Joanne Lipman, for hiring me at
My friends at Politics and Prose, who taught me more about booksel ing than I ever knew there was to know.
Everyone at Knopf who has championed my book and made it better with each step: Sonny Mehta, Chris Gil espie, Pat Johnson, Paul Bogaards, Ruth Liebmann, Julie Kurland, Abby Weintraub, Mol y Erman, and Andrea Robinson. I am so lucky that my book found a home with al of you.
My incredible editor, Jenny Jackson, who understood the Girls immediately, got this book into shape, and was able to see what I wanted to do before I even knew. I am so thankful to have you as an editor and friend!
And final y, al my thanks and love to Tim Hartz, who cheered me on and calmed me down in al the right places, listened to me read sentences out loud with a great amount of patience, and always believed. You are truly my favorite.
A Note About the Author
Jennifer Close was born and raised on the North Shore of Chicago. She is a graduate of Boston Col ege and received her MFA in fiction writing from the New School in 2005. She worked in New York in magazines for many years and then in Washington, D.C., as a booksel er.
Girls in White Dresses
By Jennifer Close
Reading Group Guide
ABOUT THIS READING GROUP GUIDE
The questions, discussion topics, and reading list that fol ow are intended to enhance your reading group’s discussion of
ABOUT THE BOOK
“
Isabel a, Mary, and Lauren are going to be bridesmaids in Kristi’s wedding. On Sunday after Sunday, at bridal shower after bridal shower, they coo over toasters, eat tiny sandwiches, and drink mimosas. They’re al happy for Kristi, but they do have the ups and downs of their own lives to cope with. Isabel a is working at a mailing-list company, where she’s extremely successful, and wildly unhappy. Mary is in love with a man who may never love any woman as much as he loves his mother. And Lauren, a waitress at a midtown bar, finds herself drawn to a man she’s pretty sure she hates.
With blind dates and ski vacations, boozy lunches and family holidays, relationships lost to politics and relationships found in pet stores,
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. Which character did you relate to most closely, and why?
2. How does Close use humor to convey character? Are the women themselves funny, or the situations they find themselves in?
3. Ambivalence—toward jobs, men, apartments, and children—is a recurring theme in
4. What did Isabel a learn from JonBenet?
5. Several of the characters keep some pretty big secrets, such as the way Abby keeps her friends away from her hippy parents. How does this affect Abby’s life? How do the book’s other secrets affect the characters?
6. What is the metaphor of the peahen?
7. On this page, Isabel a thinks about her young nephew, Connor, “Al he wanted was to know what to expect. His world didn’t look like he’d thought it would, and she understood. How could he keep calm if he couldn’t see?” Who else does this describe?
8. Why does “the ham” become so significant for Lauren?
9. Mary wonders why nobody warned her that during her first year as a lawyer, “You wil be constantly afraid.” ( this page) What role does fear play in the women’s lives?
10. “Kristi and Todd stood with their shoulders touching, wrapped in the cloth. It reminded Isabel a of the way that Lauren and Kristi used to huddle together, whispering and laughing at jokes that only they understood.” (this page) Why does Isabel a get so emotional during the
“chuppah within a chuppah” wedding scene?
11. Connect the dots between Shannon, Dan, Barack Obama, and the contestants on “The Biggest Loser.” Why is hope so important?
12. Throughout the book, questions of identity pop up. For example, when a friend gets divorced and decides to keep her married name, Isabel a thinks it may be because, “She’s afraid no one wil remember who she is.” (this page) How do these characters determine who they are? By the end, who seems to have created the strongest
