The Accidental Book Club (24 page)

Photo by Lacey Crough

Jennifer Scott
is an award-winning author who made her debut in women’s fiction with
The Sister Season
. She also writes critically acclaimed young adult fiction under the name Jennifer Brown. Her debut YA novel,
Hate List
, was selected as an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, a
VOYA
Perfect Ten, and a
School Library Journal
Book of the Year. Jennifer lives in Liberty, Missouri, with her husband and three children.

Q.
The Accidental Book Club
focuses on both the relationship between a grandmother and her granddaughter and the relationships among the members of a book club the grandmother creates. How did this story begin for you? Did some characters speak to you more than others? Were some harder to write than others?

A. I am often asked to visit book clubs that have read and will be discussing one of my books. And I’m thrilled when I can join them, because book clubs tend to be very open and honest with their opinions. I love that honesty, and always welcome the opportunity to learn from them.

The idea for
The Accidental Book Club
came when I began wondering, however: What would happen if a visiting author
didn’t
welcome that honesty? What if, in fact, he responded quite rudely? And what if the book club wasn’t asking him there to pick his brain, but to pick a bone with him instead? Something about that setup intrigued me, so I ran with it.

Loretta really spoke to me. She was the member I would most want in my book club, if I had one. She’s a chronic reader, but she doesn’t take it all so seriously. In fact, she doesn’t take much of anything seriously. And she doesn’t have a very good filter, which makes her flinchingly hilarious at times, and someone I can relate to. I also really connected with Bailey. I felt so sorry for her, and I understood her anger and her antics. I was rooting for her the whole way through.

Mitzi, however, was the most difficult for me to write. She and I have fairly different viewpoints in life, and I found myself at times not really liking her much. It wasn’t until she began to admit that she wasn’t perfect, and that maintaining the appearance of perfection was exhausting for her, that I began to understand and appreciate her a little more.

Q. Jean Vison, the founder of the book club, remarks that the group came to be as much about the events in their lives, the food they brought, and the wine as the books themselves. Have you been a member of a book club? Did you find this to be the case?

A. I have never been a member of a book club, but I would sorely love to be. But I have noticed over the years of visiting book clubs that they almost all have one thing in common: food. There are always prized dishes that are fawned over, experiments that are test-driven, and regulars that everyone loves (the most common regular: dessert; most common dessert: brownies). In fact, for most of the clubs I’ve visited, nothing happens until everyone gets a plate. Another constant in the book clubs I’ve visited is wine. Lots and lots of wine. With margaritas as a close second.

Of course, once you get booze and chocolate flowing, the conversations loosen and real friendships are born. I once visited a book club meeting during which we discussed my book for about ten minutes, and then segued into a discussion about childhoods and fathers that was deeply intimate. It was a wonderful experience. The discussion was not about the book at all . . . yet, in a way, it was the deepest book conversation I’d ever been a part of.

Q. Bailey, the granddaughter, has written to authors of books she loves from a young age. Do you have books that serve as touchstones for you in your life? Could you tell us a little bit about them? Did you ever write to one of the authors the way Bailey does?

A. So many books were touchstones in my life, and their authors sometimes felt like more than just authors to me. They were my heroes, for sure, but almost, in a way . . . they felt like friends as well. Beverly Cleary, Judy Blume—it’s no coincidence that Bailey writes to the authors she does. The Ramona books defined my early childhood. Judy Blume helped usher me into adolescence, and her books
Blubber
,
It’s Not the End of the World
, and
Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret
each touched me particularly deeply. I have never written to any authors, but if I did, I imagine I would write to the authors Bailey wrote to and would say something very similar to what she said.

Q. The author of the book
Blame
receives great critical acclaim, and yet his ideas regarding women seem derogatory and outdated (to say the least!). What inspired you to explore this conflicted version of the artist-writer?

A. I don’t know if I was really exploring a critically acclaimed artist-writer so much as I was exploring the critically acclaimed in general, be it artist, author, performer, comedian, sports star, politician, actor, or otherwise. How we treat the famous is a very interesting study in contradiction to me. We put some celebrities up on pedestals and then put impossible pressure on them to behave perfectly, to think as we think, and to never voice an opinion otherwise. So many of the famous have found themselves in the midst of terrible, scathing critical firestorms and, at times, career-ending hate over a misspoken word. Yet at the same time, other celebrities frequently behave deplorably, and we still continue to happily consume their brand. It’s as if we are willing to overlook the willfully dreadful behaviors of some while at the same time refusing to allow any slack for the mistakes of others. And it seems so random who gets that free pass and whose career will end. So the exploration of R. Sebastian Thackeray, III, wasn’t the exploration of authors, readers, and critics so much as it was the exploration of the famous and their fans.

