The Family Beach House (27 page)

Please turn the page
for a very special Q & A with
Holly Chamberlin.

*Do your reading habits change when you're in the process of writing a book?

 

That's a good question. For most of the writing process I read as usual. But as I approach the final stages, say four to six weeks before my deadline, my reading declines sharply. Partly this is due to exhaustion and partly it is due to a need to keep my focus entirely on the project. The moment I complete the book and send the manuscript to my editor, I dive back into reading. When I completed this latest novel I read five books in one week. It was heaven.

 

*So you are a voracious reader. Were you always so?

 

Yes. I was the bespectacled kid who lived in the library. As a single adult, I slept with piles of books in my bed. Even today there's a good chance you'll find a book or two among the blankets and cats, though one of the books likely belongs to my husband. There was one exception to this habit of constant reading. When I was an editor in New York there were times when I became so overwhelmed with having to read thirty, forty, fifty manuscripts a week that I simply could not read for my own pleasure or edification. It was brutal.

 

*In
The Family Beach House,
several of the characters quote favorite authors and books. Are the books and authors they mention drawn from your own reading?

 

Mostly, yes. Though some of the books Ruth gives to Bobby I own but haven't yet read. My mother introduced me to the quote from Dame Julian, and then I found it mentioned in several Iris Murdoch novels, so I felt in good company. There are several versions of the Bible and a copy of the Book of Common Prayer on the shelves behind my desk, and
The Historian
is one of my favorite novels.

 

*In this latest book, characters discuss their personal notions of home. For Tilda, home is primarily located in the people who share daily life under one roof. Hannah feels that the physical structure of a home holds meaning, as well. Until the end of the novel, Craig's feelings about home are tortured and in flux. For Adam, home is a piece of real estate to sell for profit. Home is variously a place, a state of mind, or a messy combination of both. What is home for you?

 

That's a tough question. My family didn't own a home while I was growing up, so my thoughts and feelings about the notion of “home” are slightly skewed in the direction of the people who inhabit a place. When one is renting, one is borrowing. There can be a feeling of impermanence; what you can count on is a person, not four walls. Since I've owned houses, with my husband, I have discovered more of a fondness for the structure in which we share our lives. As a child I fantasized about living in a big old house, with lots of rooms and staircases and fireplaces. Now that I do live in such a place, I feel a bit like a dream has come true—though I never realized the amount of time and effort it takes to keep such a house clean!

 

*In this book, as in your last,
One Week in December,
you deal with fairly large families. Is your own immediate family large?

 

No. I have only one sibling, a brother, two years younger than I am. I'm quite satisfied with this—he's my dearest friend—but I'm also interested in the dynamics of larger families. I know of one family with five adult children who all get along famously. I know of another family with four adult children who are pretty much estranged. And I know of a third family with five adult children who have divided into two antagonistic camps. All three families are similar in being well educated and generally successful. How did each family develop as it did? Family dynamics is an endlessly fascinating topic.

 

*Speaking of family dynamics, the McQueens represent an interesting example of how some of us live to please our parents, of how some of us misinterpret our parents' expectations for us, and of how our parents' unconscious behavior toward us and each other can—often negatively—affect generations. For example, Craig is mired in a self-destructive pattern of passive-aggressive behavior directed at Bill and Charlotte, who, he believes, expect him to fail. For Hannah, the fear of repeating her mother's indifferent style of parenting, in spite of the good example set by her father, almost costs her a marriage. Adam's close identification with his mother isolates him from his siblings and his father, and Tilda's idealization of Charlotte is, she comes to realize, naive.

 

That's family for you! I don't believe that any family gets everything right—people are fallible—but I believe that readers of the McQueens' story will come away with a sense of just how worth fighting for a family really is. Maybe not always, but in many, many cases. Ruth, who has never had a desire to marry or have children of her own, still chooses loyalty to her family and its ancestral home over a life of isolation or self-centeredness.

 

*In past books, you explored the notion of forgiveness. In this book, the idea of tolerance seems important.

 

I'm a bit uncomfortable with the term “tolerance,” which, it seems to me, can smack of self-importance, or imply a hierarchy, with the tolerated somehow ranked below the ones doing the tolerating. I'd rather suggest the idea of an embracing of all other human beings as no better and no worse than oneself. Equality for all people is a moral issue as well as a civil one. I have no tolerance for those who would deny others rights they themselves possess. And yes, I used the term “tolerance” here deliberately.

 

*You've lived in Portland, Maine, since 2006. Where were you before that?

