RUN by Ann Patchett ~ June Book Club Online

[JoanP]

The Book Club Online is  the oldest  book club on the Internet, begun in 1996, open to everyone.  We offer cordial discussions of one book a month,  24/7 and  enjoy the company of readers from all over the world.  Everyone is welcome.

Everyone is welcome

RUN by Ann Patchett

Two families come together in a traffic accident during a snowstorm.  It quickly becomes clear that the families-a poor, single black mother with her 11-year-old daughter and a white, Irish Catholic, former Boston mayor with a biological son and two adopted black college-aged sons,  whose much-loved wife died over 20 years ago -have a connection.    "The book explores how these kids established their sense of belonging and self based on who raised them, and whom they gravitated toward as family.  It also conversely examines the notion of parenthood - what constitutes a parent? Is it simply genetics, or a history of nurturing and love? What role does race play in parenting and familial identity? There are clearly nature vs nurture issues at play here, which are interesting to trace and analyze." (Gayle Weisswasser)   And yet, in an interview, in the back of the paperback edition,  Ann Patchett said that to her, the book was about politics.  The book's central idea is how political responsibility plays out in the smallest and most intimate scale of family life. How did such an idea come to her? A: "I keep reading the newspaper and looking at all of the hardships in the world and it makes me think about issues of sacrifice and social responsibility.  Do we have a moral obligation to use our gifts to help people? These aren't questions that have a right and wrong answer, but I think they are ideas worth struggling with. Run is ultimately a novel about secrets, duty, responsibility, and the lengths we will go to protect our children."

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Discussion Schedule: June 15~17Chapters 1-3 June 18~20 Chapters 4-6 June 21-24 Chapters 7-9 June 25-26 Chapters 10 June 27-30 Chapter 11 and final thoughts

Some Topics for Consideration
June 15 - 30

Chapter 11 and Final Thoughts

1. Father Sullivan played a pivotal role in deciding the statue's owner and dividing the family. Did he continue to play a significant role in the book? What would the book have looked like without him?

2.  Understandable that Teddy would feel guilt and the need to do penance for both Tennessee's death and his uncle's collapse, but why did Tip feel so much guilt that he went to Med school for his penance?  What made him decide to go back to ichthyology on his graduation day?

3.  Did Tip expect that Doyle would give him the statue for a graduation present?  How did you react to his decision to bestow the heirloom statue on Kenya, a  girl who has literally shared nothing with his former wife, Bernadette? Do you think he made the same decision his wife would have made?

4. Towards the end of the story we see images of four mothers (including the Virgin Mary) on Kenya's dresser. What is the author saying about women and mothers to have them all there together?

5. The boys kept finding similarities in their "sister" Kenya – when the fact was…she wasn't related at all. Even Doyle was noticing the physical similarities….were they seeing it because of suggestion?

6. Did you squirm at the idea that Kenya will never know that Tennessee was not her mother or did this lack of information fit in with Ann Patchett's purpose?  What is she saying about nature and nurture here?

7. What is the author's underlying message here? Is she presenting a new definition of family, a commentary on socioeconomics or something totally different?

8. Run includes several incidences of doubling—two brothers who get adopted, two mothers who die, two men named Sullivan, two Tennessee Alice Mosers, two accidents involving hospital stays. What is the effect  of seeing similar characters and events repeated over the course of the book?

9. Of the many characters in Run, which did you feel most connected to on an emotional level? How do you explain that connection?

10. Are you satisfied with how the author tied up the issues of race, family, parental responsibilities? What would you want changed or delved in to with greater depth?

Contact:  JoanP,

[JoanP]

I just cannot believe that it is July 1 already!  This is the first day of the new discussion of Great Expectations.  I hope you are planning to join us  at a slow summer pace of about 45-50 pages a week.  I suspect we'll come out of it with new apprecation and understanding of what Dickens intended with this novel - more than a boy's coming of age story.  I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Let's try to finish up this discussion, tie up loose ends and then prepare a list of questions for the author for Deb to take down to the Parnassas book store in Nashville in September.  I think we all have some questions we'd like her to address.  If she consents, maybe we can reopen this discussion here in Seniorlearn - and invite her to join us.  What do you think of that?

Maybe you have been reading of the devastating storms that have been causing so much damage from  the midwest to the Washington Metro area and then up the East Coast during the last few days.   I've just learned these storms have a name - "derecho" and produce destruction very much like tornadoes.  The noise of the wind, 70-80 mph  - not really  howling, but sounding more like a locomotive coming right at you - sustained wind for hours, as everything in its path flew around while sustained lightening lit up the whole yard as if it was the middle of the day - this was at 10:30 at night.  I never saw anything like this - and hope never again.

We watched grand old oak trees over 150 years old swaying in the back yard as if they were reeds of grass.  Many in the neighborhood came down, taking out power lines. traffic lights... They just announced that there are still 42,000 households here in Arlington without power -- without air conditionning and the temp is heading right back up to 100 degrees again today.

