7. The unique connection between siblings is a powerful part of this story. Despite the tensions within the family, Nina, Lola, and Ray have a bond that, although tested, seems unbreakable. Discuss the importance of this familial bond and the role it plays in shaping our ideas of love as well as the length to which we go for others in our lives.
8. Nina is experiencing a lemonade year. Everything that can go wrong seems to be going that way. Some of these things are considerable losses. Discuss her ability or inability to reach out for help and to recover from loss. How does that affect her decisions throughout the novel? Are there losses from which you have not recovered? What avenues for help have you sought or rejected that might make a difference to you?
9. There is a family secret at the heart of the hard feelings and dysfunction within Nina’s childhood family. Do you think Ray, Nina, and Nate were asked to go too far in keeping that secret? What role does truth play in the outcome of this family’s life? Nina asks if things would have been better had they all been truthful. When there may be no clear cut path to follow, how do you decide what to do?
10. When Nina notices a cross hanging on the wall of Oliver’s house, she asks him if he’s religious. He answers with the question “Would it bother you if I was?” Is there something about yourself or a loved one that you have hidden or avoided because you thought you would be judged because of it? Discuss the outcome.
11. Reconciliation and forgiveness are important themes in this novel. Discuss the scenarios in which the characters have an opportunity to both give and receive forgiveness (Nina with her mother, daughter, and/or ex-husband) and the incidents in which a character may not be able to (Ray with his deceased father). Discuss the characters’ ability or inability to forgive themselves. Have you ever given or withheld these gifts, or had them given or withheld from you? How has that affected the story of your own life?
12. The book ends with hope and the possibility to begin again. Discuss the ways in which Nina, Ray, Lola, Jack, and Oliver have a chance to begin again. Based on what you know of these characters, what are your predictions for their futures?
Interview with the Author
Q What inspired you to write The Lemonade Year?
The voices in my head—and one from the backseat of my car. I typically start by hearing a character speaking like I’m overhearing a conversation in a café. Not out loud—don’t have me committed yet—it’s more like I hear it in the part of my brain that won’t stop making up stories no matter how much laundry there is to do.
Nina came to me, telling me the story of a childhood trip to Disney World in which her father took care of her at a time when her mother couldn’t. It was a nice memory, but then I realized that her father had just died and she was brokenhearted. She didn’t tell me outright at first, but her marriage was also in trouble and her sister was suffering from some sort of strange illness, and I felt so sad for Nina. Everything that could go wrong seemed to be going that way.
Her story was originally a short story, entitled “The Conspicuous Absence of Knowing,” mostly because Nina wasn’t all that eager to share her thoughts with me (typical Nina) and it took a while for her to open up.
Once I started writing her story as a novel, I was thinking about a title and my youngest daughter, Delia, was singing a made-up song in the backseat of the car. She sang the line, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” Bam, there it was. Life had given Nina all kinds of lemons. This was her lemonade year.
Q What was the hardest part of writing this book? What were some of the obstacles you had to overcome?
For me, the hardest part of writing any book is that I don’t typically write chronologically. And I’m not a big “pre-plotter,” which makes figuring out what’s going on difficult sometimes. Usually I hear a voice or see an image and then I start writing so I can uncover what it’s all about. Along the way, I take some wrong turns and spend time off in the weeds. But sooner or later, one of my characters will get me back on track by doing or saying something that I hadn’t expected.
Even though my method results in a huge chunks of “highlight and delete,” I actually love when that happens, because it sets me back on course. I love the revising and editing stages of writing, but one of the things that is hard for me to accept is when I know that something I’ve been trying to make work just isn’t right for the book.
This book has taught me a great deal about letting the true story unfold. I’m glad I did. I couldn’t be happier.
Q Nina’s relationship with her family is at the heart of this book. Tell us a little about your own family, both growing up and now.
My family is my heart. No one’s family is perfect, and mine wasn’t (isn’t) either, but one of the greatest lessons that I learned—and one that continues to be reinforced for me—is that no matter the issue, there is no giving up on anyone. I can’t think of anything I could do that would cause my family to shut the door to me and vice versa.
While The Lemonade Year is not the story of my childhood, I do have a brother and a sister, for whom I would stop the universe if need be. My parents are not Nina’s parents, but they are the sun and moon to my little world.
God has blessed me with four
