Start your book club conversations for A Reason to See You Again with these discussion questions.
There’s so much to unpack within the covers of A Reason to See You Again. A lot can happen in one life, let alone numerous lives all in the orbit of one small, very interesting, very complicated family. This is the case with the Cohens, the women (and the memory of a patriarch) dwelling in the pages of Jami Attenberg’s latest novel.
Touching on themes of family, addiction, love, shame, and more, this is a book you’ll be desperate to dissect with your book club friends. Get the discussion questions below, but tread carefully: Spoilers abound! While you read, check out the full Page & Pairing guide to the book.
A Reason to See You Again
by Jami Attenberg
1. The novel stretches across four decades, beginning in 1971. Author Jami Attenberg spends more time in some stretches than others. Why do you think she chose to build out more of her characters' adult years? Were there more elements of Shelly’s and Nancy’s childhood years that you wished you had more insight into?
2. How do Shelly’s and Nancy’s romantic relationships reflect the relationship between their parents? And how do their own relationships with their parents play out — and not play out — in their own adult relationships?
3. The dynamics and nuances of relationships — whether familial, romantic, or platonic — provide endless fodder for novelists. What do you think are the most interesting types of relationships to read about? How much do your own relationships influence your fiction reading choices?
4. There are multiple intimately close female relationships that come into play in the book, for example between Carolina and Frieda, Shelly and Margaret. Which was most interesting to you? Why? What did the Cohen women learn from each of these relationships?
5. One contentious Christmas morning, Shelly attempts to make peace in Nancy’s house, “filling in the blanks. The excuses women make for men.” What excuses are made for the acts and behavior of the men in the novel? Why do you think the women make these excuses?
6. How much responsibility and accountability should Shelly have been held to for the acts of her boss, Monroe? How might this all have played out differently were it to have happened during the #metoo era of recent years?
7. If you could have one more chapter in the novel, on whom would you want it to focus?