline might encounter in this next phase of her life, I thought it might be interesting to have her meet a man who is also attempting to sort out his life. For a man, losing a job constitutes an immense loss, not only financially but also psychologically, and I decided to further challenge Will by raising serious questions about his marriage. As Will came alive for me, I cared more about him and became more invested in how he would overcome his own difficulties. However, while Will's story is equally important, Caroline's came first.

 

 

A. It's true that there are far greater problems in the world—war, poverty, disease, environmental degradation. These are global problems of immense complexity that affect us all. We need both fiction and nonfiction to illuminate human suffering and inform us about such issues. But there is also a place for fiction that concerns the domestic dramas of everyday life. During a recent visit to the National Gallery in Washington, DC, I was thinking about the different sorts of paintings on the walls. I looked at the huge paintings of historical events, portraits of famous people, and religious art that told stories of faith. Yet my favorite paintings, the ones that most often caused me to pause and reflect, were the small canvases depicting everyday life. In a similar way, we often choose to read about ordinary people whose lives are for various reasons suddenly set off course. We turn to fiction to discover how other people think, feel, and act. We read to expand our understanding of what it means to be human.

 

 

A. I tend to read mostly contemporary fiction. It would be impossible to list all my favorite writers, as I would certainly leave some of them out. The first section I reach for in the Sunday paper is the book review. I keep a running list of books I want to read and never go anywhere without a book. On long car trips I listen to books on tape. Some of my old favorites are
Howards End
by E. M. Forster,
Crossing to Safety
by Wallace Stegner, and a French novel,
Thérèse Desqueyroux,
by François Mauriac. In contemporary fiction or classics, I love to sink into another world and enjoy the pure pleasure of a good story.

 

 

A. I've always been an avid reader. I discovered Daphne du Maurier at the age of fourteen, and since then I've been reading one book after another. Those who like art often try to draw or paint, and as someone who loves to read, I wanted to see what it would be like to write. I quickly learned that writing, while more difficult than I ever imagined, offers up an amazing pleasure all its own.

 

 

A. What I love most about writing is the creative act. When I am writing time seems to stop and I'm in an entirely different world. I guess it's a form of escape, but it's also a heady experience to create something out of nothing. I have often joked that as an eldest child I'm bossy, and with writing I can be the one who decides how a story will turn out. Of course, I soon discovered that as I began to know my characters, they took on a life all their own. That part is truly magic. I was never scared of writing a novel, but perhaps that was because I was naive about the enormity of the task, and I had no idea how difficult it is to publish fiction.

 

Q. What's your writing process? How long did it take to finish
East Hope
?

 

A. I am a morning person and do my best work before noon. After lunch I run errands, do chores, answer e-mail, and tend to the business of life. In the late afternoon I often return to my manuscript and putter a bit, but I rarely accomplish much then. However, even when I'm not writing, I'm thinking about the book. I might get an idea while in line at the grocery store or while driving. I also keep paper beside my bed for ideas in the middle of the night.
East Hope
took about two years.

 

 

A. Write more novels. I love reading them, so I will continue to write them. I only wish I had started sooner!

 

 

A. I didn't start writing until I was almost fifty. Truly a late bloomer! Soon after I began, I attended a writers' conference and was somewhat intimidated by all the young people there. When I expressed my doubts to one of the instructors, she told me not to worry and that having life experience was always a good thing. I love examples of other late bloomers. Mary Wesley, a wonderful British writer, published her first work in her seventies.

1. What does Caroline worry about most after Harry's death? What is her greatest concern? What does she yearn for most early in the novel?

 

2. Caroline and Harry were going through a difficult time in the months before his death. Harry was distant, worried, and caught up in his financial problems. Caroline avoided confronting him and later regrets this. How does this complicate her grieving for him?

 

3. Caroline goes through many changes in Maine. She learns to manage on her own, to renovate Aunt Lila's house, and, most important, she decides to have a child. How does living in Maine, the place itself, contribute to the person she becomes? Would she have evolved the same way if she'd stayed behind in Chevy Chase?

 

4. Will Harmon's marriage begins to suffer when his wife moves to New York and she commutes home on weekends. Would their marriage have remained strong without their long-distance relationship? How important is it for the spouses in a marriage to spend time together? Is there no truth to the old adage that absence makes the heart grow fonder?

 

5. Are Will and Mary Beth ill-suited for each other from the beginning? Or do they grow and mature differently during the course of their marriage?

 

6. Is Will unrealistic in hoping that Mary Beth will understand his going to Maine for the summer? Does he subconsciously want to end their marriage when he goes ahead to purchase Taunton's without discussing it with her? Is he the one most at fault when their marriage fails? If not, what are the factors that make their life together impossible to salvage?

 

7. Will and Caroline feel an immediate attraction to each other in spite of all the complications in their personal lives. Beyond the simple rapport that seems to connect them when they first meet, both new and alone in East Hope, what are the qualities that draw them to each other?

 

8. Is Rob justified in his anger toward his mother? Is he asking too much of her and acting selfish in not wanting to share his life with a sibling? Is he, in his own way, also clinging to their earlier life, the way things were before his father's death?

 

9. Caroline and Will are both in their forties when circumstances force them to create completely new lives for themselves. Has something similar ever happened to you, or to people you know? In the cases you know, what forced the change, and how did things turn out?

 

10. Caroline never seriously considers an abortion, but the possibility is raised by her friend. Discuss how unexpected and unwanted pregnancies are handled in the fiction you've read. Do you think they're written about realistically, or do writers tend to be politically correct? What would you have done in Caroline's situation?

 

11. Twice, Will is accused of sexual harassment, and in both cases he's entirely innocent. Does the sensitivity to this issue of people in administrative and managerial positions allow women (and men) to take advantage of it, as Will's college student does? Or is Will simply guilty of not having fought hard enough to clear his name? What should he have done when he was first accused, and do you think he handles the situation well when he's accused again in East Hope?

 

12. Pretend you're writing an epilogue for this novel. What do you envision for Caroline and Will in the future? How will Rob and Pete fit into the picture? What sort of lives will they lead after the birth of this child? Is it a boy or a girl?