1. Carey does not organize The Crossley Baby as a straightforward chronology but freely interweaves current developments with episodes from her characters' past lives. How does it affect your attitude toward the conflict between Sunny and Jean to see them in younger incarnations?

2. Do you think the novel comes to a clear conclusion about what sort of mother would be best for Jade? Were you pleased with the way the custody question worked out?

3. In her interview, Carey says that Jean and Sunny become to some extent more like each other as the novel progresses. In what ways? How else do they change? Did you notice any similarities in the pressures that they react to?

4. The sisters come from a family in which lengthy feuds are part of the family lore. Why are feuds good fodder for fiction?

5. The sisters come from a family in which lengthy feuds are part of the family lore. Why are feuds good fodder for fiction?

6. What part does the city of Manhattan play in The Crossley Baby? Would the story change in essential ways if it were set elsewhere?

7. What effect does the style of a novel --- right down to the way an individual sentence unfolds --- have on your enjoyment of it? Are there particular sentences in The Crossley Baby that seem stamped with the author's sensibility? How would you characterize that sensibility?

8. Reviewers have repeatedly praised the combination of wit and gravity that Carey brings to her writing. Can you think of other writers who tell serious stories in a comic and disarming manner?