Washington Post Reads discussion

Discuss chapters 1 - 4 of the book. Don't include spoilers for things that happen after these chapters!

Here are some discussion questions. Feel free to answer any or all or pose your own questions to the group.

1. Pasquale waits for something to happen, "inhabiting the vast, empty plateau where most people live," Dee waits for her friend to arrive at the hotel and Antonia waits to die. What other examples of waiting can you find in these chapters? What do you think the author is trying to say about life?

2. The author plays with the language barrier between his characters throughout these chapters. What do you learn about the characters through these interactions?

3. Dee said Alvis Bender's story was sad and beautiful. What emotions did you feel reading "The Smile of Heaven," chapter four? What resonated most for you and why?

To paraphrase, life is what happens while you're waiting for something else. All of the characters in the opening section seem to be waiting for something else, rather than looking at the present, the lives they are actually living. At the same time, I think that we as readers are waiting through this opening section for the story to begin, the story of how each of the characters slowly discovers their lives in the present, the story of how these disparate characters and plot lines will weave themselves together into a cohesive whole.

I think some other examples of waiting in these chapters include Shane waiting for his life to begin, Alvis waiting to write his book, and Claire waiting to change some aspects of her life. I think the author may be trying to say something about how people react to their own situation by waiting for it to change without making the effort to change it themselves. He gives these character almost a very deterministic attitude. I really like the parallel that Diane pointed out between the waiting of the characters and the way the reader waits for the plot to begin. I really like that idea.

The language barrier seems like a funny way to show how the characters react to something that could be uncomfortable, but I think it's more about how people can transcend words when it comes to relationships with others. You really learn more about how the character interacts and how they treat people when you take easy communication out of the picture, they have to condense their replies into only what is essential rather than embellishing their words. It really takes note of what is important.

The smile of heaven was a very unusual and poignant piece. I could almost feel my feet getting more and more uncomfortable as he kept writing. Strangely enough, until he starts crying, he doesn't mention the pain in his feet once while he's with her. I think his realization of what her actions meant was really important in the depiction of war through his eyes.

I think they are waiting for the proverbial sign, for a push or a shove that will propel them forward. The language barrier I felt showed how much can be conveyed or alternately misunderstood when people are speaking different languages.
I too found the smile of heaven a poignant piece and felt this was his voice, the only way he could relate what had affected him so strongly.

Claire, who has been offered the position of film curator at a museum, is waiting for a sign. She'll take anything, even simply liking one pitch idea on Wild Card Friday, to convince her to stay at what has essentially become a glorified dead end job as Michael Deane's development assistant.

Shane, is waiting for his latest real life to begin - he failed at marriage and failed at being a novelist. Now he's come up with a movie pitch and it's all or nothing for him - this could allow him a fresh new start, the opportunity to move out of his parents' basement, the opportunity to BE someone.

When it came to the Alvis chapter, I was a little disappointed. It's not that it was written badly, but somehow, the breezy WWII banter style and the self-defeatist humor didn't feel right. Somehow, I had assumed another voice in my head. With all of his annual stays at the Hotel Adequate View and all of his conversations with Pasquale and his father, I expected something different and I'm not sure what. Somehow, the obsession with his feet, with socks, the half-hatched idea of shooting his foot and the descriptions of mundane war assignments just didn't quite click.

Regardless, the book on whole so far, is captivating. The jump from the dense yet lyrical descriptions of life in Porto Vergogna to the perfectly captured inside-Hollywood stream of now-ness, is terrific. The differences in pace and rhythm, both compliment and feed off each other. Claire is finishing up her meeting at the Coffee Bean and the two men have given her an envelope with a contract offer inside and then they pause and drop a bomb, "Claire, how much to you know about Scientology?" It was a great moment.

I forgot about that Scientology moment and agree with you , it was great and totally unexpected.

On the theme of waiting, there's a lot of talk of it in these early chapters (e.g., Dee saying life is like sitting in a theater waiting for the movie to begin), but I didn’t totally read it that way. “Waiting” to me implies passively sitting around until something happens, but all of these characters are pursuing something. They want to improve their current circumstances, and are self-aware enough to know that they have gotten where they are through their own choices and need to now make some new choices to move forward. So Claire actively looks for a new job, Shane networks to find someone to whom he can pitch his movie, and Pasquale, improbably, is building a beach to attract tourists. Instead of waiting, I see them all as seeking. They each have a vision and they are seeking to make it real.

I agree with Sydney about how the language barrier is used. It's funny sometimes, but forces the characters to focus on the essential, without embellishment. As an aside, it annoyed me a little that the Americans don't even really try to speak Italian, although the Italians try desperately to speak English. I know, I know, Americans aren't multi-lingual, English is the language of the world, etc. I just would have liked to have seen the American characters putting forth more of an effort with the language. And yes, the Scientology reveal was perfect - I'm pretty sure I laughed out loud.

Chapter 4 was difficult. I'm still thinking about it, but it was definitely sad.

Dee answers the very question of waiting and life: "i've been thinking about how people sit around for years waiting for their lives to begin...and when our lives do begin? I mean, the exciting part, the action? It's all so fast... Maybe you can't even believe it... maybe your find yourself on the outside looking in, like watching strangers eat in a nice restaurant."

It's ironic how she's so young and yet impending death has taught her so much about the life she's, supposedly, about to lose.

This is a superb use of character voice to convey Walter's view on life and waiting. Things are happening, people eat in nice restaurants and watch movies, all the while waiting for life to happen, all the while not knowing life is already happening, that they are in the throes of it, yet on the outside, like watching people eat in a restaurant. Beautiful!

Stefanie wrote: "On the theme of waiting, there's a lot of talk of it in these early chapters (e.g., Dee saying life is like sitting in a theater waiting for the movie to begin), but I didn’t totally read it that w..."

I love the use of language barrier in Pasqo and Dee's chapter 2 conversation. You are spot on - the language barrier is used to show the beauty of simplicity, of not embellishing. Dee uses beautiful metaphors for life -- watching a movie, eating in a restaurant -- that are lost on poor Pasqo. Her metaphors are simple, perhaps overused, and yet its hard to imagine any better use of metaphor. It might be easier for her to simply say "Don't wait for life to happen." Pasqo would certainly more easily understand, but the narrative would lose so much!

I honestly had trouble getting into this book, and I so wanted to. I gave up at page 65 and moved on. Maybe the next book will be more to my liking.

Question #3: Alvis Bender's only chapter made me deeply sad for war survivors. It's no wonder Bender couldn't write more. He was wrought with guilt akin to "survivor's guilt," when someone dies. In this case both he and the beautiful Maria are survivors, yet they both are changed in different ways. Maria is street-wise and self-preserving, Bender is world-weary.

All of the chapters set in 1940s Italy make me aware of Italy's war scars and the animosity many Italians felt toward invaders, American and German. I'm also aware of Italy's loss of innocence in the dawn of its tourism economy. Bender hit the nail on the head when he told Pasquale's father to hold onto what he had. The landscape would soon be stomped to death by tourists and never again be the same.