Authors: Mary Beth Keane
Ask Again, Yes (48 page)
My deepest thanks to the NYPD officers, both retired and active, who sat with me and answered what were probably very dumb questions without flinching or rolling their eyes. I owe particular thanks to Artie
Marini, Austin “Timmy” Muldoon, and especially Matt Donagher. For insight into disciplinary procedures within the NYPD when there’s a mental health concern about a police officer, my thanks to Dr. Sheila Brosnahan. Also, thanks to Dr. Howard Forman for chatting with me about forensic psychiatry when I was just beginning to think about this book, and knew absolutely nothing. Anything I got wrong is entirely on me and not on them.
To Nan Graham for acquiring this novel, and to Kara Watson for her careful edit. I’m so grateful and proud to be at Scribner once again.
To Chris Calhoun, my agent and friend, for insisting I was not yet at my limit.
And above all, thanks to Marty, for teaching me a long time ago that the only secret to love is kindness.
A Scribner Reading Group Guide
Ask Again, Yes
Mary Beth Keane
This reading group guide for
Ask Again, Yes
includes an introduction and discussion questions. The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book.
Introduction
A profoundly moving story about two neighboring families in a suburban town,
Ask Again, Yes
is a multigenerational portrait of love marked by loss, loyalty, and grace.
When Kate Gleeson and Peter Stanhope are in eighth grade, a violent event divides their families. The children are forbidden from having any further contact, but Kate and Peter find a way back to each other.
Ask Again, Yes
reveals how echoes from the past test relationships and how the events of childhood look different when reexamined from the distance of adulthood.
Topics & Questions for Discussion
1.
Ask Again, Yes
grapples with the idea of learning from the past. What lessons do Kate and Peter learn from their parents’ experiences? What mistakes did they repeat?
2. Do Francis Gleeson and Anne Stanhope—both Irish immigrants—experience things differently than their American-born spouses? Do you think this contributes to tensions within the couples, and between the two families?
3.
Ask Again, Yes
is set over the course of four decades. How do attitudes toward mental health and addiction change over that time? How do these changes affect the characters? For example, how do Brian and George Stanhope differ in their attitudes toward drinking?
4. Francis marvels at how many pieces had to come together for a woman like Lena to exist and for him to have met her (page
7
). What role do you think fate plays in this novel? Do the characters have free will to make their own choices? Why or why not?
5. When Kate learns about the episode at Food King, she momentarily thinks that it couldn’t have been as dramatic as Peter was making it out to be. Then she realizes that it was, in fact, the opposite, “that it was such a big deal that the adults had been careful not to talk about it in front of the kids” (page
85
). What role does keeping secrets—from children, parents, partners—play throughout the novel? Do you think certain events could have been avoided if the characters had been more open with each other?
6. The idea of inherited traits and characteristics appears frequently in the novel. Trauma is another thing that is passed down from generation to generation. Do Kate and Peter address the legacy of trauma they’ve inherited from their parents?
7. Redemption is an important theme throughout
Ask Again, Yes
. Discuss the many ways in which the characters forgive each other.
8. The novel is divided into four parts. Discuss the significance of each of the part titles—“Gillam,” “Queens,” “Two by Two,” and “Muster.” Why do you think Mary Beth Keane chose to structure the story this way?
9. At the end of the book, Francis thinks, “It was always the same. People didn’t change” (page
385
). Do you think he really believes this?
10. What does the book’s title,
Ask Again, Yes
, mean to you?
11. This novel is specific to these two families, yet it also feels universal in its themes. Do you see echoes of your family’s history in the Gleesons or the Stanhopes?
More from the Author | |
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| |
about the author
© NINA SUBIN
MARY BETH KEANE
attended Barnard College and the University of Virginia, where she received an MFA. She has been named one of the National Book Foundation’s “5 under 35” and was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship for fiction writing. She currently lives in Pearl River, New York, with her husband and their two sons. She is also the author of
The Walking People
and
Fever
.
Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Mary-Beth-Keane
Also by Mary Beth Keane
The Walking People
Fever
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2019 by Mary Beth Keane
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First Scribner hardcover edition May 2019
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Keane, Mary Beth, author.
Title: Ask again, yes : a novel / Mary Beth Keane.