 

We moved to Cape Neddick, Maine, just over the Ogunquit line, in 2003. Because I don't drive I found that life there was a little too restricted for me, so in 2006 we moved to Portland. It's a great city with fantastic food and a thriving arts scene and some beautiful neighborhoods of massive Victorian homes. We still have friends in the Ogunquit area, so we get down there with some frequency. The biggest thing we miss about life in a more rural setting is the proximity of the beach. We were in the habit of walking Ogunquit Beach every day, rain or shine. It was a great privilege. But in Portland I can wear heels, so…

 

*If you were offered an all-expenses-paid month-long vacation right at this moment, what location would you choose?

 

Well, I would have to be able to bring Jack, Betty, and Cyrus, my cats. And, of course, my husband, Stephen! I'd find a big, old house on the west coast of Ireland and settle in. Maybe I'd take a weekend jaunt to Paris. And one to Edinburgh. But only if I could find a trustworthy cat sitter.

A READING GROUP GUIDE

 

THE FAMILY BEACH HOUSE

 

Holly Chamberlin

 

ABOUT THIS GUIDE

 

The suggested questions are included to enhance
your group's reading of Holly Chamberlin's
The Family Beach House
.

1. For Bill McQueen's parents and for himself, the salvaging and improving of Larchmere was a labor of love worthy of personal sacrifice. Ruth, while clearly fond of the house, has no interest in inheriting it. Discuss the next generation of McQueens and how they feel about the family home.
   
2. Hannah feels that Larchmere itself has a life and a personality, aside from the energies of its inhabitants. Have you ever experienced the sense of a building's emotional and spiritual power? How might that sense be explained—if, indeed, it can be explained?
   
3. Discuss the McQueen siblings' various concerns about their father's romantic relationship. Who is being entirely unreasonable and selfish, and who has Bill's best interests at heart?
   
4. Bill would view himself as a good husband and father. What do you think? Should he have told his children, especially Hannah, about his relationship with Jennifer before Ruth's revelation of it? Should he have confronted his domineering wife about her loyalty to Larchmere? Should he have attempted a closer relationship with his younger son? Should he have been aware of Adam's bad treatment of Jennifer and protected her from the abuse?
   
5. Have you witnessed the marginalization or discrimination of a widowed woman, or of a single woman in her middle age? Discuss why in the twenty-first century certain people might still be afraid of or prejudiced against a woman on her own.
   
6. Do you think that our increasingly fast-paced culture properly respects and allows for the process of mourning?
   
7. Tilda argues that one person's loss cannot and should not be measured against the loss of another. Do you agree?
   
8. Tilda feels that with Frank gone, many of her own memories are gone, too. This saddens her, but she wonders if “some degree of forgetting was necessary for living in the present and planning for the future.” At one point she also fears that as her memories of Frank fade, so does his legacy, or his presence in the future. Talk about memories of loved ones—are they burdens or treasures or both? How does nostalgia come to bear?
   
9. Though a warm, loving woman, Hannah hesitates to start a family because she fears repeating her mother's attitude of indifference toward her two younger children. Discuss why Hannah still feels so influenced, even dominated, by a woman who has been dead for ten years.
   
10. Hannah sees her mother as primarily concerned with her own self-preservation and has trouble distancing herself from that image. Some, however, might argue that Charlotte's self-interest was her right as an individual. How much, at the expense of her own well-being and personal fulfillment, does a mother owe her child?
    
11. Tilda reflects: “Age and maturity didn't entirely erase the need for the comfort, the surety of maternal love.” Talk about this in terms of your own experiences.
    
12. Kat, Tilda thinks, “is innocent of everything but youth.” What do you think she means by this? Why does Tilda feel less threatened by Kat than by Jennifer? Can you relate to or understand Tilda's jealousy and fear of Jennifer?
    
13. Craig wonders if it's enough to be a passive and inoffensive person, or if it's better—even necessary—to be an actively good and productive person. Adam echoes this internal debate when he claims to be someone “who has some real value in the world,” as opposed to his brother. What do you think?
    
14. Craig wonders if his fate is “inextricably wound up with the fate” of his family's home. The thought frightens him; the idea of “home” both appeals to and repulses him. Talk about Craig's personal struggle in relation to his perception of his place in and value to the family.
    
15. Hannah considers Adam a bad parent. Tilda argues that Adam is a loving, if often impatient, parent. With whom do you more agree?
    
16. Adam and his father are not at all close. Might Adam's antisocial behavior be a reaction against what he sees as his father's indifference to him? Do you think that Adam's hatred of Bobby might be a disguised jealousy of the men's relationship? Was there a moment when you felt a bit sorry for Adam?
    
17. Do you think Tilda and Hannah were wrong in talking to Kat about her relationship with their brother? If not, why were they justified in their behavior? Were their motives entirely unselfish? Should Tilda have told Adam about Kat's meeting with another man?
    
18. With which character do you most identify? Who is your favorite character? Are they the same?