Adult Book Discussion: Margarettown

Late last year, my book group read Margarettown by Gabrielle Zevin.

I read this as a teen and really enjoyed it. I picked it for our book club and then started rereading it as an adult. It was a lot...racier than I remember. I don't mind sex in books at all, but this didn't really add to the plot and it made my group members a bit uncomfortable. Other than that, it was a quick, interesting read. My book club doesn't like terribly long books, and YA author Zevin was able to hold their attention through the short novel.

I really liked this book because the plot wasn't traditional, chronological, or realistic at all times. The reader is left to wonder what was real and what was imagined. It was like a cross between The Time Traveler's Wife and Big Fish. I loved this book, but if I could do it over again, I wouldn't choose it for this particular book group.

Questions we spent the most time discussing:

• What was real and what was imagined by the narrator to fill gaps/explain things to his daughter easier?
• Why did the narrator tell this story? Why did he choose this format?
• What did each of the Margarets represent? How would they have looked to someone else in the story?