Bootsie is a very enlightened character in some ways, particularly sexually. How did you come up with her character?
When I was a child there was a woman my parents occasionally referred to with that name. I always assumed she was promiscuous because of the way they talked about her only briefly, in a tone they reserved for adult matters. I like that Bootsie is wise in a certain hard way and that she is sexually free. She needed to be a stark contrast to Virginia. I didn’t know when I started writing that this book would be so much about sex—young lust, kinky sex, abstinence, acquaintance rape, and when sex becomes a weapon in marriage. I didn’t intend for the story to go in that direction, but it did. I think it was John Barrymore who said, “Sex is the thing that takes up the least amount of time and causes the most amount of trouble.” Sex always presents interesting story possibilities.
Were the rape scenes difficult to write?
Very difficult. It was necessary for those scenes to be graphic. I didn’t want to shy away from the horrendous reality of rape, but I found that most words relating to sex have been made trite and giggly by overexposure in popular culture. Finding a way to bring severity to the rape scenes was a challenge.
My mother asked at what age I would let my daughter read this novel since it has so much adult behavior and trauma. I don’t know the answer to that, but I will say that children are unbelievably more sophisticated now than when I was a child. Sex is much more a part of their world than it should be. With all the date rape drugs going around and AIDS such a huge threat, I think mature teenagers should read this book. Girls need to know they always have the right to say no and boys need to respect no in all instances.
It seems from Calling Home that you are supportive of abortion rights, so why didn’t Shannon end up having the abortion?
The story is about Shannon. Her situation is her own. If she had been able to obtain an abortion easily her story would have been less meaningful.
Readers are always interested to know when something is true, so I will say that the story that Shannon finds about the college student who went to jail for performing an abortion on herself actually happened. Of course, I changed the woman’s name to protect her. It was just a fluke that this tragic story turned up in my research and the timetable matched.
The scene at the clinic was derived from a personal experience. I was very naïve about politics when I was in college. I took a girlfriend to an abortion clinic, and when we got out of the car, a dozen protesters moved in on us. Of course, they didn’t have any idea who was there for the procedure, so they gave me the same treatment they gave her. It was an absolutely horrifying experience having strangers shoving and screaming at you.
The security guard ran out to rescue us. I thought my friend was going to have a nervous breakdown. It infuriated me that people attacked us, both physically and verbally, for something that was legal and had no effect upon them. I carried that experience with me for two decades before I wrote about it.
Virginia’s life was basically by default. Shannon struggles to take her own conscious path. Both women have to deal with the social expectations of the time.
Calling Home is set in a time when women in rural parts of the country were just beginning to wake up to the possibilities presented by the women’s rights movement. Women were expected to perform the traditional home and family role, but ironically, society devalued that endeavor. That’s one of the reasons for this novel. I wanted to revisit a time when women were still less than men at work, at home, in the eyes of politicians. Perhaps young women today don’t understand how things were, how women before them struggled toward equality. The dynamics of gender equality are troublesome even today. There is still much work to be done.
Virginia seems unable to accept a life she didn’t choose.
Yes. She is depressed on a variety of levels. She lives with depression brought on by unfulfilled life, by guilt, by grief, by loneliness. Virginia is floating in a sea of discontent without the means, mental or material, to move forward in a positive direction. Often mothers lose sight of themselves in family responsibilities and find it difficult to carve out a personal path to happiness. Perhaps in some ways things are even harder for women today than in Virginia’s time, since we have so many options for career and family. I see my friends stressed out, constantly juggling obligations. It seems that if you don’t have a flowering career and a stellar family life and a beautiful home and a movie-star body, then you’re a failure.
So how does a woman today balance all those expectations?
Life is hard, but it helps to have something solely yours that gives personal satisfaction. Writing is definitely my emotional release, my therapy. Many students come to my class believing they want to write, but what they really want is to be heard. People need a forum to express themselves. It seems most people who come to the profession of writing have a deep-seated need to have their thoughts validated. Isn’t that what we all want, to feel legitimate?
A READING GROUP GUIDE
CALLING HOME
Janna McMahan
ABOUT THIS GUIDE
The suggested questions are included to enhance your group’s reading of Janna McMahan’s Calling Home
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Does Kerry represent unconditional love? Is his character strong or weak?
Considering their history, do you think it was wise of Virginia to take Roger back? Should Virginia have taken this opportunity to be more independent and carve out a different life? Will this new baby bring Virginia and Roger closer?
Many rape victims never come forward out of shame or because they feel as if they are at fault somehow. Society can still make young women feel as if they are responsible because of revealing clothing or other poor choices. How can young people who have been sexually assaulted be encouraged to come forward and take action? Should Jake have been prosecuted for raping Shannon?
How could Virginia’s life have been different after her rape? What could have been done to help her, considering the time period and society’s view of situations like hers? Did she truly have other options?
Patsy is really the only character who embraces religion in the story. Should Virginia have opened herself up to the support of the church? Does religion always offer comfort or can it be a hypocritical situation as Virginia views it?
The tornado represents how good can spin out of a vortex of anger and despair. It forced Shannon’s secret into the open, and Virginia and Roger both came clean about their past as well. Have you ever been through a horrific experience that shocked you into a different perspective on life? Has something traumatic caused you to reevaluate your actions and goals?
This story is also about second chances. Will Virginia find happiness raising another child? Will Shannon make the most of her college opportunity? Will Roger and Virginia make their life together happier this time around? Do you think people can change for the better, or will they always fall into old patterns?
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by
Kensington Publishing Corp.
850 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10022
Copyright © 2008 by Janna McMahan
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
Kensington and the K logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.
ISBN: 978-0-7582-5414-6
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