Lauren Takes Leave (49 page)

Okay, here we go.

1. Have you ever felt like Lauren, Kat or Jodi? When?
With whom do you most identify and why? Who are you the least like?

2. Many characters in the novel feel a sense of
ennui, which can be defined as weariness and dissatisfaction that leads to a
kind of boredom or complacency. Think of what causes this ennui in Lauren, Kat,
Jodi, and others, from MC Lenny to Laney the babysitter. How do they each
respond to that tedium in their lives? Do you think they are right or wrong?
How do you handle those feelings in your own life?

3. This book takes elements from three of my favorite
texts and mashes them up. If you are at all familiar with the movies
Ferris
Bueller’s Day Off
or
Thelma and Louise
, or Oscar Wilde’s play
The
Importance of Being Earnest
, here is your chance to show off your knowledge.
You can refer to the quotes that begin the novel for some guidance. Please pass
me one of those homemade chocolate-chip cookies. Now discuss.

4. The novel is constructed around Lauren’s week,
both while on jury duty and while on leave from her responsibilities. At the
beginning, middle, and end of that week, she talks directly to the reader,
speaking to them as “ladies and gentlemen of the jury.” What did you make of
these sections and their role within the novel?

5. How do you feel about the relationship between
Lauren and her husband, Doug?

6. There are many supporting characters in the novel.
Discuss their roles, and share what you think of them, including, but not
limited to:

Laney

Lenny Katzenberg

Tim Cubix

Lee Moncrieff

Martha Carrington

Professor Georgina Parks

Leslie Koch

Shay Greene

7. Which character changes the most, do you think?

8. The book’s plot contains many twists and turns. As
you were reading, what surprised you? Also, how do you feel about the ending of
the novel?

9. I write with humor. Skim back through the book—what
scenes or bits of dialogue made you laugh?

10. I also try to write with a purpose. I use humor
as a vehicle for showing the world back to itself, by holding a mirror up to
some of the unseemly truths hidden there, under the fun façade. What are the
darker sides of human nature and society that
Lauren Takes Leave
highlights? (Hint: greed, infidelity, selfishness…)

11. Does your life have a soundtrack, like Lauren’s? If
so, what’s on it? (Also, the music really is available through iTunes, and you
can select the Lauren mix or the Kat-and-Jodi mix.)

12. Do you believe more in justice or forgiveness?
(This is a question I stole from a deck of conversation starters used at
parties.)

13. Looking back on the entire book, do you think
Lauren had to take leave?

14. At this point in the evening, are you still
drinking? If you are a mom, did you discuss your children, their teachers, and
some local scandal? Did you try the dip? It’s fantastic. Did you pick a book
for next month yet? If not, check out my website for some favorite picks. I
promise I won’t make you read
The Importance of Being Earnest
. Oh, and
thanks so much for reading
Lauren Takes Leave
.

The Literati

1/3 each of:

prosecco

St. Germain (elderflower liqueur)

San Pellegrino

The Crazy Literati

2/3 prosecco

1/3 St. Germain

(Who needs the San Pellegrino!?)

Many people helped me write this novel, although a good
number of them are not aware of this fact. So, cheers to my writing gurus,
living and deceased, both those I actually know and those I pretend to know:
Elizabeth Berg, Nora Ephron, Helen Fielding, Peter Hedges, John Hughes, Stephen
King, Sophie Kinsella, Kathleen Reilly, Roger Rosenblatt, Blake Snyder, Peter
Trachtenberg, Jonathan Tropper, Lois Van Epps, and Oscar Wilde.

Special thanks to all the friends who supported Lauren and
me in so many ways over the past few years. (Unlike the above, these people
should be aware of the fact that I know them.) They include, but are certainly
not limited to, Helen Breitwieser, Lauren Fabiano, Erica Faulkner, Anne George,
Ursula Guise, Abby Hoffman, Kiki Hoffman, Howard Neuthaler, Serena Perlman,
Susie Quill, Ray Sabini, Amy Song, and John Talbot. In particular, I raise my
arms over my head with a boom box in hand—à la John Cusack in
Say Anything
—to
shout out my love to Annabel Monaghan, Julie Seifer, Gabrielle Tullman, and
Jeannine Votruba, because you guys are the best. Of course you read the book,
perhaps in various stages of its development. But more than that, you spoil me
with the truest kind of friendship. In grand moments like these, when words
fail me, I turn to musical theater. To quote Broadway’s
Wicked
, “And now
whatever way our stories end, I know you have rewritten mine by being my
friend.”

Thanks to my family, especially my grandmother, Rose Katz,
my mother, Ronnee Segal, my father, Norman Medow, my brother, Greg Medow, and
my aunt JaJa. For as long as I can remember, you have provided me with the
perfect environment for a (young/growing/now middle-aged) writer, one filled
with unconditional love and an endless stream of entertaining stories.

Corny but true: Thanks to SoulCycle, who helped me spin my
tale.

This self-published novel is not really “self” published.
Team Lauren was assembled in the eleventh hour, and is made up of an incredible
group of creative, insightful, and—perhaps most impressively—fast-working
artists. These are the people who said yes to me, which is the best word to
hear after so much no, and so much silence. Thanks to my editor, Caitlin
Alexander, who made my novel better by trimming the fat and keeping the funny.
To Gary Tooth, graphic designer extraordinaire, and to Liz Starin, an incredible
illustrator, for taking my vision of the book’s cover and bringing it to life
with whimsy and artistry. To Sarah Silverton, a gifted photographer who always
makes me smile, even when not in possession of her camera. And to my publicist,
Amy Rosen, who, with sheer force of enthusiasm, will help bring
Lauren Takes
Leave
to audiences far and wide.

And to my life’s creative director, my husband, Brett
Gerstenblatt, who really listened, understood, and supported me when I said
that I needed to quit my teaching job and become a writer. Brett read daily
chunks of the novel as I was working on it, and then sketched the original idea
for the cover using only our daughter’s art supplies. Thanks for believing in
me and for helping me make Lauren look so good.

To Brett and our children, Andrew and Zoe: whenever I
return from my imaginary world, there’s no place I’d rather be than in the real
and beautiful world we have created together. I love you.

Julie Gerstenblatt is a former middle school English
teacher who realized that it was time to leave the classroom when a lengthy
stint on jury duty felt like the highlight of her career. As a comedy and
culture writer for the
Huffington Post
and a humor columnist for the
Scarsdale
Inquirer
and Scarsdale10583.com, Julie writes with candor about her life,
her friends and family, and the particular demands of motherhood and wifedom in
modern-day suburbia. She and her husband live with their two children in
Scarsdale, New York. Although she would love to live in the city, suburbia is
the inspiration for most of her funny ideas, and so she will remain in
Westchester until her neighbors kick her out.
Lauren Takes Leave
is her
first novel.

www.juliegerstenblatt.com