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OUTAGES AROUND
THE CRADLE
BY PATRICK SOMERVILLE
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Early one summer morning, Matthew Bishop kisses his still-sleeping wife Marissa, gets dressed and eases his truck through Milwaukee, bound for the highway. His wife, pregnant with their first child, has asked him to find the antique cradle taken years before by her mother Caroline when she abandoned Marissa, never to contact her daughter again. Soon to be a mother herself, Marissa now dreams of nothing else but bringing her baby home to the cradle she herself slept in. His wife does not know-does not want to know-where her mother lives, but Matt has an address for Caroline's sister near by and with any luck, he will be home in time for dinner.
Only as Matt tries to track down his wife's mother, he discovers that Caroline, upon leaving Marissa, has led a life increasingly plagued by impulse and irrationality, a mysterious life that grows more inexplicable with each new lead Matt gains, and door he enters. As hours turn into days and Caroline's trail takes Matt from Wisconsin to Minnesota, Illinois, and beyond in search of the cradle, Matt makes a discovery that will forever change Marissa's life, and faces a decision that will challenge everything he has ever known.
Elegant and astonishing, Patrick Somerville tells the story of one man's journey into the heart of marriage, parenthood, and what it means to be a family. Confirming the arrival of an exuberantly talented new writer, THE CRADLE is an uniquely imaginative debut novel that radiates with wisdom and wonder.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Patrick Somerville grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and later earned his MFA from Cornell University. He is also the author of the story collection Trouble (Vintage, 2006). He lives with his wife in Chicago, where he teaches creative writing at Northwestern University.
Go HERE to view a video about Patrick Somerville's THE CRADLE.
READING GROUP GUIDE: Click HERE to get to the entire Reading Group Guide.
Here are the Group Discussion Questions from there which is just part of this wonderful resource.
READING GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. What does Matt mean when he tells Joe, “You’re free,” as they eat breakfast in the diner?
2. In your opinion, what is the significance of the cradle?
3. Renee’s story occurs more than a decade after Matt’s, and in many ways the two characters exist in different worlds. How are their respective quests similar? How are their journeys different?
4. Why does Marissa cry on her wedding day?
5. Why do you think Matt rips the showerhead out of the wall?
6. In the novel’s first chapter, Marissa claims, “There are two kinds of people in the world. There are people who understand that everything matters and people who don’t understand that everything matters” (page 6). What does she mean by this? Is she serious? Use her statement as a way to think about the various characters in the book.
7. How is writing poetry different for Renee than her work writing children’s books? Why do you think she struggles so much with the former, and how does that struggle change in the course of the novel? How does Renee’s understanding of Walt Whitman’s work play a role?
8. Matt comes to the realization that “the world never just happened but rather was made by people, each and every aspect of it” (page 157). How does this realization affect his sense of personal responsibility?
9. Who was the character you most identified with at the beginning of the novel? Did that change by the conclusion of the story?
10. Why do you think that, following Matt’s return, Marissa never again asked about the cradle?
REVIEW:
Patrick Somerville’s novel, THE CRADLE, is a story quite different from my initial thoughts. Through Somerville’s expert narrative, the reader will find two stories, intricately woven together in a subtle way, about loss, love, belongings, and those things that unite a family. What I considered the main story is set in the Midwest and about Marissa and Matthew Bishop who are eagerly anticipating the birth of their first child. Marissa gets an idea in her head that she wants the cradle she was in as a baby to use for their baby. The only problem is that she doesn’t know where it s. When last seen, it was with Marissa’s mother who disappeared years ago, abandoning Marissa. Matthew, who was working extra time to save for the baby, is not eager to go off on a wild good chase and tries to convince Marissa that this Civil War era cradle can’t possibly make a big difference but she is set on having that cradle.
Matthew sets out on this search and luckily gets a lead to the whereabouts of the cradle. Traveling from one place to another, Matt slowly begins to uncover secrets about Marissa’s family which in turn make him think about his own life…thoughts he had hoped to keep buried away.
The second story is about another set of parents, Renee and Bill, who are agonizing as they watch their nineteen year old son enlist in the army. Renee is hiding a secret in her very complicated past and it comes back to haunt her as she watches her son enlist. This is a secret that she has kept from before she was married. Renee has strong objections to the war in Iraq and so it is amazing as you read these two stories and start to realize that there just might be a connection between the two couples. Although the book goes back and forth between the two stories, Sommerville skillfully blends the two seemingly unrelated stories together leaving readers with a worthwhile, satisfying conclusion.
Filled with intriguing characters and suspenseful moments that draw you in and make you care about them and what happens to them, THE CRADLE is a story of happiness, hope, and the true meaning of family. This would be a wonderful book club choice as the story leaves one wanting to discuss all the twists and turns, and the interesting characters.
Early one summer morning, Matthew Bishop kisses his still-sleeping wife Marissa, gets dressed and eases his truck through Milwaukee, bound for the highway. His wife, pregnant with their first child, has asked him to find the antique cradle taken years before by her mother Caroline when she abandoned Marissa, never to contact her daughter again. Soon to be a mother herself, Marissa now dreams of nothing else but bringing her baby home to the cradle she herself slept in. His wife does not know-does not want to know-where her mother lives, but Matt has an address for Caroline's sister near by and with any luck, he will be home in time for dinner.
