Reading Group Guide
1. In two different stories in Let Me Be the One, young women try on evening dresses belonging to other women, but their experiences are not at all similar. In "Invisible Target" Linda tries on the dress of her younger sister Lorna, a larger and louder (but also more popular) girl, whereas in, "Through the Fields of Tall Grasses, " the black satin dress that Caitlin tries to squeeze herself into belongs to the older but more petite Gloria. But could it also be argued that this second evening gown acts as an agent of redemption for Caitlin's brother?
2. In "Love Begins With Pity, " Brad Hazlitt (a teacher who courts the adulation of his young women students) seems to have set Jessie up for an afternoon of failure. But there are bright spots, including Garrison Mierbachtol, the oldest student in the class. Does Garrison come to care for Jessie because he sees her being humiliated? And when Jessie gives the students "snow assignments" and asks Garrison to write about "snow in Chekhov and snow in Detroit, " how much does Chekhov symbolize what is out of reach about her subsequent relationship with Garrison, and how much does Detroit symbolize the real world?
3. In "Two Women: The Interviews, " Hope Lonetree and Delphine are polar opposites. Is Hope Lonetree a free spirit, or a boastful egomaniac? And is Delphine a neurotic, or is she a thoughtful person who understands that sexual encounters lose their integrity when they lose a sense of what's private?
4. How much do the word games the student nurses play at the beginning of "Invisible Target" symbolize the psychological games being playedamong the women in Linda's family? And does the fact that Linda is rejected by her mother help her to be more independent? Or do you feel that the pain of exclusion will lead to psychological difficulties for her somewhere down the road?
5. In "A Mad Maze Made by God, " is Barbara being too protective toward her son? And does the mystery wedding guest (with his necktie looking as if it's been woven out of bits of bright straw) symbolize what can be dark, unpredictable, in the midst of celebration? Or is the gold of the bits of straw after all hopeful? Connie and Barbara also steep the wedding veil in a pot of hot tea (another suggestion of darkness) and yet in the wedding pictures Barbara and Bruce, ducking under the archway of crossed ski-poles, look bashfully jubilant. Should they be?
6. In "Freakish Vine That I Am, " how much do you feel that the husband, in asking to use the phone in his ex-wife's bedroom, is hoping to spy on her personal life? And are the narrator's riffs on her subsequent experience with the cashier an over-reaction, or merely the reaction, that will help her deal with a demeaning interlude?
7. In "There Goes the Groom, " Harvor uses Kris's story to play against the romantic narratives that have grown up around marriage (all the ritual and hoopla symbolized by the words here comes the bride). How much does the imagery ("whole groves of leafy trees were bridal with poison blossoms, " for instance, or "his tiepin was stuck into an expensive silk tie the dull pink of a snout") work to support this story's themes?
8. How much does the innovative form Harvor uses in "Through the Fields of Tall Grasses" support the emotional upheaval in this story's narrative? And do you feel that the story is about incest? Or do you feel that since neither kissing, sexual intercourse, nor force are used, it's rather a story about children who are using sex and marriage games to deal with the sexual feelings that arise as they approach adolescence?
