1. In many of these stories, the past is a powerful, almost overwhelming presence in the lives of its characters. Sometimes the past is associated with a forgotten language, sometimes with a specific place. In what other ways does the past manifest itself in Thien's stories? Discuss the importance of place and its relation to the past in the collection. 2. In "Simple Recipes" and "A Map of the City," both Miriam and her father straddle the worlds of East and West, yet each has a very different personal connection to Indonesia and Canada. Compare the relationships Miriam and her father each have with these two countries. Discuss the "tragedy of place" [p 201] that afflicts Miriam's father.
3. Why do you think the brother in "Simple Recipes" behaves the way he does at the dinner table? Discuss what lies at the heart of the tension between father and son. 4. The idea that the people we love nevertheless remain in some way unknowable to us is one which recurs in Thien's stories. Discuss this theme, and the way Thien develops it in different ways throughout the book. 5. Certain rituals or acts play an important part in children's relationships with their parents. What are some of the rituals the children in Thien's stories enact in order to maintain close ties to their parents? How do these rituals change with time and with life circumstances? 6.
The epigraph to the collection opens with the line, "A house is a simple construct." Discuss the importance of houses and the physical spaces we inhabit throughout this collection. What is the significance of the tent in "Four Days from Oregon," and the father's bachelor apartment in "A Map of the City"? Discuss the ways in which the stories challenge the first line of the epigraph. 7. Compare the relationships between daughters and fathers with those between daughters and mothers in the collection. Contrast the ways in which the introduction of a new father-figure in "Four Days from Oregon" and "Bullet Train" affects the dynamic between mother and daughter. 8. Discuss the significance of animals in the collection, particularly the fish in "Simple Recipes," the bear in "Four Days from Oregon" [pp 37, 41], and the rabbits in "Alchemy.
" In "Dispatch," the narrator daydreams about playing a children's game with Charlotte, the woman her husband had loved since childhood, in which they imagine the kind of animals they would be [p 95]. Discuss Charlotte's responses. 9. The narrators in "Dispatch" and "A Map of the City" develop a keen awareness of events in distant parts of the world. What lies at the root of this interest for each of the women? 10. Why do you think Thien chose to use the second-person "you" to narrate "Dispatch"? How do you think the reader's connection with the story might have been different if the story had been told in the first-person "I"? 11. Thien's writing has been praised for its spare beauty and its remarkable clarity, even as she explores emotionally charged situations. What did you think of the contrast between Thien's reserved style and the raw, emotional power of her stories? Many of the stories are either narrated by children, or by adults looking back at their childhoods.
How does Thien's style both lend itself to and subvert expectations about the perspective of children in fiction? 12. Many of the characters in the collection are running away, both literally and emotionally. Whereas some characters eventually return, others continue to lead a life of rootlessness. Discuss the various motivations behind the following characters' decisions to run away: Irene in "Four Days from Oregon"; the narrator in "Dispatch"; both the mother and father in "House"; Josephine in "Bullet Train"; Miriam and her father in "A Map of the City." Why do you think the two surrogate father-figures in the collection, Tom from "Four Days from Oregon" and Harold from "Bullet Train," either encourage or do not try to dissuade their would-be daughters from leaving home? 13. Discuss the motif of swimming, of diving, of coming up for air that recurs throughout the collection. 14. Compare the relationships between the sisters in "Four Days from Oregon" and "House" with Miriam's friendship with Paula in "Alchemy.
" 15. Discuss the issue of guilt and personal responsibility in "Alchemy." How would you have handled the situation? How do the characters in other stories deal with their guilt?.