Even Now
by Susan S. Kelly
List Price: $22.95
Pages: 288
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 0446527629
Publisher: Time Warner Books
Also Available as an eBook
Susan S. Kelly's award-winning
debut novel, How Close We Come, told a deeply affecting story
of two best friends, and of what happened when their seemingly unbreakable
bond was threatened. Here her newest novel reveals a different aspect
of women's friendships. In this tale, a close friendship gone wrong years
earlier still has the power to make a woman question herself and her life...EVEN
NOW
When her husband, Hal, accepts
a teaching position at a private school in the tiny North Carolina town
of Rural Ridge, Hannah Marsh views her family's move as a chance to return
to a simpler, sweeter way of living. Contentedly married for seventeen
years and the mother of two children, she nevertheless has a nagging sense
that something is absent from her life. Then, at a casual neighborhood
dinner, Hannah encounters someone she thought she'd never see again: Daintry
O'Connor, a ghost from her childhood.
As children, Hannah adored
and idolized the more worldly, daring Daintry, even envying Daintry's
adoption into a large and lively Irish family. She truly believed that
they would be Best Friends Forever. But forever ended abruptly, leaving
behind feelings of abandonment, betrayal, anger, and too many unanswered
questions. Now, suddenly confronted with the adult Daintry—a successful,
stylish investment banker married to an Episcopal priest—Hannah feels
the old wounds painfully reopening.
As the two women become a part
of the daily life of the mountain village, Hannah struggles to understand
why Daintry still exerts an extraordinary hold on her—even as she
finds herself dangerously drawn to Daintry's husband, Peter. When Peter
makes it clear that he shares the attraction, a chain of events is set
in motion that could affect them all.
A novel that explores the elusive
mysteries of faith, memory, and the tenuous bonds of love, trust, and
friendship, EVEN NOW asks whether a relationship can survive
changes-and the changing perspectives of time. Is it possible for two
women to rediscover what they have both lost? Or is the true test of friendship
knowing when to let go.
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1. Hannah's sister Ceel maintains that, "Every woman has a Daintry in their lives." What does she mean?? Do you think this statement is true?
2. For the author, Daintry O'Connor represents all the female friendships that have somehow dissolved, harmlessly or deliberately, throughout her life.? Do you have relationships that seem to have no basis for ending?? Why do female friendships fail?? Jealousy?? Lifestyle choices?? Competition?? Too much dependency?
3. Hannah's marriage is essentially happy and stable.? Yet she ponders an extramarital affair, and the reasons for it.? What about this temptation? Does adultery, after all, stem from sheer availibility, the urge for a new experience, feeling attractive in another man's eyes, harmless flirtation that veers into dangerous territory, vindication or revenge for past history?
4. Do you think Ceel realizes Hannah's straying?? Does Hal?
5. What part does spirituality play in Even Now?? Are churches indeed, as Daintry says, "sexy places"? Do you know of similar situations with priests and parishioners? Can Daintry be sympathized with?
6. For those who have read How Close We Come, what are the similarities in Pril and Hannah?? Are there similarities in the characters of Daintry and Ruth? Do you agree with Hannah's assertion to Ellen that "girls are awful to each other"?
7. Can Hannah's mother's actions be justified? Should Hannah have confessed to Hal -- or will she -- of her near-adultery? Why is Hannah scornful of Doesy and the type of woman her character represents? Is her disdain justified?
8. Susan Kelly likes to say that she writes about "necessary sadness."? In fact, "a current of sadness" is a phrase she finds a place for in everything she writes. Did you notice it?? What does she mean? Extra Credit: Do you wish Hannah and Peter had managed their fling? (In one version, they did, for months!)
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