Plus, it was just really fun to create a nasty, vile little man and then beat up on him a bit.

Q. What would you most like readers to take away from reading
The Accidental Book Club
?

A. Well, first, foremost, and always, enjoyment. I want my readers to feel as if they’ve spent time with friends after spending time with Jean’s book club. I know I felt like they were friends while I was writing it.

But I think what I’d most like readers to take away is the feeling of empowerment behind human connection. The same that Janet felt when they marched into the supermarket, or that Bailey felt when she asked to live with her grandmother. Whereas R. Sebastian Thackeray’s novel was all about blame, judgment, and disconnect,
The Accidental Book Club
is all about acceptance, forgiveness, and connection, and the great power that comes from those things.

In some ways, that theme of reaching out in love and connecting with the humans around you, no matter how different you are, is a theme found in all of my books, because I think learning that is the most important, and most difficult, of all life’s assignments.

Q. You’ve now written two works of women’s fiction,
The Sister Season
and
The Accidental Book Club.
Was the writing process similar for both? Did you feel one came easier than the other?

A. In terms of process, I would say they’re fairly similar, with the exception that I wasn’t writing
The Sister Season
for anyone but me, whereas I knew going in that
The Accidental Book Club
would be published. With
The Sister Season
there were no expectations, no deadlines; it was just me hanging out with my favorite hobby. I also have very strong emotional ties to the setting of
The Sister Season
, so in those two regards, it may have been slightly easier to write.

That said, there were times that I had so much more fun writing
The Accidental Book Club
. The GNO scene, the confrontation with Thackeray, the initial pool scene—I got so much enjoyment out of writing those. And I truly loved Bailey’s character and watching her transform and grow.

In the end, comparing writing processes for different projects is like comparing apples and oranges. My books are like my children—they all have their strengths and their challenges, their good days and their bad, and in the end I love them all equally, and miss each and every one of them when I’m done.

1.
The Accidental Book Club
opens with the scene of Jean Vison, the founder of the book club, cooking a dish for the club members and struggling to make it “book club–worthy.” How does food become a bonding mechanism throughout the story? Do you think this attention to food detracts from the ultimate experience of the book club?

2. A complicated character, Jean is, among many things, a widow. As the story progresses, we learn of Jean’s different ways for dealing with her grief. What are they? Do you think some of them are more productive than others? Have you used similar coping mechanisms in your own life?

3. Bailey, Jean’s granddaughter, arrives at Jean’s bearing a lot of attitude. And yet through the story she undergoes an interesting transformation. How does she change as the story progresses? What are the most important things she learns? What do you see for her in the future?

4. As a mother, Jean Vison is surprised, perplexed, and dismayed when her daughter is diagnosed as an alcoholic. In some ways she feels responsible. Do you think mothers can and/or should be held accountable for the actions of their children—either young or adult? And how does this connect to the book
Blame
that Jean reads for the book club?

5. The other members of the book club—Loretta, Dorothy, Mitzi, Janet, and May—all have different struggles and issues they are trying to resolve concerning men, children, and bosses. Which member did you relate to the most? The least? Why?

6. Books play many roles in this story—sometimes they are touchstones to which the individuals turn for solace, sometimes they are publicly praised but have questionable ideas, sometimes they are used for wish fulfillment and escapism, and sometimes they contain new ideas that challenge the characters to act differently. What books have made significant impressions on you? Which are your favorites and what do they give you?

7. Discuss the different kinds of romantic love depicted in this book. Do Jean, Loretta, and May all see love similarly? How does this affect the choices they make and the books they read?

8. When Bailey has the idea of inviting a famous author to the book club, she gets him there by dangling her family’s dirty laundry in front of him and telling him he can use it in his next book. The author takes the bait—which leads one to ask: Is it fair of authors to use the material from the lives of their friends and family in works of fiction?

9. Standing up for yourself and taking responsibility for your life are two significant themes in the book. How do the various characters accomplish this? Think of Bailey and her revelation in the hospital. Of Janet and her confrontation with her boss. Of Jean and the way her relationships change with her children and granddaughter throughout the book.

10. In the “Conversation with Jennifer Scott,” the author states “that theme of reaching out in love and connecting with the humans around you, no matter how different you are, is a theme found in all of my books, because I think learning that is the most important, and most difficult, of all life’s assignments.” Where do you see this within the book? What connections grow between the different characters and how do things change in their lives as a result?

11. What did you most enjoy about
The Accidental Book Club
? What will you recall from it six months from now?