No meetings required but lend your comments below for the book we are currently reading:
Now reading - The Senator's Wife by Sue Miller
Meri is 37, newly married and newly pregnant, standing on the cusp of her life as a wife and mother, and recognizing with some terror the gap between reality and expectation. Delia, her neighbor in the adjoining New England town house, is twice Meri's age, the wife of Tom Naughton, a venerated former U.S. senator --- a man whose habitual infidelities are an open secret in Washington. As dissimilar as they may appear, these two women find themselves leading strangely parallel lives, reckoning with the contours and mysteries of marriage, one refined and abraded by years of complicated intimacy, the other barely begun.
Questions to ask while you read:
1. In the second paragraph of Chapter One, Miller says, "Meri has occupied the backseat the whole time—at first because that's just how it happened when they all got in the car, then by choice." What does this tell us about Meri? Did your first impression of her turn out to be accurate?
2. Discuss the title. Why do you think Miller called her novel "The Senator's Wife" when Meri's story gets equal time?
3. Several times in the novel, it's suggested that moving to a new home equals an opportunity for new beginnings. Which move proves to be most important to Delia?
4. At times there are parallels between Meri and Tom, Delia and Nathan, and at other times the pairings are rearranged. Who do you think is most similar? Most unlike each other? Who would you most like to spend time with, if these were real people?
5. Delia's relationships with her grown children are quite varied. Why do you think she wound up with three such different results? What kind of mother was she?
6. Re-read the last paragraph of the novel. Did Meri really act out of love? Why do you think she did it? What price did she pay, if any?
Questions from readinggroupguides.com
