BKMT READING GUIDES
Ask Again Later: A Novel
by Jill A. Davis
Hardcover : 256 pages
1 club reading this now
1 member has read this book
Emily has a tendency to live with one foot out the door. For her, the best thing about a family crisis is the excuse to cut and run. When her mother dramatically announces they've found a lump, Emily gladly takes a rain check on life to be by her mother's side, leaving behind her career, ...
Introduction
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Emily has a tendency to live with one foot out the door. For her, the best thing about a family crisis is the excuse to cut and run. When her mother dramatically announces they've found a lump, Emily gladly takes a rain check on life to be by her mother's side, leaving behind her career, her boyfriend, and those pesky, unanswerable questions about who she is and what she's doing with her life.
But back in her childhood bedroom, Emily realizes that she hasn't run fast or far enough. One evening, while her mother calls everyone in her Rolodex to brief them on her medical crisis and schedule a farewell martini, Emily opens the door, quite literally, to find her past staring her in the face. How do you forge a relationship with the father who left when you were five years old? As Emily attempts to find balance on the emotional seesaw of her life, with the help of two hopeful suitors and her Park Avenue Princess sister, she takes a no-risk job as a receptionist at her father's law firm and slowly gets to know the man she once pretended was dead.
From the brainy, breezy writer who "writes like a professional comic" (The Onion) and is "hard to stop reading once you start" (USA Today) comes a laugh-out-loud tale that confirms you can recover from your parents, the bad habit of missed opportunities, and men who romance you with meat. When opportunity knocks, it's time to stop running and start living.
Discussion Questions
1. How does Emily's job as receptionist at her father's law firm enable her to better understand her father?2. How do Joanie's diagnosis of cancer and Marjorie's giving birth to little Malcolm change their respective relationships with Emily, and to what extent are those relationships dysfunctional?
3. In what ways do Emily's conversations with Wendy and Will at her father's firm reveal the peculiar aspects of that office's culture, and why is that culture especially comforting to Emily?
4. How does the structure ofAsk Again Later, with its short segmented chapters and its frequent flashbacks, affect your appreciation of Emily's response to her mother's crisis?
5. To what extent does Emily's decision to leave her boyfriend, Sam, stem from his criticism of and frustration with her inability to commit?
6. What does Emily hope to achieve by eavesdropping on her father's telephone conversations, and why does she hold him accountable for all of her unsatisfactory relationships with men?
7. To what extent do Emily's sessions with her therapist, Paul, demonstrate her aversion to making sense of her 'internal life'? Why might she be unwilling to explore what is at the root of her unhappiness?
8. In what respects is Emily's father, Jim, the catalyst for her renewed relationship with her ex-boyfriend, Sam?
9. How do Joanie's surprising revelations about her children's early years impact Emily's feelings for her father?
10. How does Emily's longing for a child relate to all that she has experienced as an adult child of divorced parents in the course ofAsk Again Later?
Notes From the Author to the Bookclub
The central idea of ASK AGAIN LATER is missed opportunities. Emily Rhode has never recovered from an early loss in her life. She has regrets and emotional hurdles that prevent her from living an honest life. The idea is not that when we have a chance to try- try again, we succeed. The idea is that making the effort and risking failure is what puts the ing in living. We can be careful and never fall down – but then, that’s not terribly exciting is it? I am obviously fascinated by risk, and loss. Both of my novels have centered around these same themes. Girls’ Poker Night is the kid-sister to Ask Again Later. Ideally I’d like readers to be moved to purchase ASK AGAIN LATER in hardcover, paperback and the as yet released mass market. Thereby keeping one copy in each and every room of their tidy home so if the need arises they will never be too far from one of my missives? What I get my favorite books is two things: an escape and a companion. I receive a lot of mail and I’m always touched when people say “it was as if you were writing the story of my life”, “I AM Emily Rhode or Ruby Capote”. I write comedy and to make the comedy work it’s important that it be applied to a scenerio that is realistic. As a reader, that makes the comedy work more effectively. It’s the difference between live action and cartoons. You can make a cartoon do anything and that can be really funny for its extreme. But to do a live action movie and have characters seem like people who know and see everyday, that is an interesting problem and backdrop for the kinds of stories I want to read and write. I started writing this book as an assignment from USA Today. I wrote a serialized novella for them called The Countdown which focused mainly on Emily Rhode at work. When that project ended I walked around thinking about what I’d write next and my mind kept returning to Emily and how unfinished she seemed. So much of the book is about her not-quite-ready-for-adulthood-limbo. There are certain scenes or chapters that to me, feel like poetry. I love the gold fish section of Ask Again Later. I love the idea that that exact thing could happen somewhere and how that might make the recipient feel. I love the embarrassed excitement of how sweet that small gesture is. How flattering and loving that one small event is. To me that is what makes characters come to life.Book Club Recommendations
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