Daniel Emerson lives with Kate Ellis, and he is like a father to her daughter, Ruby. But he cannot control his desire for Iris Davenport, the African-American woman whose son is Ruby's best friend. During a freak October blizzard, Daniel is stranded at Iris's house, and they begin a sexual liaison that eventually imperils all their relationships, Daniel's profession, their children's well-being, their own race-blindness, and their view of themselves as essentially good people.
Daniel Emerson lives with Kate Ellis, and he is like a father to her daughter, Ruby. But he cannot control his desire for Iris Davenport, the African-American woman whose son is Ruby's best friend. During a freak October blizzard, Daniel is stranded at Iris's house, and they begin a sexual liaison that eventually imperils all their relationships, Daniel's profession, their children's well-being, their own race-blindness, and their view of themselves as essentially good people.
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Overview
Daniel Emerson lives with Kate Ellis, and he is like a father to her daughter, Ruby. But he cannot control his desire for Iris Davenport, the African-American woman whose son is Ruby's best friend. During a freak October blizzard, Daniel is stranded at Iris's house, and they begin a sexual liaison that eventually imperils all their relationships, Daniel's profession, their children's well-being, their own race-blindness, and their view of themselves as essentially good people.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780061862434 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins |
| Publication date: | 10/13/2009 |
| Sold by: | HARPERCOLLINS |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 384 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
About the Author
Scott Spencer is the author of twelve novels, including Endless Love,Waking the Dead, A Ship Made of Paper, and Willing. He has taught at Columbia University, the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Williams College, the University of Virginia, and at Eastern Correctional Facility as part of the Bard Prison Initiative. He lives in upstate New York.
Hometown:
Rhinebeck, New YorkDate of Birth:
September 1, 1945Place of Birth:
Washington, D.C.Education:
B. A., University of Wisconsin, 1969Read an Excerpt
A Ship Made of Paper
A Novel
Chapter One
Daniel and Hampton were paired by chance and against their wishes. They were not friends -- Hampton did not particularly like Daniel, and Daniel had every reason to avoid being alone with Hampton. But Daniel's girlfriend or partner or whatever he was supposed to call her, Kate, Kate went home to relieve the baby-sitter who was minding her daughter, and Hampton's wife, there was no ambiguity there, his wife, Iris, with whom Daniel was fiercely in love, had gone home to look after their son. Daniel and Hampton stayed behind to search for a blind girl, a heartsick and self-destructive blind girl who had run away from today's cocktail party, either to get lost or to be found, no one was sure.
The searchers, fourteen in all, were each given a Roman candle -- whoever found the lost girl was to fire the rocket into the sky, so the others would know -- and each of the pairs was assigned a section of the property in which to look for Marie.
"Looks like you and me," Daniel said to Hampton, because he had to say something. Hampton barely responded and he continued to only minimally acknowledge Daniel's nervous chatter as they walked away from the mansion through an untended expanse of wild grass that soon led into a dense wood of pine, locust, maple, and oak. Aside from the contrast of their color -- Daniel was white, Hampton black -- the two men were remarkably similar in appearance. They were both in their mid-thirties, an inch or so over six feet tall, broad-shouldered, reasonably fit. They were even dressed similarly, in khaki pants, white shirts, and blue blazers, though Daniel's jacket was purchased at Macy's,and Hampton's had been sewn specially for him by a Chinese tailor in the city.
Two years after he was kicked down the stairs of his apartment building in New York City, which shattered his wrist, chipped his front tooth, and, as he himself put it, broke his heart, Daniel Emerson is back in his hometown, driving Ruby, his girlfriend's four-year-old daughter, to her day care center, called My Little Wooden Shoe. The drive is ten or fifteen minutes, depending on the weather, and though Daniel is not Ruby's father, nor her stepfather, it usually falls to him to take the little girl in. Daniel cannot understand how she can so willingly and unfailingly absent herself from the beginnings of her daughter's day; Ruby's mother, Kate Ellis, cannot bear to rise early in the morning, nor can she bear the thought of having to deal with Melody, or Tammy, Keith, Tamara, Griffin, Elijah, Avery, Stephanie, Joel, Tess, Chantal, Dylan, or any of the other Wooden Shoers, not to mention their fathers and their mothers, a few of whom Daniel knew thirty-two years ago in this very town, when he was Ruby's age.
It's fine with Daniel. He welcomes the chance to do fatherly things with the little girl, and those ten morning minutes with dear little four-year-old Ruby, with her deep soulful eyes, and the wondrous things she sees with them, and her deep soulful voice, and the precious though not entirely memorable things she says with it, and the smell of baby shampoo and breakfast cereal filling the car, that little shimmering capsule of time is like listening to cello music in the morning, or watching birds in a flutter of industry building a nest, it simply reminds you that even if God is dead, or never existed in the first place, there is, nevertheless, something tender at the center of creation, some meaning, some purpose and poetry. He believes in parental love with the fervency of a man who himself was not loved, and those ten minutes with Ruby every weekday morning, before he drops her off at My Little Wooden Shoe and then drives over to his office, where he runs a poorly paying, uneventful country law practice, in the fairly uneventful town of Leyden, one hundred miles north of New York City, those six hundred sweet seconds are his form of worship, and the temperamental eight-year-old black Saab is his church.