Only as Matt tries to track down his wife's mother, he discovers that Caroline, upon leaving Marissa, has led a life increasingly plagued by impulse and irrationality, a mysterious life that grows more inexplicable with each new lead Matt gains, and door he enters. As hours turn into days and Caroline's trail takes Matt from Wisconsin to Minnesota, Illinois, and beyond in search of the cradle, Matt makes a discovery that will forever change Marissa's life, and faces a decision that will challenge everything he has ever known.
Elegant and astonishing, Patrick Somerville tells the story of one man's journey into the heart of marriage, parenthood, and what it means to be a family. Confirming the arrival of an exuberantly talented new writer, THE CRADLE is an uniquely imaginative debut novel that radiates with wisdom and wonder.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Patrick Somerville grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and later earned his MFA from Cornell University. He is also the author of the story collection Trouble (Vintage, 2006). He lives with his wife in Chicago, where he teaches creative writing at Northwestern University.Go HERE to view a video about Patrick Somerville's THE CRADLE.
READING GROUP GUIDE: Click HERE to get to the entire Reading Group Guide.
Here are the Group Discussion Questions from there which is just part of this wonderful resource.
READING GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. What does Matt mean when he tells Joe, “You’re free,” as they eat breakfast in the diner?
2. In your opinion, what is the significance of the cradle?
3. Renee’s story occurs more than a decade after Matt’s, and in many ways the two characters exist in different worlds. How are their respective quests similar? How are their journeys different?
4. Why does Marissa cry on her wedding day?
5. Why do you think Matt rips the showerhead out of the wall?
6. In the novel’s first chapter, Marissa claims, “There are two kinds of people in the world. There are people who understand that everything matters and people who don’t understand that everything matters” (page 6). What does she mean by this? Is she serious? Use her statement as a way to think about the various characters in the book.
7. How is writing poetry different for Renee than her work writing children’s books? Why do you think she struggles so much with the former, and how does that struggle change in the course of the novel? How does Renee’s understanding of Walt Whitman’s work play a role?
8. Matt comes to the realization that “the world never just happened but rather was made by people, each and every aspect of it” (page 157). How does this realization affect his sense of personal responsibility?
9. Who was the character you most identified with at the beginning of the novel? Did that change by the conclusion of the story?
10. Why do you think that, following Matt’s return, Marissa never again asked about the cradle?
REVIEW:
Patrick Somerville’s novel, THE CRADLE, is a story quite different from my initial thoughts. Through Somerville’s expert narrative, the reader will find two stories, intricately woven together in a subtle way, about loss, love, belongings, and those things that unite a family. What I considered the main story is set in the Midwest and about Marissa and Matthew Bishop who are eagerly anticipating the birth of their first child. Marissa gets an idea in her head that she wants the cradle she was in as a baby to use for their baby. The only problem is that she doesn’t know where it s. When last seen, it was with Marissa’s mother who disappeared years ago, abandoning Marissa. Matthew, who was working extra time to save for the baby, is not eager to go off on a wild good chase and tries to convince Marissa that this Civil War era cradle can’t possibly make a big difference but she is set on having that cradle.
Matthew sets out on this search and luckily gets a lead to the whereabouts of the cradle. Traveling from one place to another, Matt slowly begins to uncover secrets about Marissa’s family which in turn make him think about his own life…thoughts he had hoped to keep buried away.
The second story is about another set of parents, Renee and Bill, who are agonizing as they watch their nineteen year old son enlist in the army. Renee is hiding a secret in her very complicated past and it comes back to haunt her as she watches her son enlist. This is a secret that she has kept from before she was married. Renee has strong objections to the war in Iraq and so it is amazing as you read these two stories and start to realize that there just might be a connection between the two couples. Although the book goes back and forth between the two stories, Sommerville skillfully blends the two seemingly unrelated stories together leaving readers with a worthwhile, satisfying conclusion.
Filled with intriguing characters and suspenseful moments that draw you in and make you care about them and what happens to them, THE CRADLE is a story of happiness, hope, and the true meaning of family. This would be a wonderful book club choice as the story leaves one wanting to discuss all the twists and turns, and the interesting characters.
GIVEAWAY
THANKS TO VALERIE AND THE
HACHETTE BOOK GROUP, I HAVE
THREE COPIES OF THIS EXCITING
BOOK TO GIVE AWAY!
--U.S. AND CANADIAN RESIDENTS ONLY
--NO P. O. BOXES
---INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
IN CASE YOU WIN!
--ALL COMMENTS MUST BE SEPARATE TO
COUNT AS MORE THAN ONE!
HOW TO ENTER
10 PM, EST, JUNE 7
GOOD LUCK!
THANKS TO VALERIE AND THE
HACHETTE BOOK GROUP, I HAVE
THREE COPIES OF THIS EXCITING
BOOK TO GIVE AWAY!
--U.S. AND CANADIAN RESIDENTS ONLY
--NO P. O. BOXES
---INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
IN CASE YOU WIN!
--ALL COMMENTS MUST BE SEPARATE TO
COUNT AS MORE THAN ONE!
+1 ENTRY: COMMENT ON SOMETHING YOU FOUND INTERESTING ABOUT THE CRADLE IN THE INFORMATION ABOVE
+1 MORE ENTRY: BLOG OR TWEET ABOUT THIS GIVEAWAY AND THEN COME BACK AND LEAVE A LINK
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+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON IF YOU ARE A GOOGLE FRIEND CONNECT FOLLOWER AND IF YOU AREN'T, YOU CAN BECOME ONE AND LET ME KNOW IF YOU ARE HERE
10 PM, EST, JUNE 7
GOOD LUCK!
