Searching for Tina Turner
by Jacqueline E. Luckett
List Price: $13.99
Pages: 320
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9780446542951
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
On the surface, Lena Spencer appears to have it all. She and her wealthy husband Randall have two wonderful children, and they live a life of luxury. In reality, however, Lena finds that happiness is elusive. Randall is emotionally distant, her son has developed a drug habit and her daughter is disgusted by her mother's "overbearing behavior." When Randall decides that he's had enough of marriage counseling, he offers his wife an ultimatum: "Be grateful for all I've done for you or leave." Lena, realizing that money can't solve her problems and that her husband is no longer the man she married, decides to choose the latter. Drawing strength from Tina Turner's life story, Searching for Tina Turner is Lena's struggle to find herself after 25 years of being a wife and mother.
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1. In the beginning of SFTT, Lena is scattered and no longer able to manage her life. Were there other ways that Lena could have maintained balance in her life? If she had, do you think her marriage would have fallen apart?
2. What can a younger woman gain from Lena’s experience? Does age have anything to do with Lena’s situation?
3. Lena chose one aspect of Tina Turner’s life as a role model for strength. Were there other aspects of Tina’s life that helped her as well?
4. Are role models important? Who are your role models? How have their lives inspired you?
5. What lessons can women learn from Lena’s experience?
6. Lena chose to leave the life she and Randall built together. What other ways can women regain “self” without giving up what they worked so hard to gain?
7. Lena and Randall talk to their children separately about their divorce. If the four of them had discussed the situation together, do you think Kendrick and Camille would have been less bitter toward Lena?
8. Lena tries to explain how she feels about her life to Camille. Can Lena be a role model for Camille? What is it about her mother that Camille should be proud of?
9. Why do you think that Candace comes to Lena’s aid at the dinner party? What did Lena learn about friendship from that situation?
10. When Lena picks up Randall from the airport, what could each have done differently to connect with the other? Or was their marriage already over?
11. Lulu offers this advice to Lena: “…make it enough. Make it enough to last until death do you part. I hope you’re not thinking about doing something foolish. There’s no way you could live like you do without Randall.” Given the generational difference between the two women, what could Lena take from this advice and pass on to Camille?
12. Do you think that Randall was aware that his best friend was flirting with his wife? If so, why didn’t he do anything about it?
13. If Lena understood the differences between her and Cheryl, why do you think Lena agreed to go with her to France?
14. How do the differences between Cheryl and Lena help Lena? What does Lena learn from Cheryl?
15. What does Lena learn from her relationship with Harmon? Is he good for her?
16. Lena forgives Harmon for past behavior. Is there an old flame in your past like Harmon? What would it take for you to reconnect with that person?
17. Did Lena do anything that hints to what her future with Harmon could be?
18. What does Bobbie’s support mean to Lena? What are the differences between the sisters?
19. Why do you think Bobbie decided to visit Lulu?
20. What, if anything, did Bobbie learn from Lena?
21. If Lena had gone with Randall in Paris, would he have accepted the “new” Lena? How would the two of them have reconciled the changes in Lena?
22. If Lena had accepted Randall’s offer in Paris and reunited with him, do you think she would have fallen back into the pattern of their old relationship?
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