Lost in the Forest (35 page)

JMG:
Smatterings of the adult Daisy are sprinkled throughout the book, particularly in her references to Dr. Gerard. What made you decide to imbue some of Daisy’s narrative voice with the knowledge of how things turn out? Why do you allow a decade to elapse between the second-to-last and the final chapter of the novel?

SM:
I think my impulse was to answer the question of how this affected Daisy, how she thought of it later, during the experience, so that the reader wouldn’t bring to those passages in the book the standard, the expected responses; but would already be having to think about this experience exactly as it affected just this one character—Daisy. The decade’s lapse had to do with my sense that
the step-by-step rapprochement between Mark and Daisy, the step-by-step emergence of Daisy as a resourceful adult, could both be largely implicit in how she “turns out,” as it were. Or turns out for this moment, anyway. And with my own fascination with how people do turn out, as seen years later.

JMG:
By the end of the book, do you think Daisy—and her family—have truly entered a “brave new world” as Miranda says in Shakespeare’s play,
The Tempest
? Why or why not?

SM:
It seems to me that Miranda’s cry has to do with her own newness in the world, her innocent amazement at it, rather than at some quality the world itself has. What I wanted to signal was that Daisy had somehow retained some sense of that innocence in spite of the experience she has with Duncan, which some would assume would have been damaging to that sense. And I think it could be said of the others—Mark and Eva—that they, too, have emerged from the part of their lives I record with a sense of hopefulness in one way or another.

JMG:
Do you have any special routines or rituals you adhere to while you’re writing that help to bring inspiration and creativity? What are they?

SM:
I try to write regularly when I’m working on a book, and I write in longhand for the first draft. There’s something very provisional about this that’s helpful to me—I feel, I think, that it doesn’t have to be the final version, or even close to it. I can just
try
. And I often turn to certain prose stylists very different from myself for a kind of inspiration, for a sense of what’s excitingly possible in writing. It isn’t that I could ever write as they do, or even want to, but simply that their writing thrills me.
The Children’s Bach
, by Helen Garner;
McKay’s Bees
, by Thomas McMahon;
A High Wind in Jamaica
, by Richard Hughes;
The Republic of Love
, by Carol Shields;
Open Secrets
, by Alice Munro—any of these can make me feel eager to begin.

JMG:
Is there anything in particular that you’re working on right now? What can your readers look forward to seeing from you next?

SM:
I’m writing another novel, due in to my publishers in the fall of 2006. Its working title is
A Private Life
.

R
EADING
G
ROUP
Q
UESTIONS AND
T
OPICS FOR
D
ISCUSSION

1.
Lost in the Forest
opens with John’s death, a pivotal turning point for all the characters. How does each of them grapple with this loss differently? What does John represent to each of the children?

2. What does the title
Lost in the Forest
mean to you? Who, in the story, is lost? How is this image of a forest juxtaposed with the valley and vineyards of Napa?

3. Daisy’s name is a very evocative one. In what ways is she like a flower waiting to bloom at the outset of the book? How does she bloom, and how does she wilt?

4. Early in the book, Mark refers to himself as “damaged goods.” How does this mind-set affect his relationships with Eva, Emily, and Daisy? Who else in the novel might characterize him- or herself as damaged goods, and why?

5. Mark describes his early years of marriage with Eva as “further stumbling.” How does the pair grow together? In what ways do they complement each other, and how are they not a good match?

6. Why does Eva react to Mark’s affair so violently? Do you think she is justified or unjustified? Do you think that Gracie’s assessment of why Mark tells Eva about his affair is valid? Why or why not?

7. How is Eva’s relationship with John more of a rational decision about love? Do you think that makes it more or less powerful than the passionate connection she shares with Mark? Why does Mark decide he wants Eva back?

8. On their first meeting, John asks Eva if a person drawn to books was seeking a kind of experience not available in ordinary life. How would you answer this question?

9. How does Daisy resent Emily? How does she somehow feel superior toward her? How does Theo play into this dynamic?

10. Mark leaves Nebraska to “escape his role” in his family. How does Eva do something similar? How are both successful and unsuccessful in the quest to shake away the past? What of this legacy is passed along to their two daughters, and to Eva and John’s son, Theo?

11. How does Daisy’s relationship with both her father figures—Mark and John—seem similar to and different from that of Miranda and Prospero in
The Tempest
? How does each father shelter his daughter in markedly different ways?

12. How do Eva, Mark, and Daisy each express their yearning for belief? What roads do each of them take to find a meaning of life beyond their own existences?

13. What compels Daisy to take money from her mother’s bookstore? How do you think it changes her? Why does she hide it, but not spend it? In what ways do her action enable Duncan to gain an initial hold over her?

14. When do you think that Daisy eventually realizes that her relationship with Duncan is dangerous and abusive? Do you think that her affair with Duncan empowers her in any way?

15. “Men have died from time to time and worms have eaten them, but not for love,” Duncan says to Daisy. Why do you think Duncan shares such a cynical attitude with Daisy? How does it affect Daisy in the short term? The long term?

16. Why does discovering evidence of Duncan and Daisy’s affair change Mark’s life? Why do you think that Mark never confronts Duncan explicitly? What about the situation makes him anguished?

17. In what ways is Mark a rescuer? How does Daisy also rescue him?

18. Daisy becomes an actress, not the writer she predicts, when she “grows up.” How does this choice represent a shift in her personality? How is it a natural choice for her, and how is it surprising?

19. Daisy says that “the oldest I want to be is about twenty-five.” When the book ends, she is approximately that age. Do you think she agrees with Mark that everything good happens after that? How do you envision her adolescence and early adulthood, which we do not see in the book?

20. At the end of the book, Mark says he is happy. How is this different from the contentment that his mother says she feels? Do you believe that the other people who are important to him have also found happiness? What, to you, defines happiness?

SUE MILLER is the bestselling author of the novels
The World Below, While I Was Gone, The Distinguished Guest, For Love, Family Pictures
, and
The Good Mother
; the story collection
Inventing the Abbotts
; and the memoir
The Story of My Father
. She lives in Boston, Massachusetts.