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Homestead
Rosina Lippi. Mariner Books: 1999 (paperback). ISBN: 0395977711. 210 pages.
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About the Author
A page of detailed biographical information on Homestead, including excerpts from interviews in
which Lippi interprets her own work.
You’ll find out about the research that inspired Lippi’s novel and about her interest in women’s stories. “Homestead
grew out of my conviction that the quiet lives of women in an unfamiliar corner of the Alps were stories that I could not
keep to myself,” she says. “These women lead hard lives, but they have such rich inner resources, and in the most important
ways they are like women everywhere.”
All in the Family
A synopsis of the literary traditions and genres with which Homestead is affiliated and a brief
explanation of these connections, giving your book group the opportunity to understand Lippi’s novel in a larger literary
perspective.
Critics are eager to compare first novels like Homestead with other books in an attempt place them in some kinds of
literary tradition. One critic compares Lippi to Willa Cather, that most famous chronicler of American homestead life: “The
stories are reminiscent of Willa Cather, filled with a painful love, in the farm fields and meadows, full of obligation and
duty and things unspoken, which if spoken, would release generations of suffering.”
Character Tree
A list of major characters and their dominant characteristics and values, showing characters’ relationships
to each other.
Our character tree provides useful descriptions of characters and their connection to other characters and specific issues.
But Lippi herself has prepared excellent clan charts which are extremely handy for quick references, especially because so
many characters have the same names—the charts give birth and death dates, clan and legal names, and offer the convenient
visual aid of a family tree. If only all authors were this helpful!
Streams of Themes
A breakdown of potential major discussion themes in Homestead, including ways these themes are
interconnected.
Homestead’s themes of love, loss, and family are as delicately powerful as her characters, and yet many of these
themes revolve around a subject usually reserved for more hard-hitting fiction: the devastation of war.
Talk Back to the Critics
Excerpts of some major critical reviews of Homestead from authoritative journals,
newspapers, and magazines. We encourage your book group to enjoy the opportunity to argue with expert opinion.
Most critics praise the quiet domestic setting and strong female characters in Lippi’s novel, but as always, there’s one
cranky reviewer who disagrees. “These stories seem almost maddeningly claustrophobic at times,” she writes. “The village is
a damn matriarchy.”
Doorways to Discussion
A chronologically and thematically organized list of discussion questions, which function to
explore, in a logical and thoughtful manner, the questions and possibilities that Homestead evokes.
Since Homestead is told through a series of vivid vignettes, we’ve included questions for each short piece as well
as general questions about the book as a whole. Here’s one example of the 66 questions featured in this section: “Grumpy
Marie is the only woman who is alive for the entire time period that the book covers. Any thoughts on why Grumpy Marie
doesn’t get her own section or chapter?”
Taste Test
A selection of other books on subjects similar to those in Homestead to consider for future book group
meetings or for private reading.
If you like Lippi’s use of multiple perspectives, her novel’s unusual, isolated setting, and her portrait of the
complexities of family life, we’ve included lots of books we think you’ll enjoy!
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