|
Discussion
Questions
1. At one point, Clara claims that: "Families were
not as they seemed. . . . Wasn't everyone damaged?
she asked herself . . . and concluded that the house
of Atreus was, and always had been, full of boarders
like herself." Do you agree with Clara? To what extent
is the story of the Maldonadas a universal story?
2. The author uses names and naming as an additional
literary device in the novel. Can you identify the
names that are part of this word game? What does each
add to your understanding of the novel?
3. In what ways is parenting an important theme in
the book? For the Maldonadas, what is the main attribute
of the parent-child relation? How does each character
respond to this relation?
4. What role does money play in the story of the Maldonada
family? How does each character respond to the notion
of money?
5. In her introduction to the book, Andrea Barrett
likens the Maldonada family to a Greek tragedy. What
"tragic flaw" (or flaws) seem to shape the actions
of this family? How does each character respond to
it? Is there hope of change or redemption for the
Maldonadas?
6. Both Clara and Peter appear to be different from
the other characters, and to hold a different place
in the novel's structure. Are Clara and Peter witnesses?
Participants? A little of both?
7. What is Clara's role in the novel? Is she part
of the Maldonada family, or fundamentally different
from them?
8. What is Peter's role in the novel? Why do you think
Paula Fox gives him such a prominent role toward the
end of the book?
9. Who would you say is the hero or heroine in this
novel? Does this novel have a hero or heroine?
10. What role does each character have in the novel,
and how does that role change as the story progresses
and we find out more about them? How do the characters,
in their different roles and places in the novel,
interact with each other to create an important statement
about the differences between family identity and
individual identity?
11. One of the main conflicts in the book is the conflict
of emotion and restraint. Which characters represent
which quality? How does Paula Fox illustrate the expression
of emotion? According to your reading of The Widow's
Children, is restraint a positive quality or a
negative one?
12. In a highly favorable review of The Widow's
Children, Peter S. Prescott wrote in Newsweek
that while he greatly admired Paula Fox's work, he
was not always certain he liked it. Can you think
of examples from The Widow's Children which
might explain this seeming paradox?
Praise
for The Widow's Children
"Checkovian. . . . Every line of Paula Fox's story,
every gesture of her characters, is alive and surprising."
|Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, New York Times
"Paula Fox is so good a novelist that one wants to
go out in the street and hustle up a big audience
for her. . . . Mortification, humiliation, unattended
gasps for recognition|Fox spares her characters
no distress. . . . Fox's brilliance has a masochistic
aspect: I will do this so well, she seems to say,
that you will hardly be able to read it. And so she
does, and so do I."|Peter S. Prescott, Newsweek
"It is the most elegant exploration
I have read of the chaos of modern life. . . . There
is something marvelously honorable in Fox's work."
|Edith Milton, The Nation
"Shattering. . . . Paula
Fox's remarkable alertness to human weakness enables
her to portray an unpleasant family with the convincing
clarity of a brilliantly unflattering photograph."
|T. R. Edwards, Harper's
"A drama of rival presences
and outlooks. . . . A compelling and satisfying book.
. . . It has in it, especially apparent in the wit,
a worldliness which it could not do without, and which
is that of someone who has lived long enough to have
learned a good deal. . . . Remarkable."|Karl Miller,
New York Review of Books
Also
by Paula Fox
Poor
George
Desperate
Characters
The Western Coast
A Servant's Tale
The God of Nightmares
|