I will miss my tugboat. I will miss my friends here. I will miss Jayla and Beth, Charles and Vanessa. I will miss Lindy, a true friend, and a soon-to-be librarian. I will miss Daisy, gone now, but the songs she sang on the dock will forever be with me. I will not miss Nick, my neighbor on the dock, because as I mentioned in a previous column, I married him, and we are leaving together.
It’s hard to leave my tugboat. I arrived eighteen months after my husband died of cancer. I am leaving with a new husband, a strong man, a wonderful man, but a tugboat is not the place to raise babies, toddlers, or young kids.
The new owner has promised me she will let the ducks up on the deck. She will be friends with my friends here, I know it.
I have lived in Moscow, Germany, the suburbs of Portland, a tugboat, and now I’m moving to a home in the country where we will have land and space, peace and quiet.
We have bought a light blue house with a wraparound deck, a white porch swing, a view of the coast mountains and, I’m told, daisies that grow profusely in summer, all over the property.
It will be our new home, for a new life, a new family.
Wishing you well, wishing you love, wishing you a happy home.
A READING GROUP GUIDE
THE LANGUAGE OF SISTERS
Cathy Lamb
ABOUT THIS GUIDE
The suggested questions are included to enhance your group’s reading of Cathy Lamb’s The Language of Sisters.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What was your overall impression of The Language of Sisters?
2. Toni Kozlovsky says: I was talented at pickpocketing.
I knew how to slip my fingers in, soft and smooth, like moving silk. I was lightning quick, a sleight of hand, a twist of the wrist. I was adept at disappearing, at hiding, at waiting, until it was safe to run, to escape.
I was a whisper, drifting smoke, a breeze.
I was a little girl, in the frigid cold of Moscow, under the looming shadow of the Soviet Union, my coat too small, my shoes too tight, my stomach an empty shell.
I was desperate. We were desperate.
Survival stealing, my sisters and I called it.
Had we not stolen, we might not have survived.
But we did. We survived.
How would you describe Toni? How did she change from the beginning of the book to the end? Would you be friends with her? Why or why not?
3. Of the three sisters, whom do you relate to most—Toni, Ellie, or Valerie? Did they go through anything in their lives that you have gone through, or are going through now? If you had to be a prosecutor, a pillow business owner, or a newspaper reporter, which would you choose?
4. Ellie Kozlovsky was engaged to Gino. The engagement and Gino were giving her panic attacks. Were the panic attacks because of Gino or because Ellie didn’t want to get married, or both? Could you relate to the reasons—losing her independence, not wanting children, problems with her future in-laws, financial issues, and so on—Ellie didn’t want to get married?
5. The Kozlovsky family is huge. Who were your favorite members? Were there any members whom you didn’t like? Can you relate to the family dynamics?
6. The Kozlovsky family endured much hardship in Moscow. They didn’t want to talk about it when they came to America. As Alexei Kozlovsky said, “Forget it happened. It another life, no? This here, this our true life. We Americans now. Americans!” Was covering up the past the right thing to do? What would you have done?
7. Toni, Ellie, and Valerie all lied by omission to Dmitry about the night he came into their lives in Moscow, which would have shed some truth on his past. Alexei and Svetlana lied about who Dmitry’s parents were and his life in the Soviet Union. They wanted him to forget his history, forget the trauma. Were the lies justified? Why or why not?
8. Dmitry wandered. If you wandered, where would you go? What would you want to learn about yourself?
9. Toni said, “The language of sisters is a gift from our mother. It came down the Sabonis line, like genes, through our widow’s peaks. From the Romanovs, to Lenin, Stalin, Germany’s invasion, the siege of Leningrad, the Cold War, we have heard each other. Passed from mother to daughter. Father to son. Sisters and brothers, we hear each other.” What did you think of this magical element? Did it enhance or take away from the story?
10. Toni writes a column titled “Living on a Tugboat, Talking About Homes.” If you wrote a column, what would it be titled? What would you write about?
Please e-mail Cathy Lamb at
[email protected] if you would like her to visit (in the Portland, Oregon, area) or Skype with your book group.
Cathy Lamb, The Language of Sisters
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