Comment on the questions posed by author Lise Saffran's after completing Juno's Daughters:
1) What was your first impression of Jenny and Lilly's "competition" over Trinculo? Did your feelings about it change as the book progressed and the stakes became higher?
2) Do you think Jenny was right to go see Monroe without Lilly? Do you think she had closure after meeting with him? Do you think he'd changed from the monster he was when she left him? (What about their meeting hinted at his maturation, or his lack of maturation?)
3) Were you satisfied with the end of the novel? Discuss in particular the significance of Jenny and Frankie's conversation about Monroe, and Frankie's quotation of Love's Labour's Lost. How is the last paragraph especially relevant to the theme or themes of the book?
4) How did you feel about the elements of "artifice" in the novel (the middle-chapter-as-play, the previously-mentioned changing character names) by the time you got to the end? What effect did you think those elements had on your reading of the novel?
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4) While the name changing made sense to me, the chapter as play felt unnecessary. TW was actively irritated by it, as she felt it ruined the flow just as she was suspending disbelief and getting into the story.
2) Jenny should definitely have gone to see Monroe without Lilly. She needed to have a conversation alone with him. On the other hand, I'm really not for lying to one's kids. As a parent (rather than as a reader) I wish she wouldn't have agreed not to go without Lilly.
I didn't see much of the scene being about Monroe's maturation or lack thereof-- the scene showed that Jenny had grown up as she views Monroe differently. She allows herself to notice that he's a human (complete with a houseplant!) and not a monster, but then she forces herself to realize he's still a loser jerk who didn't even realize that he had the power to make his wife cry.
1) My first impression of the competition over Trinculo was,"Ick".
As the book progressed I was glad he improved and became somebody worth spending time with (competing over a guy is icky enough-- but usually that means he's not a guy worth competing over).
My mother and I couldn't envision the kind of guy who would have ever been interested in us at the same time-- until I reminded her that one of my ex's was particularly fond of her.
1) (Con't.) I was very glad that the competition with Trinc was not the dramatic climax of the book.
1. This was my most unfavorite thing about the book. I can’t fathom a 40-something mom being seriously in competition with her underage daughter…not for a man that she would actually want to be with. Bothered me the whole time.
2. Definitely felt like Jenny should have gone alone to see Monroe. I was kinda surprised she did. It seemed like it was one of the first adult moves she made. Monroe was still selfish and pathetic. I can’t remember anything else much. He didn’t seem like a monster still, but he didn’t seem like a winner.
4. I thought they were nice touches. I felt like that Trinculo should have changed into his real name once Jenny was involved with him seriously. I felt like the transition to real names should have accompanied the deepening of the relationships or never have happened. I could envision the character names remaining nicknames, like Ariel. Felt like it was a little overdone to have all the stage names switch into their real names rather rapidly at the end. That was confusing. I didn’t care to know everyone’s name…the minor players could remain with their character names. Also, was confused when Ariel referred to Frankie as her character name. As far as I could tell….the islanders were referred to by their real names so it was out of nowhere for Ariel to call Frankie by her stage name.
Felt it was completely appropriate for Jenny to meet with Monroe alone. But having promised Lilly she would wait, she should have been willing to return to see him with Lilly. It was another instance I felt like she was avoiding a situation that really needed to be faced.
The competition over Trinculo made me cringe and I really didn't like how Jenny handled it. It probably colored my impression of Trinculo and I distrusted him, expecting a problem to develop later in the book.
As I re-read the comments I realize that I have to add that my mother and I never did compete over my ex. He just entered the conversation to demonstrate that there existed a person who could have an interest in both of us (although I sincerely doubt he would have had any interest in a 17 year old after he was 18 or so).
I actually liked the ending of the story. Lilly and Jenny are going to have a better relationship relationship. Sounds like Jenny and Trin's feelings for each other might be real. I worry about Frankie, but she is a different person from Lilly and Jeny might have learned alot.
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