White Picket Fences
by Susan Meissner
List Price: $13.99
Pages: 368
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781400074570
Publisher: WaterBrook Press
When her black sheep brother disappears, Amanda Janvier eagerly takes in her sixteen year-old niece Tally. The girl is practically an orphan: motherless, and living with a father who raises Tally wherever he lands– in a Buick, a pizza joint, a horse farm–and regularly takes off on wild schemes. Amanda envisions that she, her husband Neil, and their two teenagers can offer the girl stability and a shot at a “normal” life, even though their own storybook lives are about to crumble.
Seventeen-year-old Chase Janvier hasn’t seen his cousin in years, and other than a vague curiosity about her strange life, he doesn’t expect her arrival will affect him much–or interfere with his growing, disturbing interest in a long-ago house fire that plagues his dreams unbeknownst to anyone else.
Tally and Chase bond as they interview two Holocaust survivors for a sociology project, and become startlingly aware that the whole family is grappling with hidden secrets, with the echoes of the past, and with the realization that ignoring tragic situations won’t make them go away.
Will Tally’s presence blow apart their carefully-constructed world, knocking down the illusion of the white picket fence and reveal a hidden past that could destroy them all–or can she help them find the truth without losing each other?
top of the page
1. Amanda thinks she has the perfect home while Tally's life lacks stability and safety. How do you see this actually being reversed in the story?
2. Why do you think Chase named the fire Ghost? Why might he have felt the need to give the fire a name?
3. What is the significance of Neil's occupation as a financial planner? What do you think that career choice says about him?
4. Do you have any sympathy for Neil's character and the choices he made? Why or why not?
5. What do you think of Bart's parenting skills? Is he a bad father? How do his parenting skills compare with Amanda and Neil's?
6. Why do you think Chase dreamed of Eliasz coming to him in the fire?
7. What, if anything, do Josef and Eliasz represent to Chase? To Tally?
8. Do you envision Bart eventually finding the jewelry and gold? How do you see the imagined outcome affecting him?
9. Josef says in the last chapter, "[This] is what all survivors must decide. We have to decide how much we will choose to remember and how much courage we are willing to expend to do so." What do you think he means? Do you agree?
10. Did Neil and Amanda make a mistake by never mentioning the fire again after Chase stopped talking about it?
11. Why do you think Chase didn't care for woodworking and instead turned to film-making? Are these two pursuits similar in any way?
12. Are some secrets good to keep? How do we know which ones are meant to be kept?
top of the page
"I loved looking into the heart of this family whose life looks perfect only from the outside. Meissner’s characters are so real, so haunted by the past, and so in denial for reasons of self-defense that you will be swept away till the final page. You’ll find it hard not to wonder, as one of the elderly characters did, if remembering is a choice that takes courage."
— Julie L. Cannon, author of Truleove & Homegrown Tomatoes
"To step into a Susan Meissner book is to be blessed by a craftsman’s tender touch. In Susan’s hands, we move carefully into compassion, entering the ordinary lives of people who could be our neighbors, ourselves, each doing what we can to staunch the pain of memory. This book opens a gate in the white picket fences of our lives, helping transform memory and secrets so we are no longer held hostage by the past. Beautifully written by a keen observer of the human condition, White Picket Fence will keep you reading into the night and make you sigh with satisfaction at the end."
— Jane Kirkpatrick, award-winning author of A Flickering Light
"This compelling story with its wonderful cast of characters offers hope to all of us who live less than perfect lives behind our white picket fences. Susan Meissner skillfully weaves together parallel storylines to show how healing can come when we risk sharing our secret pain with others."
— Lynn Austin, author of Until We Reach Home
"Susan Meissner just keeps getting better and better. This novel is a deftly woven portrayal of family and friendships, of secrets and sacrifices, one that tiptoes beyond the white picket fence to look at what happens when people stop talking to each other."
— Siri Mitchell, author of Love’s Pursuit
