63 pages • 2 hours read
Anne TylerA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Readers learn by Chapter 7 that Serena’s relationship with James from Chapter 1 did not pan out. What lessons about James, his family, her family, and her expectations did she learn from her encounter with her cousin Nicholas at the train station and her conversation afterward with James?
Why does Mercy, who otherwise demonstrates an intuitive understanding of the motives and intentions of family members as well as strangers, seem so oblivious to 21-year-old Trent in his pursuit of her infatuated 15-year-old daughter Lily?
As the narrative progresses, Mercy looks back on the weeklong vacation to Deep Creek Lake as a positive, revelatory experience. For David, it is such a painful memory that he tells his son Nicholas he does not even recall it. Why was the same vacation such a cathartically positive event for one person and so disastrous for another? How would Lily or Alice remember the week?
Tyler makes it clear that Mercy has been planning to move her life from their three-bedroom house to the small art studio for years before David goes to college. With two extra rooms and lots of extra space in her home, why would Mercy want to settle for the tiny studio? What does the art studio represent for her? What does painting represent for her?
How is Greta different from her sisters-in-law, Alice and Lily? David usually has little to say about any topic, but when he starts to talk about Greta, he is effusive and loquacious in his praise. What does David find so appealing and distinctive about Greta? Is there any incidence of Greta speaking judgmentally, disingenuously, or manipulatively anywhere in the narrative?
How do Robin and Mercy view their marriage differently at the time of their 50th anniversary? At this point, what does each one want from the marriage? How would their children define success in a marriage?
In their brief time together in Mercy’s art studio, what do Mercy and Candle gain from their relationship? What lessons does Mercy impart to Candle about the nature of art and how she should value her own abilities?
Chapter 7 ends with Eddie feeling “overwhelmed with regret for all the time he had wasted” (214). In what way did he feel he had wasted time? Why does he believe he has underestimated his family? Why would readers feel surprised at the gracious acceptance extended toward Eddie?
Why is it ironic that David yearns for something he and his grandson Benny can work on together? Why is it ironic that David and Greta regret that Nicholas and Benny will only be with them for a short period of time? Explore the ways in which David’s life may have come to resemble Robin’s.
In a conversation with Candle, Alice comments that her mother should never have had children. Why does Alice say this? Apart from the reality that neither Alice nor Candle would have existed if Mercy never had children, were there positive, beneficial things that Mercy imparted to her children and grandchildren? How does Mercy view her own successes and failures in motherhood?
By Anne Tyler