Lunch Bunch Book Club

How to Find Us: Look for the light-up M.

Agenda:
Introductions
Food & Drink Orders
Book Discussion*
Choose Next Month’s Book
Wrap Up

*If it’s too noisy for us to hear each other, we will break up into small groups to talk about the book with questions below.

Discussion Questions:

1. What did you think of this month's book?
2. Have you read this genre (contemporary fiction) before? Would you try another book in the same genre?
3. Who was your favorite character and why?
4. Have you ever experienced a challenge like the one described in this book?
5. Which character would you most want to have lunch with and why?
6. If you could give the main character(s) a piece of advice, what would you say?
7. Would you thrive in this time period? If you could be anyone in those times, who would you be?
8. Play Casting Director: Who would you assign to play each role for the movie?

About the Book:
Ann Patchett, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Commonwealth, delivers her most powerful novel to date: a richly moving story that explores the indelible bond between two siblings, the house of their childhood, and a past that will not let them go. The Dutch House is the story of a paradise lost, a tour de force that digs deeply into questions of inheritance, love and forgiveness, of how we want to see ourselves and of who we really are.

At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves.

The story is told by Cyril’s son Danny, as he and his older sister, the brilliantly acerbic and self-assured Maeve, are exiled from the house where they grew up by their stepmother. The two wealthy siblings are thrown back into the poverty their parents had escaped from and find that all they have to count on is one another. It is this unshakeable bond between them that both saves their lives and thwarts their futures.

Set over the course of five decades, The Dutch House is a dark fairy tale about two smart people who cannot overcome their past. Despite every outward sign of success, Danny and Maeve are only truly comfortable when they’re together. Throughout their lives they return to the well-worn story of what they’ve lost with humor and rage. But when at last they’re forced to confront the people who left them behind, the relationship between an indulged brother and his ever-protective sister is finally tested.