This Angel on my Chest

Thank you for selecting my book for your book club! I hope you have a wonderful discussion (along with something good to eat…). Let me know if you’d like to talk about a Zoom visit. You’ll find my email address under “contact.” And I’m always interested to hear your thoughts about the book or try to answer any questions!

At-home reading of “A Quiz” from THIS ANGEL ON MY CHEST, recorded for the students I missed at Chadron State College on my March 2020 writing/residency drive through Nebraska.

Interview with Leslie Pietrzyk

THIS ANGEL ON MY CHEST

Note: There is no right or wrong answer to these questions, which are intended to provoke lively conversation.

  1. Why do you think so many of the narrators and/or characters in these stories remain nameless?
  2. The author writes in “A Quiz”: “My husband Robert K. Rauth, Jr. died of a heart attack when he was only thirty-seven.” If this is a fact, why is the author is including it in what is called a work of fiction? Why do you think the author blends fact and fiction throughout the book? What differences do you notice when you read factual stories versus fictional stories? Does one way of telling a story feel more powerful to you? What other examples of blending fact and fiction have you read? Did you enjoy it? Why/why not?
  3. Did you find yourself drawn more to the traditional stories (i.e. a character in action in scenes) or the experimental stories (i.e. a list, a lecture)? Why? Why do you think the author included these varied styles of writing?
  4. How would you describe the varied emotions these different characters and/or narrators experience throughout this book? Does this range accurately reflect the experiences of grieving that you have had?
  5. Popular culture tells us that we can (should?) feel “closure” after a period of grieving. Do you think the characters in these stories have found that “closure”? Do you think the author has? What does “closure” mean to you? Is there an appropriate amount of time that needs to pass in order to feel closure?
  6. “One True Thing” is written in the form of a creative writing lecture about point of view (POV). Why do you think POV is an important consideration for this book?
  7. Do you agree with the final sentences of the story “One True Thing”, that “along come the readers, with their interpretations and symbols and opinions and assumptions and questions needing answers. They really fuck it up for us.”? Why do you think a writer might have that opinion of readers?
  8. In “An Index of Food,” the narrator is told that the books that “sell” are “short and snappy” and/or contain a dog and/or have a “connection to a celebrity.” What is the author suggesting? Do you agree with this assessment of the literary marketplace?
  9. “Every drunk driver is loved by someone,” notes the narrator in “Do You Believe in Ghosts?” What other complexities of death and/or grieving are explored in these stories?
  10. “Someone in Nebraska” contains a story within a story about an afterlife experience. What are your feelings about the afterlife?
  11. “When I think back, I see that it all passed so quickly,” comments the narrator in “In a Dream.” What specific and unforgettable memories do you have about loved ones who have passed on? What memories do you hope others will carry forward and remember of you?
  12. The book’s epigraph is a quotation from Joan Didion: “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” Do you agree with that statement? Why do you tell stories?

Selected nonfiction books about loss:

  • A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis
  • Blue Nights by Joan Didion
  • Let’s Take the Long Way Home by Gail Caldwell
  • The Mercy Papers by Robin Romm
  • Motherless Daughters by Hope Edelman
  • “Thanksgiving in Mongolia” by Ariel Levy
  • Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett
  • What the Living Do by Marie Howe (poetry)
  • Widow by Lynn Caine
  • Without by Donald Hall (poetry)
  • The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Selected fictional books about loss:

  • Before I Die by Jenny Downham (young adult)
  • Cures for Heartbreak by Margo Rabb (young adult)
  • The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst
  • The Gathering by Anne Enright
  • If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This by Robin Black
  • In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway
  • The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
  • Monkeys by Susan Minot
  • The Odd Sea by Frederick Reiken
  • The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
  • Use Me by Elissa Schappell