Book Club Discussion Questions
Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!
The First Desire Reading Guide
The questions, discussion topics, and suggestions for further reading that
follow are designed to enhance your group’s exploration of
The First Desire,
Nancy Reisman’s richly textured novel about the commitments and the
compromises that lie at the heart of family relationships. In portraying the
private lives of the Cohen family in Buffalo, New York, from the Great
Depression to the post—World War II years, Reisman illuminates as well the
social and political milieu of mid-twentieth-century America.
Reader's Guide
- The First Desire mainly revolves around a family. Do you think the
meaning of family shifts over the course of the novel? How is the Cohen
family as a whole changed by the end of the novel? Does the house
itself–its structure and atmosphere–take on particular meanings for the
family members or for you as a reader?
- In The First Desire, each chapter highlights stories and voices of
different characters. How do you see the chapters working together to form a
novel? The novel offers many of the characters’ perspectives and life
experiences but doesn’t offer the father’s view. Why do you think the
author has chosen not to show Abe’s point of view? Similarly, Celia is the
only Cohen sibling not given chapters of her own. In your reading, do
Celia’s perceptions and her interpretations of events, presented by the
others, serve as a kind of shadow narrative throughout the novel? Are there
other effects? How do the perspectives of the characters grow and/or change
over the course of the novel? What incidents or family developments best
explain the transformation?
- What do Sadie’s conversations with Irving reveal to you about the
members of the family? What do you learn about Sadie as she prepares to
visit the house on Lancaster and from her conversations with Celia, her
father, and Jo? How does the crisis bring out her ambivalent feelings about
the family and her role in it? What insights do the descriptions of her
marriage provide about the way she conducts herself?
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- How does the author develop themes of identity and belonging throughout the narrative?
- What role does the setting play in shaping the characters' decisions and relationships?
- Discuss how the ending reframes the events of the story. Were you surprised?
Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Anchor Books.
Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.
