Introduction

In the summer of 1957, Frances and Bernard meet at an artists’ colony. She finds him faintly ridiculous, but talented. He sees her as aloof, but intriguing. Afterward, he writes her a letter. Soon they are immersed in the kind of fast, deep friendship that can take over—and change the course of—our lives. From points afar, they find their way to New York and, for a few whirling years, each other. The city is a wonderland for young people with dreams: cramped West Village kitchens, rowdy cocktail parties stocked with the sharp-witted and glamorous, taxis that can take you anywhere at all, long talks along the Hudson River as the lights of the Empire State Building blink on above.

Inspired by the lives of Flannery O’Connor and Robert Lowell, Frances and Bernard imagines, through new characters with charms entirely their own, what else might have happened. It explores the limits of faith, passion, sanity, what it means to be a true friend, and the nature of acceptable sacrifice. In the grandness of the fall, can we love another person so completely that we lose ourselves? How much should we give up for those we love? How do we honor the gifts our loved ones bring and still keep true to our dreams?

In witness to all the wonder of kindred spirits and bittersweet romance, Frances and Bernard is a tribute to the power of friendship and the people who help us discover who we are.

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Discussion Questions

What if . . . ?
Imagine replaying a possibility. Imagine getting the chance to find love in a moment that’s been lost. What if you could take the relationship one step further? Would love bloom? Would the relationship struggle? How honestly could you answer these questions?
Drawing on brief encounters between Flannery O’Connor and Robert Lowell, Carlene Bauer recreates just this kind of romance and offers a fictional answer to the question, What if their relationship had continued? Balancing between love’s passionate yearnings and religion’s cautionary advice, Bauer crafts a fictional yet pragmatic love affair between two of the greatest literary icons of the twentieth century.
Questions
1. Authors often quote other authors to create a touchstone that hooks the reader. Bauer quotes Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov: “So, I have written you a love letter, oh, my God, what have I done!” What questions does this quotation cause you to ask? What have you ever done that would spark a similar reaction?
2. In an interview conducted by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Bauer explained why she chose to write Frances and Bernard in an epistolary format: “After a draft using the third person omniscient, I had the realization that if I wrote the novel in letters, the book would consist of two very strong voices in a struggle and you would feel the struggle more keenly, I hope, because of the intimacy of the form.” Do you agree with Bauer’s rationale? Are letters more personal? Explain.
3. While the novel transitions between Frances and Bernard’s letters, the author also develops other characters. What do these other letters allow Bauer to create? How would the story have been different if Bauer had provided only the letters between Frances and Bernard?
4. Bauer’s catalyst for this book was a “What if . . . ?” notion. Robert Lowell (Bernard) did meet Flannery O’Connor (Frances) at a writing conference; however, Bauer’s novel is fictional except for a few fleeting moments. Bauer has said she “borrowed quite a bit of their temperaments and views.” Knowing that these two authors actually met, does the extrapolation of their love story seem more real and plausible? Explain. How much truth did Bauer weave into the letters? Research the life of Lowell and O’Connor. Are there other moments in their lives that add verisimilitude to the fictional account?
5. After Francis and Bernard meet at a writers’ colony, they each tell a friend about their impression of the other. What do you think of Frances’s impression of Bernard? What is Bernard’s first impression of Frances? What do these first impressions foreshadow? How important are first impressions? Explain.
6. Bernard’s first letter to Frances is short, but he does ask one profound question: “Who is the Holy Spirit to you?” If you had to pick a topic to discuss with someone you would like to know better, what topic would you choose? Why?
7. If this situation had occurred today instead of in the 1950s, how might the novel have been different? The same? What significant developments would alter the pace and mood?
8. In one of his early letters Bernard writes, “In January a man crawls into a cave of hopelessness; he hallucinates sympathies catching fire. Letters are glaciers, null frigates, trapping us where we are in the moment, unable to carry us on toward truth.” What do you think of Bernard’s thought? What paradox is created? How would technology today change this perspective?
9. Bernard and Frances begin an exchange comparing the literature they read as children. What do these titles reveal about them? Compare their lists with what you read as a child. How are the lists different? Why?
10. After seven and a half months, Bernard closes his letter with “Love (may I), Bernard.” Is his declaration made too soon? How long does it take Frances to express her love? What do the timing and format of the declarations say about each character?
11. “I can’t even teach! I had to, when I was at Iowa, but I was not very good at hiding my displeasure at mental sleepiness and mediocrity” (39). Compare past and present ideas about education, students, and learning. How has education changed? Are students better prepared today? Are students more or less interested in learning? Explain.
12. After a visit to Frances, Bernard writes a short letter with this final line: “Please do not ever disappear from me” (47). What do you think of Bernard’s plea? Is it sincere? Desperate? Explain.
13. Bernard writes, “I can’t stand mysteries. In the same way I can’t stand science fiction. Why pretend we’re somewhere else? Forensics is a feint. Why distract ourselves from the eternal questions with set dressing? Salad dressing” (86). Do you agree with Bernard’s assessment of these types of literature? What type of literature do you think is most rewarding? Why?
14. Bernard tells Francis, “Your face says so much in so little time, you let everything you’re thinking bloom upon your face, and I can’t think of anything else I’d rather watch than you pass through five moods in five minutes. What glorious weather” (87). Would you take these comments as a compliment or an insult? Explain.
15. Claire tells Frances she is the “last stanza of Keat’s ode—Cold Pastoral—when you should be lolling around at the first—Wild Ecstasy” (121). Read “Ode to a Grecian Urn” by Keats. What do you think of Claire’s comparison? What is she telling Frances about love? Do you agree? Explain.
16. Why does Frances doubt Bernard’s love for her? Is it something about Frances? Is she correct to be wary about Bernard’s love? Explain.
17. How is the theme of unrequited love relevant to the lives of Frances and Bernard? Are there other stories of unrequited love you could compare to Frances and Bernard? How are they similar? Different?
18. Perhaps nothing is more tragic than a love filled with regret. How is love like this for Frances? For Bernard? Is their inability to finally love each other just a matter of timing, or do you think they were never destined to be together? Explain.
19. Almost two years after ending their relationship, Frances sees Bernard again. What changes about Frances during this meeting? How is Bernard still the same?
20. Most stories move forward by relying on the conventions of plot, setting, dialogue, characters, etc. How does the author create movement in this story?
21. In The Habit of Being, Flannery O’Connor writes: “When you leave a man alone with his Bible and the Holy Ghost inspires him, he's going to be a Catholic one way or another, even though he knows nothing about the visible church. His kind of Christianity may not be socially desirable, but will be real in the sight of God.” How does this quotation apply to Bernard? Frances? Does it present a compromise about religion for both characters? Explain.
22. Robert Lowell, in Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell, states: “But asking you is the might-have-been for me, the one towering change, the other life that might have been had.” Does this quotation express hope or despair? Is it truly better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all? Explain. Or is it better to have the dreams and the “what if” moments?
23. In a review of Frances and Bernard for the Washington Post, Teresa Link comments: “Towards the end of her story, however, Frances reflects, ‘If I were a different kind of writer I would find a way to channel this into a novel.’ Bauer would do well to ponder those words in her heart so that in her next effort she can leave the dead in peace and create characters from her own clay.” Do you agree with Link? Do you like how Bauer created this novel? Explain.

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