Starting 'Snow Goose'

I was thinking we could start discussing 'Snow Goose' on Sept. 4. Has everyone had a chance to get it?

The struggle

Why do you think Irene repeatedly broke her firm resolutions to not see Clare? Even before she suspected an affair, her emotions for Clare were intense and ambivalent. Her instinct was to nip the relationship in the bud, but a stronger instinct to let the pushy Clare in prevailed. I never quite understood why she couldn't stick to her decision to not see her. Thoughts?

Gertrude

Gertrude was also "passing" but with the crucial difference that her husband knew. Why do you think Larsen included this character, and did you find her portrayal sympathetic? Why, to his face at least, did Gertrude adopt a different tone with Bellew than Irene did? Did the fact that Gertrude was more working class than high society matter for any reason?

The Snow Goose: A Story of Dunkirk

The open window

I think the ending was deliberately an unknowable mystery: Did Clare fall or jump or was she nudged out the window by Irene? (Mirroring the unknowability regarding the affair. Was it real or not?)

Irene certainly exhibited signs of a guilty conscience, but it wasn't clear whether she felt guilt over an act or guilt over a thought. As she herself noted, it was better for Clare to disappear than to be divorced by her awful husband, which would free her up for Brian. Her exit out the window, however caused, was presumably in Irene's best interest. Or was it?

Any thoughts on the way the final scene was handled?

(Completely irrelevant: There's a "Sex and the City" episode where an aging party girl falls out of a window at a Manhattan soiree, and it comes off as the end of a problem/end of an era sort of deal. Like no one really wanted this annoying has-been lurking on the scene anymore — she caused discomfort, as Clare did — and no one wanted her to die; they just wanted her out of the picture, as Irene did Clare. But this girl wasn't going to just quietly fade away; thus the writer's convenient open window.)

Clare

Clare seems like the most important character in the story. She's the one who's "passing," whose actions propel the narrative, and yet she's the one who, in a way, interested me the least. She just kind of seemed like a visitor to the real story, which, for me, was the dynamic between Irene and Brian. I had definite feelings about those two and about Mr. Bellew. But when it came to Clare, I just felt rather indifferent. I mean, I felt able to observe her with a clinical interest, but without much emotion. What did you think? Is she someone we were supposed to mostly like, or not like, or were we to have something akin to Irene's ambiguous feelings toward her?

Did you want Clare to get "caught"?

The next generation

Brian and Irene had radically different views about how to teach their children about racism. She was all for hiding ugliness and the truth from them so that they could enjoy their childhoods, and he was all for laying it on the line so that they didn't grow up with illusions and would be prepared for the inevitable. Any thoughts on that discussion?

Brian

I didn't always enjoy the way Irene treated him, as I've noted, but I REALLY didn't enjoy the way he treated her. His tone always seemed mockingly respectful (like when he referred to her to his son as "the ladies in the house") and tinged with sarcasm or passive-aggression. I never got the feeling that he actually loved and honored his wife. Do you think the author intended for us to like him?

Was she trying to draw any specific comparisons between the husbands in the story?

Irene

We have the story from Irene's point of view. Did you like her?

I had a lot of sympathy for her, which veered into pity when it became apparent how desperate she was to keep her marriage intact, to the point that she would, if necessary, endure a mere "shell" of a marriage so long as it appeared normal and whole to the outside world. Any thoughts on why this appearance was so paramount to her?

My sympathy for her also took a hit when it became apparent how determined she was to squelch her husband's South American dreams. I could see why she wouldn't be keen on the idea, and I admired her for claiming her citizenship so ardently and refusing to be chased out of her own country to supposedly greener pastures (at least in regard to race relations), but she was just so uncompromising and rigid (and unadventurous, I would add) about it. It's like she didn't really care about how miserable he might be so long as he didn't openly manifest his misery in a way that upset her nicely ordered life. I'm not saying she should have abandoned her own dreams to follow her man! But it seems like she could have handled the conflict in a less manipulative, more empathetic way. What do you think?

Also, do you think the differences in their skin color greatly affected their outlooks? Irene considered herself black and valued her heritage, but she also was routinely mistaken for white when she was out in public, so maybe she didn't feel the brutality of racism in the same personal way that her darker husband did?

An affair in "Passing"

Did you think that Clare and Brian were actually having an affair? Or was Irene getting all worked up over figments of her imagination?