French Braid(78)

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For several days, they kept finding stray belongings here and there. A small sock left in the dryer, a rubber chew toy on the patio…Once David came upon Greta standing motionless in the kitchen, pressing her nose to a scrunch of fabric. She lowered it and looked up at him, her eyes suspiciously shiny. It was a child-size mask, he saw, with a crooked hem and a snarled trail of threads. He said, “Now, now, none of that,” momentarily assuming the role of the sensible one in the marriage, and she gave an embarrassed laugh and handed it over. But as soon as he’d reached the study, where they were compiling a box of left-behind items to mail to New York, he pressed the mask to his own face and drew in a deep breath. He could still catch a trace of Benny’s little-boy scent, salty but sweet, like clean sweat. He could still see Benny’s seashell ears; he could hear his froggy voice:

    Some people started singing it not knowing what it was,

And they’ll continue singing it forever just because…



He shook his head and smiled, and he put the mask in the box and went back to Greta.

End





A Note About the Author


Anne Tyler was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1941 and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. She graduated at nineteen from Duke University and went on to do graduate work in Russian studies at Columbia University. She is the author of more than twenty novels. Her twentieth novel, A Spool of Blue Thread, was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize in 2015. Her eleventh novel, Breathing Lessons, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland.





Alfred A. Knopf Reading Group Guide

French Braid

A Novel

By Anne Tyler


Introduction


Brimming with warmth, wry humor, and endearingly eccentric characters, French Braid is a triumph of storytelling from Pulitzer Prize–winning author Anne Tyler.

At the center of the novel (though she doesn’t like being at the center of things) is Mercy Garrett, a dutiful wife who skillfully manages the care and feeding of her family throughout the 1950s and ’60s. When the youngest goes off to college, Mercy at last feels free to pursue her passion for painting, gradually moving into her own studio and leaving ready-to-heat dinners for her husband, Robin.

Along the way, we follow Mercy and Robin’s three children from their youth in a bygone era—when they took their one and only family vacation—to their own transitions to adulthood and empty-nesting decades later, just as the isolation of the pandemic is setting in. Raising poignant questions in every scene, French Braid reveals the gentle realities of family ties that constrict and those that fall apart altogether, while the daily hum of diligence and possibility reverberates in the background.

The questions that follow are designed to enrich your book club’s discussion of French Braid. We hope they enhance your experience of this brilliantly perceptive novel from one of America’s most beloved writers.





Questions and Topics for Discussion


1. Revisit the novel’s first chapter, now that you know the full story. What did you originally predict for Serena? What were your notions about why her family was so disconnected?

2. Which images stand out most clearly to you from the Garretts’ summer vacation? What lifelong pursuits were set in motion for Alice, Lily, and David during their time at the lakeside cabin? Share your defining memories from a childhood trip.

3. How did your perceptions of Mercy and Robin shift as the details of their marriage unfolded? Though Robin’s proposal included the plea, “If you can imagine us ever, ever divorcing, then I don’t want you to accept” (this page), was there ever a time when he felt truly secure with Mercy, and with his in-laws?

4. Anne Tyler explores the nature of time and memory in much of her fiction. How did the timeline in French Braid amplify the realism of the characters? How did cultural expectations for women evolve between Mercy’s generation and her children’s? What stayed the same, even in a new millennium?

5. How did you react to the story of Desmond, the Motts’ cat?

6. Are the cousins a reflection of their parents’ and grandparents’ legacies and personalities, or do they create a series of new beginnings? Ultimately, why don’t the cousins know one another very well?

7. A recurring element in French Braid is the ritual of bringing home a romantic partner to meet the family. How do those encounters play out for the Garretts, and in your own family lore? In the novel, what is at the root of this quest for approval, and what motivates the naysaying?

8. Alice and Lily embody two very different versions of womanhood and motherhood. Does temperament alone account for these differences? What did they learn from Mercy about how to find fulfillment in life?

9. Do you think it’s true that Robin didn’t like his son, as David asserts on this page?

10. Mercy’s studio is free of clutter. If you were to set up a room of your own, what would it look like? How would you pass the time there?

11. How would you characterize the surprise fiftieth anniversary party and its aftermath? Heartbreaking? Humorous? Some of each? What does it cost the Garrett family emotionally to perpetuate the open secret of Robin and Mercy’s separation? What other aspects of their family life require the ability to pretend?