This Body (40 page)

This Body
has been optioned by the film studio Fox 2000 (
A Thin Red Line, One Fine Day
). The director is George Armitage (
Grosse Pointe Blank, Miami Blues
), and the producer is David Friendly (
Courage Under Fire, My Girl
). It's a long and hazardous process, but perhaps
This Body
will be showing at a local theater near you someday.

Thanks for reading
This Body
. I hope you find truth and honesty here.

Reading Group Questions and Topics for Discussion

1. Katharine's situation might strike some readers as a dream come true: the chance to start one's life anew. Put yourself
in Katharine's shoes for a moment. If you were to find yourself awakening as someone else tomorrow morning, what kind of person
would you want to be?

2. At first Katharine has a hard time seeing her predicament as an opportunity. How does she eventually manage to use this
“reincarnation” to her advantage? Do you think that, in the end, this mind/body switch was an enriching experience for Katharine?

3. At the heart of
This Body
is a constant struggle between the responsibilities of parenthood and the recklessness of youth. Did the novel instill in
you a new appreciation for either youth or middle age?

4. Katharine was allowed to peek into the future — to see her husband with his new family. Would you want the opportunity
to see how your family survived without you? Why?

5. We hear so much today about the importance of the mind-body connection. Does it seem even remotely possible that one person's
mind could thrive within another person's body? Take Thisby's addiction as an example; Katharine initially dismisses it, but
then falls prey to the physical cravings herself. What does this suggest about the mind-body connection? Have Katharine's
mind and Thisby's body made peace with each other by the end of the novel?

6. There are times when Katharine seems to enjoy being in Thisby's young, thin, attractive body — most notably during her
sexual encounters. What do these encounters suggest about the mindbody connection?

7. Quince seems to accept the “new” Thisby with surprising ease. She is apparently so starved for a sister, any sister, that
she doesn't even ask questions about the “new” Thisby's attitude and approach to life. What is the significance of this relationship?
What do Katharine and Quince learn from each other?

8. In the course of the novel, Katharine makes choices about what is right for herself, for her family, for Thisby, and for
the Bennet family. Do you agree with Katharine's choices? Do you think she should have been more honest with the Bennets?
Do you think Thisby's parents had the right to know that their daughter was dead?

9. The Shakespeare play
A Midsummer Night's Dream
figures prominently in the life of the Bennet family. How does Katharine use her knowledge of Shakespeare's play to better
understand both the Bennet family and herself as a member of it?

This Reading Group Guide to Laurel Doud's
This Body
is available also at
www.twbookmark.com

WHAT IF YOU HAD LIFE

TO LIVE OVER AGAIN?

_______________________________________

WHAT IF YOU WERE RICH? WHAT IF YOU WERE

SKINNY? WHAT IF YOU HAD A SECOND

CHANCE TO FIND TRUE LOVE?

Katharine Ashley, in the prime of her life, is a dutiful mother of two whose heart suddenly stops beating. Thisby Bennet is a rich and skinny young woman whose dangerous taste for drugs and men leads to her equally untimely death. When Katharine's departing soul finds its way into Thisby's lifeless body, the story of
This Body
begins....

“A frisky, riveting debut... .With Doud's brightly visceral prose and deft sense of tragicomedy,
This Body
proves equally engrossing for the senses, soul, and mind.”

-MEGAN HARLAN,
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

“Lots of fun.... Every woman has had the fantasy of waking up in a younger, skinnier body. But what if you had to die first? And what if the body you came to one year after your death belonged to a freshly OD'd junkie?”

-CINDY BAGWELL,
DALLAS MORNING NEWS

“Engaging...strangely moving....So weird, it works.”

-SARA NELSON,
GLAMOUR

“A compassionate first novel....
This Body
approaches the uncertainties of life from an angle skewed just enough to give us a glimpse into something we hadn't seen before.”

-BERNADETTE MURPHY,
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

LAUREL DOUD lives with her family in San Jose. California. This Body is her first novel.