 To add to the loss of power, the land line telephone went out.  That has NEVER happened, but it did yesterday and the day before.
Imagine my surprise when I went to use the cell phone - only to  learn that the ATT tower was also out and was unable to make or receive any calls on that.
Even when the power was eventually restored, still couldn't connect to the Internet because Verizon was out too - that meant the router that connects to the NET was not available either - even though the power was on.
We felt isolated until son drove over to see how we were doing - (he couldn't call) to see if we needed to come to his house to cool off.  By that time, our power was back.  His son, my nine year old grandson,  had been at his first cub scout camp out - three hours away - in a rather flimsy little tent.  They had herded the kids into the mess hall for some protection from the storm - and then, when the wind and rain stopped, since there was so much destruction in the campsite, they started driving them home - at about 3 am.  You should hear this kid's stories!  He had a great time.  The rest of us were worried sick and unable to make any contact with the camp or with one another to hear if  the storm hit that far to the west.  It had.

It's selfish to complain -so many lost so much - there were 18 lives lost, cars crushed by falling trees - one poor woman asleep in her house as a tree crashed through the roof.
I hope you are all safe and sound this morning.  Back to the book, to make up for the lost time during the last two days...I've a few more questions for you.

[JoanP]

{{Steph}}, your reminder of how a car accident can affect a lot people in the blink of an eye is a point well-taken. As you say, the  the affects will continue forever.  Our hearts goes out to you in sympathy when thinking of what you - and your family endured, and continue to endure, though you have carried on admirably.

Marcie,  your post reminded me of how I felt watching Kenya running in the parking lot when that car pulled out - I dreaded that Patchett was going to take Kenya from the story at that point, and leave the Doyles struggling to understand what had happened, returning to their former lives.  Yes, I believe the author included that bit of tension on purpose!  What do you think she achieved by suggesting Kenya might die at that point? (Have you found your library book yet?)

[JoanP]

" The business about 'Tennessee' not being Kenya's mother is the one part of this story that, to me, does not fit at all. Everyone noticed the physical resemblance. As I said before, what earthly purpose did this digression serve?" Babi

"I really believe that Patchett led us down the garden path with resemblences and then finding that Kenya is not in fact related to the boys at all."  Steph

It seems that Babi and Steph are making the same point, asking the same question - Can any of you think of a possible answer explanation for this?   Does it have something to do with Patchett's premise that a mother is not the one who gave you birth, but the mother who raised and nurtured you - which "Tennessee2 certainly did... Is that what she's trying to drive home with this introduction of a new mother?  Tennessee2 was a much Kenya's mother as Bernadette was the mother to the two boys, no matter who birthed them.

But what is she saying of the relationship between the three boys and Kenya? None of them are blood-related to one another or to Sullivan and Doyle.  Does this mean anything?  Wait - Teddy and Tip are blood brothers - or ?  Do they have the same father?

[mabel1015j]

Oh Joan, all of those events sound very scary. Glad everything is now o.k.
for  you and your family.

[ANNIE]

Well, I am back online finally.  I called JoanP after the power went out so she could let everyone know why I wasn't here today or yesterday.  We had quite an adventure.  The storm in Ohio sounds just like Joan's graphic description of Arlington.  So, when the power went out, we made reservations at a hotel.  When we got there Saturday night their power was also out and the whole of Columbus plus many suburbs around it,  had not room for the Aldens on Saturday night.  We were forced to drive 79 miles to check into a hotel which had only one room left.  Forty per cent of the state was without power and most is still not back on.  Thousands of homes with no AC and much damage.  No traffic lights which caused many near misses.  Who goes first a 4-way stop? How about a 5 lane road on each side?  Then tonight after we arrived to see that our power was up and running, we shuffled off to a 4th of July celebration and BBQ.  We were there 2 hours and another huge wind, thunder, lightning and hail storm broke up that party.  But, the power is still tonight and we can stay in our own place for now. 

[JoanP]

Thanks, Jean.  That was some storm - so unexpected, with no time to prepare as with hurricane's when alerts go up that something is coming.  Don't know what you could do though.  Buy candles...a generator.  Annie, I never did get in to explain your absence - and when our phones and power were restored, I forgot about your lack of power as I gushed out our own experience with this storm - the storm without a name.  I guess we'll call it "Direcho" for lack of a another way to describe it.  



What did you think of Doyle...he seems to be the one character that we can criticize.  Patchett seems to cast him in a negative way, although we can all sympathize with him for the loss of his wife and the effort of raising the three boys.  I'm still not clear about how the book's central idea— is "that of how political responsibility plays out in the smallest and most intimate scale of family life," as the author explained in an interview.  Here's what she said in an Interview regarding political responsibility - and Doyle...

Q: Can you describe how the book's central idea— that of how political responsibility plays out in the smallest and most intimate scale of family life—first came to you?
A: I keep reading the newspaper and looking at all of the hardships in the world and it makes me think about issues of sacrifice and social responsibility. I wonder about the idea of being so privileged that a person as smart as Tip would want to spend his days in the basement of a museum or someone as kind as Teddy wouldn't get farther than his uncle's room in a nursing home. Do we have a moral obligation to use our gifts to help people? Doyle has very clear ideas about this, both for himself and for his sons, but when he's asked to take in a stranger (and a pretty appealing little stranger at that) he doesn't want to do it. These aren't questions that have a right and wrong answer, but I think they are ideas worth struggling with.
Run is ultimately a novel about secrets, duty, responsibility, and the lengths we will go to protect our children.

