Reading Group Guide – The Mother Garden by Robin Romm



Description

From a young writer of enormous talent comes the extraordinary debut collection, The Mother Garden. Written with humor, uncommon wisdom, and exquisite imagination, these powerful stories take place in the moments before and after loss. Robin Romm weaves together stories of mothers, fathers, lovers, dogs and objects that disappear and reappear, creating a landscape of uncertainty. We see people struggling to keep their feet on the ground as life continues to shift disorientingly about them. Though vividly realistic, these stories are infused with the bizarre – a man uses a chicken egg to test whether or not he is ready for fatherhood; a daughter plants a garden of mothers to replace her own; a deadbeat father is found sleeping in the desert after disappearing for twenty-six years; a young woman forms a strange connection with her dead mother’s beads. Though Romm plumbs the depths of grief, the stores don’t land there – instead they offer a tender and irreverent exploration of life, death, love and the beauty of being alive.

Questions for Discussion

1. Why do you think the author chose the Amy Hempel quotation for the epigraph? Do the characters in The Mother Garden demonstrate loss of faith and/or faith in loss?
   
2. While you were reading, where do you imagine th

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