TwP ~ questions about LOSS

Erechtheion, atop the Acropolis, with its Porch of the Maidens (click to enlarge)

In this first section of Traveling with Pomegranates, Sue and Ann travel to Greece and Turkey and then home to South Carolina in 1998-1999.  Chapter titles show us where they were.  (Second section, next week.)

LOSS

Sue ~ National Archaeological Museum ~ Athens
Ann ~ The Acropolis ~ Athens
Sue ~ The Cathedral of Athens
Ann ~ Restaurant ~ Athens
Sue ~ Sanctuary of Demeter ~ Eleusis
Ann ~ Sanctuary of Demeter ~ Eleusis
Sue ~ Mary's House ~ Ephesus, Turkey
Ann ~ Aboard Ship ~ Patmos, Turkey
Sue ~ Charleston, South Carolina
Ann ~ Charleston, South Carolina

I came up with some questions as a way to get us started, but since this is neither school nor a test, let your interests guide you to write about anything you like.

1.  Do the alternating chapters by Sue and Ann work for you?
2.  Am I the only one who has to keep reminding myself this is a dual memoir, not a novel?
3.  Do you relate to either of the two women, the older or the younger?  In what ways?
4.  Have you ever noticed any synchronicities in your own life, like the bee landing on Sue's shoulder in Ephesus (p. 101)?

As we walk toward each other, a honeybee lights on my left shoulder.  I come to an abrupt stop, watching it from the corner of my eye.  Perhaps this visitation is nothing, but it feels purposeful. ... The bee is a mystery, a metaphor, a pure synchronicity. ... The awe is that the bee has come at all.

5.  Ann is depressed during this trip.  Does this have anything to do with her interest in the goddess Athena?
6.  Was Sue's way of looking at Mary surprising to you?
7.  Have you visited any of the places Sue and Ann wrote about in this section?

Traveling with Pomegranates (TwP)

Traveling with Pomegranates: A Mother-Daughter Story ~ by Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor, 2009, memoir (Greece, Turkey, South Carolina, France)

Synopsis:  In this intimate dual memoir, the #1 New York Times bestselling novelist and her daughter, Ann, offer distinct perspectives as a fifty-something and a twenty-something, each on a quest to redefine herself and to rediscover each other.  Between 1998 and 2000, Sue and Ann travel throughout Greece and France.  Sue, coming to grips with aging, caught in a creative vacuum, longing to reconnect with her grown daughter, struggles to enlarge a vision of swarming bees into a novel.  Ann, just graduated from college, heartbroken and benumbed by the classic question about what to do with her life, grapples with a painful depression.

Helpful links

• Sue Monk Kidd's website
• Ann Kidd Taylor's website
• Excerpt ~ Sue
• Excerpt ~ Ann
• DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
• Questions (1-7) about LOSS
• Questions (8-12) about SEARCH
• Questions (13-15) about RETURN
• Questions (16-20) about AFTERWORD
• Complete discussion of TwP

Note to new Book Buddies:   If you would like to post your questions and opinions, either leave your email address in a comment here, or send me your email address. so I can add you to the list.  The email address for Bonnie Jacobs is emerging DOT paradigm AT yahoo DOT com

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Labels:  When you post, be sure to add two labels:  your name + TwP (Traveling with Pomegranates), which will keep all posts about this book together.  Notice just below that I labeled this post Bonnie and TwP