Big Cherry Holler - Adriana Trigiani [116]
Do you believe that Jack Mac consummated his affair with Karen Bell? What evidence do you have for that conclusion?
Jack Mac tells Ave, “I truly believed in us, and you never did.” What actions echo Jack Mac’s assertion? How does Jack Mac demonstrate his love for Ave?
At the end of Aunt Alice’s life, Ave makes an effort to reconcile with her. To what do you attribute this change of heart? How does Ave’s relationship with Alice compare to the one she enjoys with her “Eye-talian” relatives?
What significance do you derive from the fact that Jack Mac and Pete get along immediately? What does Pete’s appearance in Big Stone Gap, as promised, indicate about his character? How is he similar to Jack Mac, and how is he different?
Do you feel that this book is a lead-up to Etta’s stand-alone story? How do you envision Etta’s adolescence and adulthood?
Adriana Trigiani, the book’s author, also is an accomplished playwright. How does this novel have the feel of a play—whether through Trigiani’s use of dialogue, setting, conflict, or any other literary device?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ADRIANA TRIGIANI grew up in Virginia and now lives in New York City with her husband. She is an award-winning playwright, television writer, and documentary filmmaker. Big Cherry Holler is her second novel. She is currently at work on the film version of her first novel, Big Stone Gap, for which she wrote the screenplay and which she will also direct.
Don’t miss the latest Big Stone Gap novel
by Adriana Trigiani
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Published by Random House, Inc.
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CHAPTER ONE
The Wise County Fair is my daughter’s favorite event of the year, and I think it’s safe to say that includes Christmas. Etta has been on her best behavior for the past two weeks, so perfect down to the smallest detail (including unassigned chores like making my bed and weeding my garden) that I’m worried. Her face, with its clean lines, small chin, and rosebud lips, is beatific as she reviews her plans for this long-awaited night. We have the window flaps of the Jeep down; the warm August air whipping through is sweet with honeysuckle, but it is no match for Iva Lou’s perfume, which wafts through from the backseat whenever we peel around a curve. Etta looks out the window for road signs, looking for actual proof that we’re almost there. I’ve taken the quicker route, the valley road out of Big Stone Gap up to Norton. As we ascend the mountains in twilight, we pass Coeburn, nestled in the valley below, where the lights pool in a clump like a fistful of emeralds. Etta smoothes her braids and settles back in her seat.
“Here’s the plan. First we eat,” Iva Lou announces as she unfolds the special supplement to the newspaper. “I myself am having a jumbo caramel apple with nuts, and if I have to go see Doc Guest for a bridge on Monday, then so be it. Them caramel apples are worth a molar.”
“I want the blue cotton candy,” Etta decides.
“I want a chili dog with onions,” I reply.
“I have a lot of money,” Etta says proudly as she sifts through her change purse.
“Ask Dad to spring for dinner. That will leave you more money for the games of chance,” I tell her.
Etta smiles and counts her money carefully without lifting it out of the purse. I see a five-dollar bill folded neatly into a small square (some lucky clay-pigeon operator is about to earn a windfall).
“What if we can’t find him?” Etta asks.
“We’ll find him.”
“Just go straight to the outdoor the-a-ter. He’s up there with all them men checking out the rehearsal for Miss Lonesome Pine.”
“He built the stage,” I remind Iva Lou in a tone that says Don’t start with that again.
“That’s as good a reason as any to be hanging around up there then.” Iva Lou winks at me in the rearview mirror.
We find a parking spot under a tree