return to home
 
 
          Bookmark and Share        Email
 
  This Week's Recommendations    |     Hardcovers Coming Soon    |     Paperbacks Coming Soon    |     Recent Hardcovers    |     Recent Paperbacks
   Genres   |    Settings   |    Time Periods   |    Themes   |    Favorites   |    Award Winners   |    Book Finder   |    Surprise Me!   |    Tag cloud
   Recent Interviews    |     All Interviews    |     Author Bios    |     Author Websites    |     Pronunciation Guide
   Free Newsletters   |    Wordplay   |    Book Giveaway   |    BookBrowse Polls   |    Literary Quotes   |    Personality Quiz   |    Gift Membership
   Recent Membership Magazines    |     Magazine Archives     |     Invite the Author    |     My Reading List    |     First Impressions    |     My Account
   Editor's Blog    |     Best Reader Reviews    |     Book News    |     Meet the Reviewers    |     Stay In Touch
   About Us   |    Tour   |    Member Benefits   |    Join   |    Gift Memberships   |    Library Subscriptions   |    FAQ   |    People Say   |    Contact Us
Search BookBrowse
Suggested Links
This Book's Themes:
Free Twice-Monthly Newsletters
Olive Kitteridge

Win This Book!


Cherries in Winter jacket

Cherries in Winter
by Suzan Colón


'A charming, satisfying memoir of food, family and overcoming hard times.'

Enter To Win Now!


wordplay
Solve this clue:
"M H While T S S"

and be entered to win....
New Author
Interviews
Peter Ackroyd
A short essay by Peter Ackroyd about his 2009 novel The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein
Hilary Mantel
Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall, discusses her Booker shortlisted novel at the the London bookstore, Daunt Books (3 part video)
William Kamkwamba
A short video about William Kamkwamba, author of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
Louis Bayard
An essay by Louis Bayard about The Black Tower, an historical mystery set in the early 19th century
   Reading Guides

Abide With Me by E Lynn Harris: Questions, plus a reading group guide, with links to reviews, excerpt, author interview and author biography at BookBrowse.com.

Abide With Me Abide With Me
by E Lynn Harris
Hardcover: Mar 1999,
350 pages.
Paperback: May 2000,
368 pages.

Publication information
Summary and Book Reviews
Read an Excerpt
Reader Reviews

Author Biography
Author Interview
Books by this Author
Critics' Opinion:  
Readers' Rating: 
About BookBrowse Rankings
Buy This Book
Themes Members Only Read-Alikes Members Only Add to Reading List  Members Only

Reading Guide Questions

 Printer Friendly Guide

Caution! It is likely that the following questions will reveal, or at least allude to, key plot details. Therefore, if you haven’t yet read this book, but are planning on doing so, you may wish to proceed with caution to avoid spoiling your later enjoyment.

The life Raymond long dreamed about has become a reality. He is living openly and happily with Trent, a successful architect, in Seattle, and his high-powered legal career has earned him a nomination for a federal judgeship. On the other side of the country, Nicole is married to Raymond's best friend, Jared, and enjoying lots of attention as a hot new singer and actress. But demons, both old and new, suddenly disrupt the happiness they've worked so hard to achieve. Unsettling rumors about Trent and the reappearance of Basil Henderson, his irresistible and volatile ex-lover, send Raymond into a tailspin. For Nicole, trouble comes in the form of an ambitious colleague, whose wily schemes threaten more than Nicole's career.

For discussion: Abide with Me

  1. What does Basil hope to prove by stripping in front of his therapist [p. 16]? Why does he brag about leaving his date sitting in a restaurant? How are these two acts related? Are Basil's opinions about women and sex unusual or warped [pp. 30-31]? Do other men feel the same way, even if they hesitate to talk about it as openly as Basil does? Do you agree or disagree with Basil when he says, "I understand the power of sex. And once you understand something completely, you can control it" [p. 32]?
  2. What techniques does Yancey use to ingratiate herself with Nicole? Is Nicole na•ve in accepting Yancey's friendship so readily? Yancey declares that after Albert, her high-school boyfriend, betrayed her "Every brother I meet is paying for what Albert did" [p. 54]. Do you think that Albert's marriage to a white woman made the situation more painful for Yancey than it would have been had he chosen a black wife? How do her opinions of men compare to Basil's views of women?
  3. Trent is concerned that he won't get an assignment he wants because the project leader is a black woman. Are his fears understandable? Why does he say "you know how we can sometimes be our worst critics" [p. 63]? Are there examples of this tendency in the book? Have you encountered situations in which blacks are overly critical of other blacks? Do other groups exhibit the same behavior? Why do you think this happens?
  4. Raymond and Trent briefly discuss getting married. Do you think that gay marriages should be legal? Why or why not?
  5. After they meet an old friend of Nicole's at a restaurant, Nicole and Yancey talk about the way women compete with one another [p. 84]. How do their reactions to the "bad seeds" they've encountered differ? Is Nicole too forgiving of the actress the rest of the cast called "Evilene"? Was Yancey's "trick" for defeating her rival justifiable or unethical? How important is it for black women to stick together, particularly when it might entail sacrificing their own goals?
  6. The NAACP withdraws its support of Raymond's nomination to back a candidate who "understands the needs of our community, especially on issues regarding the survival of the African-American family" [p. 95]. Is a gay candidate like Raymond incapable of understanding and supporting the basic values of the community? Can his partnership with Trent be defined as a "family"?
  7. In what ways does Raymond Sr.'s objection to Kirby's involvement with an Asian woman parallel his discomfort with Raymond and Trent's relationship? Do members of minority groups have a moral obligation to date and/or marry within the group? Do interracial or interreligious marriages necessarily undermine individual cultures?
  8. Why is Raymond so reluctant to confront Trent when he learns of his arrest? By betraying his promise to Trent to be open and honest, is Raymond betraying himself as well? What is the significance of the fight he has with his father about the situation? Is his father only concerned with Raymond's political future? Why does Raymond Sr. say "Stop letting people fuck you over, especially black folks"[p. 161]? What does this indicate about his own biases and beliefs?
  9. When Raymond and Trent finally discuss Trent's infidelities, whose side are you on? Does Trent take their relationship too casually or is Raymond demanding a level of perfection that is impossible to achieve? Are the conflicts between Nicole and Jared more clear cut [pp. 284-285]? Do they handle them better than Raymond and Trent? Why is Nicole so ambivalent about starting a family? In addition to her reluctance to give up her career, what other factors contribute to her hesitations?
  10. When she tells Raymond about his father's affair early in their marriage, Raymond's mother says "People sometimes do hurtful things just to get the other person's attention" [p. 291]. How does this relate to the events in the book? Are Basil's and Yancey's schemes, for example, mean-spirited and evil? Or are they desperate attempts to generate the attention and love that is missing from their lives?


