Story Circle Network

Austin Chapter
Reader's Guide

July 2006

Truth & Beauty
Ann Patchett

Patchett's fourth novel, Bel Canto (2001), was a resounding success, but all was not rosy. Her best friend, fellow writer Lucy Grealy, was suffering some of the worst times yet in her altogether traumatic life. Grealy died in December 2002, and Patchett now offers an electrifyingly intimate portrait of a remarkable human being, and a profoundly insightful chronicle of an incandescent friendship...

  1. Ann Patchett chooses the fable of the ant and the grasshopper as a structuring metaphor for her friendship with Lucy Grealy. The publisher uses the metaphor for the cover of the book. Find several versions of the fable and read them. In what ways is this metaphor an apt choice? What risks does Patchett run in choosing it?

  2. Understanding that memoir contains many elements of fiction, consider the friendship as it is described in the book. How does it begin? Why? How does it change? In what important ways is it different when Lucy dies? After she dies? At the time Ann is writing this book?

  3. Consider the friends. How are they alike? How are they different? What does each contribute to the friendship? What scene in the book best seems to you to depict the friendship?

  4. Patchett's and Grealy's memoirs overlap and interpenetrate, but both have one character in common: the character of "Lucy," which is more or less fictionalized in both. Describe the "Lucy" of Grealy's memoir (needs, desires, fears, motivations). How is she similar to/different from the "Lucy" of Patchett's memoir? What reasons might these authors have for their treatments of this character?

  5. Patchett uses Lucy's letters to give "Lucy" a voice. What do you think of this technique? What questions does it raise? What answers does it offer?

  6. Describe the "Ann" of Patchett's memoir (needs, desires, fears, motivations). How does she change from the beginning of the book to the end?

  7. How is the "Ann" of Patchett's memoir similar to/different from the "Ann" of "Hijacked by Grief," by Suellen Grealy? (books.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,4986400-99942,00.html) (You might want to print this out and bring it with you to the discussion.)

  8. What sorts of charges does Suellen make (or imply) against "Ann" in "Hijacked." Do you think they are fair? She calls her a "grief thief." Do you agree?

  9. Consider the moral issues raised by "Hijacked." Do you think that Patchett should have felt any particular obligation to Lucy's family? Do you think that the family has any right to "wish" (or require or even demand) that Patchett withold all or any part of her work? What are the obligations of a memoirist whose personal story is intimately related to another person's story?

  10. Have you ever been part of a relationship that is as richly conflicted as this one? What difficulties would you confront if you wanted to write a book about it?

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