Around the Next Corner
by Elizabeth Wrenn

List Price: $12.95
Pages: 336
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0451218426
Publisher: NAL

For Deena Munger, the transformation to underappreciated housewife was subtle and gradual. She loved her family dearly, but Deena was starting to wonder: When did I disappear? And how come I never even noticed?

Then one day she stuns her family by volunteering to raise a puppy for K-9 Eyes for the blind. Suddenly the stability of Deena’s life is turned upside down. And, it turns out, this rambunctious, impulsive ball of fur could actually be the damage control she needs to save her family, her marriage, and her self....

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1. In the beginning of Around The Next Corner, Deena is unhappy with her life and worried that her love for her family is now just an “on paper” love. What does this mean? What makes Deena yearn for freedom?

2. In chapter three, Elaine implies that Deena is doing her job as mother “too well.” Is that possible, or is this the perspective of someone who doesn’t have children?

3. Deena muses “ that our twenties biology sends us scouring for mates.. . .our thirties biology beats the drum of procreation and nurturing. And in our forties and fifties. . .What? Our biology simply runs out?”  Do you think that life stages are generally defined by our decades? How much is nature versus nurture?

4. The novel examines a number of relationships in various states of dependence and independence. Which relationships in the novel seem balanced this way, and which imbalanced? What is a good balance?

5. How does Neil’s character grow and change? What events contribute to his growth?

6. In what ways do you think children affect a marriage at various stages, from birth to grown and living on their own?

7. Sam is “off-camera” for the entire book. How is this character important?

8. Why do you think the author included three gay characters? In what ways do they contribute to the themes in the book?

9. The author refers to graduation several times, in different contexts. Why do you think she chose to do this? What does graduation mean to you?

10. Deena listens to a Carole King CD and wonders how it could be “the soundtrack to her life” both in the past, and now in the present, yet in a very different way. What does she mean?

11. At the beginning of the novel, Deena and Amy have been neighbors with similarly-aged children and have interacted for years, yet are not friends. At the end, they are. Why did their relationship change?

12. Has a dog or other animal ever taught you a life-lesson?

13. What were some significant “corners” in your life?

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