BKMT READING GUIDES
Don't Make a Scene: A Novel
by Valerie Block
Hardcover : 336 pages
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Introduction
(As Diane Kurasik nears the rapids of her fortieth birthday, it seems her world is taking on the bittersweet tones of a life-change comedy from the 1970s, something starring Glenda Jackson or Jill Clayburgh. The director of a Greenwich Village revival house cinema and a single woman who has watched everyone else move on, Diane is reminded daily of her status and her limitations. Clearly there is some lesson she was supped to lave learned by now, but what it is continues to elude her.
Vladimir Hurtado Padrón has troubles of his own. Although he fled Cuba a decade earlier, he still can’t convince his estranged wife in Havana to grant him a divorce. When Diane meets and falls for Vladimir, he is up front about the stalemate in his personal life, letting her make her own decisions. Diane considers the minor role he has to offer and wonders: Would Ingrid Bergman put up with this?
An eviction notice jolts Diane out of her home and her routine–aren’t all New York stories ultimately about real estate? Diane shuttles between the couches of friends and family, dodging advice and criticism in equal measure and touring countless fatally flawed Manhattan apartments.
Meanwhile, Vladimir refuses to succumb to nostalgia as he deals with the exile’s dilemma: What happens when you can’t go home? Then an unexpected visitor from Vladimir’s past arrives on the scene and becomes captivated by Diane just as her ardor for Vladimir is cooling. Diane considers returning his affections, and wonders if she’s lost her mind.
An unabashed valentine to cinema, Don’t Make a Scene is a sparkling, witty novel that asks, Do movies satisfy the yearning, or merely fan the flames? Valerie Block uses tart humor and a deceptively light touch in this fiercely intelligent look at how the movies shape and haunt us, and what happens when the eternal allure of classic movies collides with the daily indignities of contemporary life. Don’t Make a Scene is a refreshing comedy about finding fascination, irritation, and joy in unexpected places.
Excerpt
JULYAs Diane Kurasik neared the rapids of her fortieth birthday, her world seemed to be taking on the bittersweet tones of a life-change comedy from the 1970s, something starring Glenda Jackson or Jill Clayburgh. Although nothing in her own sphere had changed in quite a while, she was surrounded by movement: family, friends and acquaintances were giving birth, obtaining patents, marrying, divorcing, dying, coming out of the closet, traveling to and from exotic Third World dictatorships and going into and out of business with astonishing speed. Her niece was entering the sixth grade; her father was retiring from his second career; her longtime guitar teacher was closing up shop and moving to Brazil. ...
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Discussion Questions
From the Author:1. How do movies shape and haunt Diane’s expectations of the world and her own life?
2. What do you think of Vladimir’s appraisal of American culture and democracy?
3. Why does Javier’s behavior in NYC differ so much from his behavior in Havana?
Notes From the Author to the Bookclub
A note from Victoria to book clubs: I wanted to explore how the movies shape and haunt us, and what happens when the eternal allure of classic movies collides with the daily indignities of contemporary life. I had a situation I wanted to write about, a woman who begins a romance that ends before it has a chance to take off, with a man who has a family in a foreign country. The situation is a stalemate: the man’s wife refuses on principal to grant him a divorce. The male character is weary of asking, and angry that his wife has hijacked his life. And although he’s attracted to the single female character, things don’t move forward with her. Just because he’s a man and she’s a woman, doesn’t mean that they fall in love, and burst into song on public transportation, the way it happens in the movies. I’ve been married for five years now, but for a very long time, much longer than is generally recommended, I was single. Remaining alone while everyone around me moved on proved traumatic. So although I’d written about the absurdities of dating before (WAS IT SOMETHING I SAID?, SoHo Books, 1998), I found that I had more to say.Book Club Recommendations
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