Or was, actually, because, unfortunately, this is no longer the case. The drive is still ten minutes, Ruby is still snugly strapped in her child safety seat in the back of the car, her sturdy little body encased in lilac overalls, her short-fingered, square hands holding a box of raisins and a box of grape juice, and today she is commenting on the familiar landmarks they pass -- the big kids' school, the abandoned apple orchard where the wizened old trees wreathed in autumn morning mist are so scarily bent, the big yellow farmhouse where there is always some sort of yard sale, the massive pasture where every July the county fair assembles, with its cows and snow cones, Ferris wheels and freaks -- but today it is all Daniel can do to pay the slightest bit of attention to Ruby, because his mind is seized, possessed, and utterly filled by one repeating question: Will Iris be there?
Daniel has been carrying the unwieldy weight of this desire for months now, and so far his behavior has been impeccable. When it comes to Iris the rules he has made for himself are simple: look but don't touch, long for but don't have, think but don't say. All he wants to do is be in the same room with her, see what she is wearing, see by her eyes if she has slept well, exchange a few words, make her smile, hear her say his name.
Until recently, it was a matter of chance whether their paths would cross. Iris's deliveries and pickups of Nelson were helter-skelter, one day she'd have him there at eight o'clock, and the next at nine-thirty -- it all depended on her class schedule at Marlowe College ...
A Ship Made of PaperA Novel. Copyright © by Scott Spencer. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.
Reading Group Guide
Introduction
Nearly two decades have passed since Daniel Emerson resided in Leyden, New York. Now, after becoming the target of violence, Daniel has left New York City behind and returned to the tranquil Hudson Valley town of his childhood. Setting up a law practice and settling into a new home with his journalist girlfriend, Kate, and her young daughter, Ruby, Daniel once again eases into the rhythms of life in a small town.
Denied a loving childhood by his austere parents, Daniel revels in caring for Ruby. In doing so, he crosses paths with Iris Davenport, whose son becomes Ruby's best friend. Daniel finds himself drawn to Iris, a black graduate student at the local college, who is married to a financier husband who commutes to Leyden on weekends. Iris finds life in Leyden comforting, while her husband, Hampton, sees racial slights everywhere in the actions of the town's residents.
As his attraction to Iris grows, Daniel contemplates the state of his own life and his relationship with Kate. When a dramatic October blizzard blankets the town, Daniel and Ruby are stranded at Iris's house. Daniel and Iris's flirtation escalates into a night of passion, and their affair continues despite the complications it causes in both of their lives. But when a twist of fate brings about an unexpected tragedy, Daniel and Iris are forced to confront the reality of their situation-and the collateral damage it does to those closest to them.
A Ship Made of Paper is a voyage into small town life, as the lives of its inhabitants change and intertwine in ways that are both typical and startling. In this domestic drama filled with tension and passion, Scott Spencer tells an unforgettable tale about a man whose circumstances are at once unique and universal.
Questions for Discussion
1. The author opens each of the first thirteen chapters with a narrative thread that eventually culminates in the pivotal scene in the book-chapter fourteen's depiction of Hampton and Daniel's search for Marie in the woods. From the first page, this narrative thread sets up the issue of race and lays out key aspects of the story-the animosity between Daniel and Hampton, and the fact that Daniel is involved with Kate but is in love with Hampton's wife. Did this technique enhance the drama of the story? Why or why not?
2. The four main characters could easily have met in Manhattan, where they all lived at one time, and yet the author chose to set the book in a small town. In what ways is the setting integral to the story? How might it have differed if it had been set in a large city?
3. How does the author use the circumstances of the O.J. Simpson trial to heighten events in the story?
4. In one instance, after an exchange with Kate, Daniel thinks, "Wouldn't it be nice if Iris said biting and sophisticated things like that? But wit is not the source of Iris's allure. Hers is a different sort of grace, unadorned and total, the grace of the sea, the grace of angels, and sex." How else are Iris and Kate different? Are they alike in any way?
5. "It strikes [Daniel] that all his life he has been in love with black women-Dinah Washington, Billie Holiday, Irma Thomas, Ivie Anderson, Ella Fitzgerald, Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith." Is Iris's skin color part of the reason Daniel is attracted to her? What other motivations does Daniel have for entering into an affair with Iris? Kate believes Daniel "thinks a love affair will rescue him." Do you think she's right?
6. Describe Daniel's relationship with his parents. How have the circumstances of his upbringing influenced him as an adult? Discuss Daniel's relationship with Ruby.
7. None of the committed relationships in the story are happy, contented ones but rather filled with strife and unhappiness, including Hampton and Iris, Daniel and Kate, Ferguson and Susan, and even Daniel's parents. Discuss the significant aspects of each of these relationships. What does this novel say, if anything, about marriage?
8. Early on in the story Daniel gives Mercy this advice: "You don't have anything to feel guilty about. You have a right to make yourself happy. You're not obliged to stay where you're miserable." How does this "advice" apply to him and his actions later in the story?
9. Discuss Daniel and Hampton's encounter in the woods while searching for Marie. Do you think Daniel intentionally aimed the flare at Hampton?
10. When Daniel experiences partial blindness, his doctor says to him, "Guilt's a bitch." Daniel responds by saying, "I don't feel guilty. How could I? I've turned a blind eye to everything." What do you make of this exchange? Is there any significant connection between Daniel's and Marie's blindness?
11. During Daniel's encounter with Susan at the bar, she says, "When do people around here start living up to their responsibilities? You'd think that almost killing a man would have brought you up short, but from what I hear you and Iris are still going at it hot and heavy…. What gives you the right to cause so much damage, and to hurt people?" Is Susan justified in her criticism of Daniel, or is her own experience clouding her judgment? How does the relationship of Ferguson and Marie mirror that of Daniel and Iris?
12. Discuss the novel's ending. What do you think the future holds for Daniel and Iris? What about Kate?