Is This Tomorrow: A Novel (37 page)

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Questions for Discussion

1
. Why do you think Leavitt takes a child-vanishing story and sets it in the
1950
s? What does the era add to the story? Would the story have had a different outcome if it were set in a different time frame?

2
. The title,
Is This Tomorrow
,
was the actual name of a lurid
1950
s-era pamphlet about the threat of Communism, but the title works on other levels in the novel. Why else do you think Leavitt gave the novel that title?

3
. So much of
Is This Tomorrow
is about what it means to be part of a community and how difficult it is to be an outsider. Who besides Ava and Lewis are outsiders? How does being an outsider affect both Ava and Lewis at work and in their relationships?

4
. Cooking and the meaning of cooking figure in the novel, from the “meals men like” that Ava struggles with to her discovery that she has a talent for making pies. How does Leavitt show the changing nature of relationships, creativity, and male/female jobs in the novel, especially in the context of the
1950
s, when women often didn’t become professionals but married the people they wanted to be?

5
. Leavitt’s novel probes the directions our lives can take. Lewis and Jimmy have an actual map to guide them in future trips. Lewis has no sense of direction, and at one point Ava tells him to watch for and read the signs and he won’t get lost. What do you think are some of the important signs in Lewis’s life, and how does Lewis follow or ignore them?

6
. What are the very different ways in which Lewis and Rose cope with Jimmy’s disappearance, and how is each way integral to their personality? Who do you think has the most difficulty coping and why?

7
. What makes Ava so suspect in the neighborhood, and would those things be suspect in any other era?

8
. Although the novel is set in the
1950
s, what parallels do you see to contemporary life?

9
.
It Is Tomorrow
is very much about fathers and sons and mothers and sons. How does Lewis’s relationship with his father and with Ava change throughout the novel?

10
. The novel explores the way we communicate. Rose feels she has an intuitive communication with Jimmy. She tells everyone about her brother, but she can’t really listen to any disagreement about him. She also writes out her thoughts to Lewis in a journal. Lewis can really open up only to his patients. And even Ava hides things about his father from Lewis. How would the story have turned out differently if the characters could have communicated with one another without fear?

11
. Why is being a nurse the perfect job for Lewis? And why does he begin to move away from it?

12
. Why and how do all of the characters feel guilt in one way or another for something they could have or should have done?

13
. At one point in the story, Lewis wants to tell Ava, “Don’t be this person anymore” (
page
183
). What does he mean, and how do you think that question also refers to him?

14
. Who does Leavitt lead you to suspect is responsible for what happens to Jimmy? How many different people did you suspect and why?

15
. Ava asks at one point, about one of her boyfriends, “How had she missed the truth?” (
page
311
), which could apply to everyone in terms of what really happened to Jimmy. Why do you think people missed the truth?

16
. Why do you think Leavitt jumped forward in time to show Lewis and Rose as adults? How would the novel have been different if the story had resolved while they were still children?

17
. Why do you think Lewis chooses not to tell Ava what he knows about his father? What does this act show about Lewis?

18
. How is the suburban dream blighted in the novel? What hints do you see of the
1960
s era to come?

19
. Ava’s being Jewish marks her as an outsider, and yet she isn’t a particularly observant Jew. How do you think the story would have changed if she were?

20
. Leavitt has said that she always wants the endings of her novels to be never-ending, to be unexpected, and to make you continue to wonder about the characters’ lives. Did the novel end the way you expected? What do you think happens after the last page, and why?

JEFF TAMARKIN

Caroline Leavitt is the author of nine novels, including the
New York Times
bestseller
Pictures of You.
A book critic for the
Boston Globe
and
People,
Leavitt is a senior writing instructor at UCLA online. Visit her at
www.carolineleavitt.com
.