September 2013: The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan

 Meeting details:  we are meeting on Thursday evening, Spetember 5th at 7:30 

Discussion Questions: 

1.  Did you enjoy this book?  Why or why not?
2. “Tonight, roasted chicken in your belly,” Maman says, loosening her arms, stepping back from me. “And always, an angel in your heart.” Marie’s mother often reminds her that the spirit of Marie the First, her older sister who died in infancy, is with her. How is Marie affected by her namesake? Why, at the end of the book, does she tell the old man at the tavern her name is Marie the First?
3. Is Marie deluding herself in believing her hatred of Émile is justified? Once she sees he cannot be guilty of the second murder, is it fair for her to destroy the alibi provided by the calendar? To what extent is she looking after her own best interests when she burns it?
4. Sometimes I wonder, though, if for the very best ballet girls, the trickery is not a little bit real, if a girl born into squalor cannot find true grace in ballet. Marie thinks this while looking at her fellow ballerinas on the Opéra stage. Does Marie experience true grace while dancing? Without the ballet can Marie be fully content?
5. Émile consistently mistreats Antoinette. He forces himself upon her and then tells her it’s her fault; he allows Pierre Gille to slap her, and then abandons her for him. Is Antoinette’s blind love for Émile realistic? Of all his wrongdoings, why is it a lie that finally makes her see the light?
6. In what instances does Antoinette’s bold temperament hinder her? When does it serve her well?
7. “Both are beasts. The physiognomies tell us…Those two murderers are marked.” Degas says this to Marie after Émile is declared guilty of a murder she knows he did not commit. Why does Degas feel it is fair to judge the boys’ characters based on the way they look? What are some other moments in the book when people are judged as “beasts” or based on appearance?
8. “No social being is less protected than the young Parisian girl—by laws, regulations, and social customs.” —Le Figaro, 1880. Why did Buchanan choose this quotation as the book’s epigraph? How does it relate to the story? In what ways are the Van Goethem sisters unprotected?
9. I want to put my face in my hands, to bawl, for me, for Antoinette, for all the women of Paris, for the burden of having what men desire, for the heaviness of knowing it is ours to give, that with our flesh we make our way in the world. Marie thinks this while waiting to see Antoinette at Saint-Lazare. Is she correct in such thinking? To what extent does the sentiment hold true today?
10. What role does honesty play in this book? Do you support Antoinette’s decision to tell “one last lie” to Marie, the lie about Émile’s guilt? Does she go overboard with her refusal to tell even white lies by the end of the book? In what ways are Marie and Antoinette good sisters to each other? In what ways are they not? Would the power of sisterhood have prevailed had Antoinette not found out Émile was unfaithful to her? 

Menu: French Delights

The menu will be an assortment of french cheeses, and pastries.   I have taken the list from Cathy's website (I'm not sure how readily available they all are, there are some on this list I have never heard of!) Depending on the cheese,  bring along some crackers or bread.

Camembert

Brie - Melissa

cranberry Wensleydale - Chandra

Roquefort

Boursin- Sherrie

Pont l'Eveque

Chevre - Danielle

Tomme de savoie

Comte

Dessert
Madeleines-recipe can be found on www.cathymariebuchanan.com
(Tessa - I don't have a madeleine pan, but I'll try this in a different pan, just for fun)

Pastry- Amanda

Refreshments-Karen