Suggestions for further reading
Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings; James Baldwin, Another Country; Bebe Moore Campbell, Brothers and Sisters; Eric Jerome Dickey, Cheating; Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man; Gloria Naylor, The Men of Brewster Place; April Sinclair, Coffee Will Make You Black; Omar Tyree, Sweet St. Louis; John Edgar Wideman, Philadelphia Fire


Page numbers refer to the Anchor paperback edition. Reading group guide and suggested reading list reproduced with the permission of the publisher, Anchor Books.


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.

This Book's Themes:
Read-Alikes:
Other books by this author
Buy This Book:

Become a Member
One Month Free
Editor's Choice
  •  Nov 19 
  •  Nov 17 
  •  Nov 15 
Nocturnes
Kazuo Ishiguro
One of the most celebrated writers of our time gives us his first cycle of short fiction: five brilliantly etched, interconnected stories in which music is a vivid and essential character.
Invisible
Paul Auster
“One of America’s greatest novelists” dazzlingly reinvents the coming-of-age story in his most passionate and surprising book to date.
The Lacuna
Barbara Kingsolver
In her most accomplished novel, Barbara Kingsolver takes us on an epic journey from the Mexico City of artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo to the America of Pearl Harbor, FDR, and J. Edgar Hoover. The Lacuna is a poignant story of a man pulled between two nations as they invent their...
Chronic City
Jonathan Lethem
The acclaimed author of Motherless Brooklyn and The Fortress of Solitude returns with a roar with this gorgeous, searing portrayal of Manhattanites wrapped in their own delusions, desires, and lies.
Manhood for Amateurs
Michael Chabon
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author— "an immensely gifted writer and a magical prose stylist" (Michiko Kakutani, New York Times)—offers his first major work of nonfiction, an autobiographical narrative as inventive, beautiful, and powerful as his acclaimed, award-winning fiction.
Recent Reader Reviews
Zorro by Isabel Allende
Like Robin Hood, Zorro is a story that almost everyone knows, but few have read. The original book by Johnston McCulley is out of print and ... read more
Three Cups of Tea by David O. Relin
I'm 13 years old and my teacher handed me this book and told me to read and do a report on it. I looked at the cover, saw the title (which made no ... read more
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
I'm 13 years old and my teacher handed me this book and told me to read and do a report on it. I looked at the cover, saw the title (which made no ... read more
RSS feed More...  
Most Viewed This Week
1. Brooklyn Bridge
Karen Hesse
2. The Glass Castle
Jeannette Walls
3. Three Cups of Tea
David O. Relin, Greg Mortenson
4. A Child Called It
Dave Pelzer
5. The Notebook
Nicholas Sparks
More...
Book Club Recommendations
The Wasted Vigil
by Nadeem Aslam
Paperback (Sep/09)
Graceling
by Kristin Cashore
Paperback (Sep/09)
The Given Day
by Dennis Lehane
Paperback (Sep/09)
The White Mary
by Kira Salak
Paperback (Sep/09)
More...
First Impressions
Members read and review books often months before they're published. See what they think in First Impressions!
The Book of Illumination
by Mary Ann Winkowski
           (Oct/09)
State by State
by Matt Weiland & Sean Wilsey (editors)
           (Oct/09)
The New Global Student
by Maya Frost
           (May/09)
More...
   Most Recent Blog Entries
So Many eReaders, Which to Choose?
Autumn Reading by Elizabeth Strout
It Takes All Kinds of Readers
Steampunk for Beginners by Cherie Priest
rss  RSS   rss  subscribe
  Latest BookBrowse News
The 2009 National Book Award Winners (Nov 19 2009)
The winners of the 2009 National Book Awards have been announced at the National Book Foundation's 60th National Book Awards Ceremony and Benefit... Full Story
Google Settlement Filed (Nov 13 2009)
After two delays, attorneys for the AAP, Authors Guild and Google filed an amended settlement agreement today in an effort to end litigation brought by the... Full Story
rss RSS feed More...
BookBrowse Poll
Q: When do you listen to audio books?
I don't listen to audio books
While walking
While doing household chores
While exercising
While working
In the car
At other times
Select Any That Apply
HOME Submissions | Advertising | Showcase | Library Subscriptions | Media Inquiries | Reviewers | Contact Us |   Email this page to a friend
addall.com - external link
Visit AddAll.com to compare and save at 41 bookstores!
Searching for used books? Search 20,000+ dealers!
 
Compare music prices  |  Compare movie prices
One Percent