What do you think?  I'm trying to put together a list of the questions you'd like to include for Ann Patchett.  Please do post whatever comes to mind.

[JoanP]

One more, I promise, this is the last question I have for you while you are still on the line...are you still on the line, or have you moved over to Great Expectations?

Run includes several incidences of doubling—two brothers who get adopted, two mothers who die, two men named Sullivan, two Tennessee Alice Mosers, two accidents involving hospital stays. What is the effect  of seeing similar characters and events repeated over the course of the book?  Can you understand Patchett's reason for the doubling?

[ANNIE]

JoanP,
So you also were without power?  What never occurred to me was to take my computer with me when we left for the hotel.  They had wifi!  
I have no idea about the two's of the author.  Just a gimmick?  No, it seems she had a reason for each idea she presented to us.  I am going to reccommend this book to my f2f group which meets this afternoon.  We just finished "On Agate Hill" by Lee Smith. 
Thanks for leading this short but sweet discussion and
now onto Great Expectations!![/b]

[marcie]

One more, I promise, this is the last question I have for you while you are still on the line...are you still on the line, or have you moved over to Great Expectations?

Run includes several incidences of doubling—two brothers who get adopted, two mothers who die, two men named Sullivan, two Tennessee Alice Mosers, two accidents involving hospital stays. What is the effect  of seeing similar characters and events repeated over the course of the book?  Can you understand Patchett's reason for the doubling?

JoanP, I'm not sure about the reasons for doubling the characters. I think that device made me pay a bit more attention to them and compare and contrast the characteristics of the doubles. Somehow doubling made the story feel richer.

[JoanP]

"I think that device made me pay a bit more attention to them and compare and contrast the characteristics of the doubles."

Marcie, your comment made me think of the doubling in a new way - and when I compared a contrasted each of the pairs, I realized that the pairs were quite different, though to the world, alike.

 Tip and Teddy were twin brothers, sharing the same gene pool, and yet very different in their interests and values.  Both of their "mothers"  have died, yet it is Bernadette whose loss they mourn.  Not their birth mother, but the one who "mothered" them from infancy, the only mother they do.  Two women by the name of Tennessee - friends with a lot in common, except only one of them, is apparently a "mother", Kenya's mother.  Kenya mourns the death of Tennessee, not her birth mother, but the one who mothered her.  Two men named Sullivan...related by genetics and appearance, and yet so completely different -
And then there are the two accidents in the snowstorm, that determine the course of events, and the future for the entire "family."

It's been a good discussion - thanks to all of you who contributed in so many ways.  I think we have some good questions to put in our letter to Ann Patchett, though I must say, you have answered many of them in your thoughtful posts!

We'll let you all know in the Library if Ann Patchett replies to our questions about this interesting book.  

[bookad]

hello there

bit of off topic as I intended to post this to the 'Run' discussion but missed my opportunity as the site is not open
life has been a bit hectic with a week trip to Ottawa, and my other obligations upon arriving home

intend to go to Nashville this fall on our way to North Fort Myers and look up the book store Ann P has--really enjoy book stores so looking forward to this and hope to meet the author there

my thoughts on the book
-this book left my mind working overtime
-kept having to remind myself this book only encompassed 24 hours--so much action and reaction--made it very interesting.....found a bit let down by not being given insights into character's background and reasons for their behaviour (but then again life is not all cut and dry and often we don't know where someone's actions stem from, even if we are enlightened by their telling us..ego slants are often a factor with self pats on the back I would suppose)

'felt great empathy with Tip and his passion for a field of study (such intense interest, that I wish I had during my employment years)--am glad he was eventually able to come to grips with how his father regarded his future (totally outside his interests) and follow a path closer to his interests...working life is so many years to not have one's heart into a career (if such a career is possible) to me would be a very sad situation  {my father whom I looked up to for so many years persuaded me to enter a career away from my passion of working with animals; then turned his back on me in his last years of life-which took me a good time to get over thinking of all those years working in a field I felt unsuited for; but needing to try and make him proud of me}  c'est la vive!

--from reply 154--JoanP--interesting idea that Tennessee would consciously or subconsciously move Kenya toward the interests of her brothers--I could see that from the way T. was so determined to continue to follow her boys lives and keep them in view so to speak...though it is kind of creepy to visualize someone always around the corner and being unaware of outside total interests in all one's actions...creepy!

--from reply 155-marcia--I too found myself holding my breath not sure what a car pulling so close to someone was up about...

--I heard about the storm damage and wondered who might be in the midst of the turmoil the weather has caused...saw on our news some hydro men/women from Ontario & Quebec were down helping...its wonderful when we can support each other across the borders--hope you are all well and the storm did no major damage in your lives---what crazy weather patterns this planet has been having; but wonder if we are somewhat a fault for the changes to our planet's structure

enough said
it was a good read
and thank to our hosts

Deb