- Shopping Bag ( 0 items )
Other sellers (Hardcover)
-
All (4) from $1.99
-
Used (4) from $1.99
Ships from: Mishawaka, IN
Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Ships from: Chatham, NJ
Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Ships from: Chatham, NJ
Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Ships from: Chatham, NJ
Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Abandoned as a baby, Rebecca has no tie to her parents other than the men's size-eleven shoebox in which she was found. Yet she grows from a child of no one and nowhere into a woman who creates her own unorthodox but tender family. First, there is Joe-a brilliant historian and loyal friend who longs for more than Rebecca can give him, but whose devotion sustains her. Adam, Joe's friend, is the man who becomes her husband. And Ruby is the daughter whom Rebecca loves with almost unbearable intensity.
Then this hopeful life is dealt a blow that could shatter the strongest ties. Rebecca flees her marriage, and Adam sinks into a life numbed by routine and isolation. In the end, it is Joe who enables them to find the way back to understanding, and offers Rebecca a history that she can call her own.
Illuminated by both sorrow and vivid joy, Mourning Ruby is ultimately about the transcendent power of storytelling itself.
Q> For much of her life, the shoebox that Rebecca was abandoned in is her only connection to her real mother. Later in life, Rebecca realizes, "I needed the story, not the object." Once Rebecca recognizes this, she tells Lucia, "The truth is that it was only possible for me to come and find you when I was no longer in search of my mother at all." Why do you think Rebecca feels that way? What is she in search of, if not her mother? Does she ever find it?
Q> Airplanes are discussed throughout the novel by several characters. In Chapter 2 Rebecca recalls the story of Mandelstam's baby airplanes: "The Russian poet Mandelstam once wrote about baby aeroplanes. He wrote about an aeroplane in full flight giving birth to another aeroplane which immediately flies off and gives birth to its own baby ..." Joe tells Rebecca that the story is a metaphor for the way things came alive in Mandelstam's head. What could the airplanes represent in Rebecca's life? What is the significance of airplanes to other characters in the novel?
Q> Why do you think Rebecca sees Ruby riding on the fire truck after her airplane makes the emergency landing?
Q> Rebecca is not the only character in the novel that experiences a sense of loss. Which other characters experience feelings similar to Rebecca? Rebecca says that it was Mr. Damiano who taught her to learn poems by heart so that during the many times that she thought she had nothing she would find that she still had the poems. Does this help Rebecca? Do Rebecca and the other characters with similar feelings overcome this loss? If so, through what means?
Q> Compare Rebecca's relationship with Joe to her relationship with Adam. What does Adam offer Rebecca that Joe does not/can not?
Q> Rebecca mentions her desire to feel safe throughout the novel. What does she want to be safe from? Does Rebecca ever feel safe?
Q> While visiting Joe in Moscow, Rebecca has an epiphany: "My whole body was flooded with happiness ... I thought that this was why we had come to Moscow, though we hadn't known it. We had come to be loosened from ourselves, to hear of griefs that were larger than our own, to be able to say those sweet words that so often stuck on our tongues." How does this change once Rebecca and Adam experience their own immense grief?
Q> Discuss the differences between how Adam and Rebecca mourn for Ruby.
Q> Though the title is MOURNING RUBY, Ruby is not the only person mourned in this book. Who or what else is mourned? How does this impact other characters?
Q> Who do you think Rebecca is speaking to at the end of the novel?
Continues...
Excerpted from Mourning Ruby by Helen Dunmore Copyright © 2004 by Helen Dunmore. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Anonymous
Posted August 30, 2008
Newborn Rebecca mother puts her in a shoebox and leaves her for someone to find. She grows up in a foster home where emotional contact and sense of family were absent. She marries a doctor, gives birth to a daughter, and lives happily until her young daughter dies after being hit by a car while riding her bicycle. All the loss she¿s experienced overtakes her and she falls into depression. Mourning Ruby is about Rebecca¿s journey to healing and recovery of self.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Over three decades may have passed, but the pivotal moment in Rebecca¿s life still haunts her. Her biological mom left her as a newborn in a shoebox in the alley behind Vittori¿s restaurant. An onion saves her from becoming rat meal. Her adoptive parents had no idea how to cope with a colic baby that did not sleep through the night; over the years they fed and dressed the kid, but were unable to show any love or affection towards the alley brat................ As an adult Rebecca rooms with historian Joe, who treats her like a younger sibling and introduces her to her future husband neonatologist Adam. They have a daughter Ruby, who makes Rebecca feel human for the first time in her life. The next five years are terrific as she and Adam shower Ruby with love. When Ruby dies in a car accident, Rebecca returns to her life of nothingness. Adam leaves her, but she meets Mr. Damiano, who hires her as his assistant while Joe tries to provide her solace with a World War I story about a single mother vowing to raise her child though it means working the brothels at the front.................. MOURNING RUBY is a poignant, but melancholy character study. The title protagonist lives an extreme roller coaster life starting with the box, followed by the loveless early years; a fine interlude with a friend and a lover; the crescendo starring Ruby; replaced by deep grief and hiding in a ¿box¿; and finally friends trying to help her move on. Helen Dunmore provides a deep look that human means grieving for loved ones but also those who love you are there for you even when you reject them...................... .
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted February 22, 2010
No text was provided for this review.
Overview
Abandoned as a baby, Rebecca has no tie to her parents other than the men's size-eleven shoebox in which she was found. Yet she grows from a child of no one and nowhere into a woman who creates her own unorthodox but tender family. First, there is Joe-a brilliant historian and loyal friend who longs for more than Rebecca can give him, but whose devotion sustains her. Adam, Joe's friend, is the man who becomes her husband. And Ruby is the daughter whom Rebecca loves with almost ...