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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780060929954 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins |
| Publication date: | 05/03/2005 |
| Pages: | 416 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.31(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.94(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Stepping out to the curb in front of the Phoenix airport that November Sunday, Mrs. Albert Strouse, San Francisco matron of impressive age, was met by a welcome shock of heat. There had been a wintry dankness in the wind at home for weeks, which along with the artificial winter of the airplane cabin had settled into her bones. She adjusted her dashing new mango-colored sunglasses and basked.
A young woman in a jacket of a familiar blue appeared beside her. "Mrs. Strouse!"
"Cassie! How are you, dear?"
"Can't complain." Cassie took Rae's small suitcase and led her to the blue minivan waiting in the No Waiting zone. "You're my last lady. Do you mind riding up front with me?"
"Delighted. I'm good with a shotgun."
Cassie held the door while Rae hoisted herself into the front seat.
There were four other passengers already on board, none known to her. They exchanged nods of greeting with her, except for one fat one who either had jet lag or had enjoyed some cocktails on the plane and was slumped in the back with her eyes shut, looking like a failed popover.
Normally Rae Strouse loved a party. Normally Rae Strouse considered three strangers on a bus a festive gathering, but today as the van left the city behind she was just as glad to contemplate the afternoon light on the desert and let The Young behind her get on with their conversation.
The Young were apparently two childhood friends, now separated by husbands and children and distance, taking a week together. They were clucking over the guest list, looking for useful kernels of information, hoping they weren't going to regret not going to Aruba. New guests were always anxious abouthow it was going to be.
"Thirty-four, thirty-five, thirty-six. Thirty-six. Well that's a nice size. Group. That's a good group," said the dark one.
"Look, here's that woman Glenna Leisure. She's in W all the time."
"Is she?"
"Yes, you know who she is. She's that one who was a stewardess, she married the leveraged-buyout guy?"
"Is that the one whose co-op got so upset about her Christmas tree?"
"Exactly."
They fell silent as the van sped along toward the violet shadows of the Mazatzal Mountains.
"Is your sister coming with you this time?" Cassie asked Rae.
"No, we're taking a cruise later in the year. Mr. Strouse and I want to show her the Greek Isles."
"That sounds nice," said Cassie.
"We're looking forward to it."
There was another silence.
"A number of your pals from last time are back," said Cassie. Rae nodded. She was such an old hand by now that there were almost always guests she knew from earlier visits. She liked that, but even more she liked meeting new ones. It wasn't so easy at her age to meet new people, and it was important. The old ones kept dying.
The two friends behind her handed the guest list to the third woman, who now remarked, "Mrs. Alan Steadman . . . isn't that Megan Soule?"
Even Rae turned around at that.
"Megan Soule? You're kidding!"
"That's her married name," said the third guest. The two friends looked at her.
"Megan Soule, omigod, I love her! She was so cute in that movie, with Robin Williams . . . "
"I saw her in concert once. She was incredible."
"I've heard she's a really nice person."
"It says she's from Aspen."
"Well she isn't, but they do have a house there."
"But she lives in Malibu."
"Don't those friends of yours live in Malibu?"
"No, they moved."
The little van whizzed along over the desert.
"Well, this should be fun," said the plump blonde, sounding uncertain.
Forty minutes later the little van turned down an unmarked road winding among tall pines. It crossed an arroyo and stopped before a wooden door set in a high stucco wall. The pines cast deep shadows, and the sounds of the highway above and behind them seemed suddenly far away.
The driver rang a heavy brass bell hanging from the doorpost. It had a deep iron peal. Almost at once a young woman appeared through the carved door. Her name tag said jackie.
"Hello, Mrs. Strouse, welcome back," she said as Rae was handed down from the van. Rae passed through into a courtyard inside the walls, the first cloister. When the little door closed behind the group they seemed suddenly wrapped in stunning silence.
"Oh!" said the blonde. "So quiet . . . "
It took a moment to become aware that it was not silent at all, but filled with a subtle singing of crickets, of water playing somewhere nearby, of birds, of moving branches. This courtyard was built around a stone pool whose surface reflected trees towering around it.
Five Fortunes. Copyright © by Beth R. Gutcheon. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.
What People are Saying About This
"She has absolutely perfect pitch when it comes to capturing the lives of these remarkable women. This seems to be the quintessential American woman's tale. I loved it."
"This is the novel as we used to know it, with laughter, tears, true-to-life details and a must-know what happens next story line."
Reading Group Guide
Plot Summary
Five Fortunes is a novel about the rejuvenating power of friendship. In it, five women of different socio-economic background and temperaments meet at The Cloisters--a posh health spa in Arizona affectionately called "Fat Chance" by its devotees. Each brings with her a private burden and a hope for emotional and physical healing. Rae Strouse, a wealthy, spry octogenarian, comes every year for relief from the pains and losses of old age. Amy Burrows and her overweight teenage daughter, Jill, come to try a new cure for an old trauma. Carter Bond, a divorced L.A. Private Investigator, has been tricked into a week at the Cloisters by a business partner who wants her to quit smoking. And Laura Lopez, a judge and daughter of a prominent Idaho political family, hopes to let go of a paralyzing sense that her own life ended when her husband's did.
These five women have extremely different lives and gifts, but they have in common kindness, courage, and a sense of the ridiculous. The interlocking alliances they form affect each of them in unexpected ways in the touching, witty, and always entertaining story that follows their first chance meeting.
Topics for Discussion1. Five Fortunes begins and ends at a health spa. Why was this particular setting chosen? How does it bring out the essence of each character?
2. Of the five central characters, Jill is the only person who is under 40, and arguably, she has the most complicated inner life. Which experiences in Jill's life account for this? What does the nature of Jill's friendship with other women say about the relationships forged in middle age as opposed to friendships forged inthe years of early youth?
3. The Taoist tale of the Tiger that Jill, Carter, and Laurie hear in T'ai Chi is a cautionary tale which says that any act, no matter how well meant, could have an unforeseen harmful consequence, and any horrible event may bring some good with it. We can't know the ultimate effect of our actions, and we can't necessarily tell the difference between good and evil when we're looking right at it. All we can do is remember that everything we do matters, and will have consequences for ourselves and others. Which events in this novel support the assumption?
4. In the year we follow them, each character grows in different ways. Is there any one who grows more than the others? If so, which one?
5. One of the undercurrent themes in Five Fortunes is that acts of generosity have impact on both the givers and the receivers. If the ability to give wisely and well is one of life's greatest luxuries, then Albie Strouse is a truly rich man, but what has made him so? What if we ask the same question about Eloise?
6. MacDuff is an ambiguous figure, but his presence seems to embody important themes in the book. How does his story comment on the Tale of the Tiger? How about Walter's story about the man who won the Hero medal? What is the author saying about giving and receiving? About who is saved, and how?
7. Five Fortunes explores the overlapping cycles of a woman's life. What are some of these cycles? How do Rae, Carter, Amy, Jill, and Laura personify each one?
About the Author: Beth Gutcheon is the critically acclaimed author of five novels: The New Girls, Still Missing, Domestic Pleasures, Saying Grace, and Five Fortunes. She is the writer of several film scripts, including the Academy Award nominee "The Children of Theatre Street." She lives in New York City.