The Light from the Dark Side of the Moon
Page 33
75 “Place de la Sorbonne, please.” A popular plaza near the Sorbonne University.
76 “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
77 Literally, “My cabbage,” but in this usage, a term of endearment like sweetheart or honey.
Discussion Questions
1. There are several lenses through which to examine the governing metaphor of “the light from the dark side of the moon,” including theological, biological, psychological, and physical. Given the passage below, what do you think of each interpretation?
I have never been able to erase the image of that damnable giant mirror. I can picture it up there, beyond the moon’s orbit, wrathful in its precise reflection of the dark side, and I am filled with dread. This sense has never left me. Almost anything can bring it on: a news bulletin about children being harmed in some way, the view of a swollen moon in a sullen sky, a neo-Nazi parade anywhere in the world, a dead moon jelly on the beach.
2. Which phase of the moon is most often descibed? What is its significance? When is it waxing and when is it waning?
3. Read the paragraph on page 217 that begins after the break. Why is Henry so obsessed with knowing exactly where he is in the world? Is it the experience of missing the drop zone or is it more than that? How does this tie in with the story of The Little Prince?
4. Read the paragraph on page 189 that begins, “The man embraces me.” What aspect of Henry’s experience is mirrored by the disfigured men in the scene?
5. Read the passage beginning, “Yes. Of course,” she says. She returns the kiss and grasps my hand…” What do you think the author is trying to convey with the litany of monscapes?
6. After Élodie kills one of the boy soldiers (see pages 59 and 60), Jean-Baptiste makes a joke. Why does it make Henry so angry?
7. What is the significance of the name Adrienne?
8. What is the significance of the chapter, “An Ancient Moonlight”?
9. There are two passages in which Henry imagines a conversation with someone who is dead—one with Anna and one with Élodie. What do these types of conversations tell us about ourselves?
10. What does the cave at Lascaux and the incident with the Nazi soldier signifiy?
11. What do you think about the description the “Greatest Generation.” What behavior or actions does it refer to? What behaviors do you see in Henry, if any, that fit the description? Do other generations fit the description?
12. How do you think the story ends? Do Henry and Élodie travel to Tahiti together?
Acknowledgements
For inspiration, support and patience, I thank my wife of 36 years, Susan Reynolds, whose help with plot, character and dialogue as we walk along the beach is one of the joys of my life.
A story is nothing more than a hope unless there is someone who sees its potential. For my entire literary career that has been my agent, Kimberley Cameron of Kimberley Cameron & Associates.
But unless there is someone who has the courage to launch a book as risky as literary fiction, the book would exist only as inchoate manuscript. For its existence as a bound book The Light From The Dark Side of the Moon owes its gratitude to Lisa Miller of Amphorae Publishing Group. And a novel would limp into the world deficient and disfigured were it not for a wise and meticulous editor who has the patience, grit and endurance to stick with it despite difficulties. For this book, that heroine is Kristina Makansi of Blank Slate Press, an Amphorae imprint.
But, however limber an expertly edited novel might be as it steps into the world, it would have no place to go were it not for someone who understands the marketplace. I am deeply grateful to my publicist, David Ivester of Author Guide, who is just such a person.
And finally, a book can’t get into the hands of you, the reader, without someone who is expert at selling the book in the right channels. The person managing this feat for the book you hold in your hands is Laura Robinson of Amphorae.
My sincerest thanks to all these people and to you, my reader, without whom not only would this book not exist, but I, the writer, would not exist outside my lonely garret.
About the Author
A native New Englander with a life-long love of the sea, Norman’s first novel, Sea Room, won the prestigious Massachusetts Book Award for Fiction in 2003, was an “All-City-Reads” choice in several cities, and was a BookSense® selection. He has since written several more critically acclaimed, prize-winning novels.
An avid reader, poet, sailor, runner and cyclist, Norman lives outside Boston with his wife Susan and three cats.
For more discussion questions and images of the book’s setting, please visit www.normangautreau.com.