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Anna

Fifteen months ago …

No one trusts anything I say. If I point out, for example, that the toast is burning or that it's time for the six o'clock news, people marvel. How about that? It is time for the six o'clock news. Well done, Anna. Maybe if I were eighty-eight instead of thirty-eight, I wouldn't care. Then again, maybe I would. As a new resident of Rosalind House, an assisted-living facility for senior citizens, I'm having a new appreciation for the hardships of the elderly.

"Anna, this is Bert," someone says as a man slopes by on his walker. I've been introduced to half a dozen people who look more or less like Bert: old, ashen, hunched-over. We're on wicker lawn chairs in the streaming sunshine, and I know Jack brought me out here to make us both feel better. Yes, you're checking into an old folks' home, but look, it has a garden!

I wave to Bert, but my gaze is fixed across the lawn, where my five-year-old nephew, Ethan, is ...

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. The Things We Keep is told from the points of view of Eve, Anna, and Clem. How does this structure enhance your experience as a reader? How would this novel have been different had certain sections been omitted or told from a different point of view?
2. Did you learn anything you didn't previously know about dementia while reading this novel?
3. When Eve suggests to Angus that Anna and Luke are in love he says, "But even if they loved each other once, they can't really love each other now, can they? How can you love someone you don't remember?" Eric makes a similar argument, saying that people with dementia are incapable of falling in love. But Rosie says "Dementia steals things—memories, speech, other abilities. But I don'...

Please be aware that this discussion guide may contain spoilers!

Here are some of the comments posted about The Things We Keep.
You can see the full discussion here.


Did you find any incidents in this book unbelievable or confusing?
I wonder if Eve decided that she would throw caution to the wind. She had lived her life by the rules and it availed her nothing. Her husband was a criminal and a suicide, she had no friends, her daughter was bullied. Being "good" did not serve her ... - Frances

Did you learn anything you didn't previously know about dementia while reading this novel?
I also didn't know that dementia could start at such a young age, the type of dementia that Luke had, and that some people with dementia had a problem with depth perception. My dad had dementia but he was in his early 70's and didn't have the depth ... - louisee

Eve is unsettled when Rosie lies to Anna. Rosie replies, "We can make each moment frightening for her with the truth. Or we can lie...and make each moment happy..." What would you do? What would you want someone to do if you were Anna?
I understand how Eve could be upset about lying to Anna, but Rosie makes a good point. So much of an Alzheimer's sufferer's days are fraught with confusion and despair - why not give them comforting words when you can, since they won't remember them ... - susank

How do the multiple points of view enhance your experience as a reader? How would the novel have been different if some parts had been omitted or told from a different point of view?
I am finding that I often enjoy books with multiple points of views. It seems to allow me to get deeper into the landscape and emotions of the novel. In this book, I only wish that the author had allowed us into Luke's mindset a little, but, perhaps ... - susank

Is Anna's character believable? Did you feel sympathetic toward her?
It's nice when a book makes us feel better or confirms our experience. When a novel expands our experience and takes us into new places and new understanding, that is of deep value. Reading novels is said to be of great value in connecting us with ... - Frances