The ninth hour book club questions and answers
The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott | Book Club Discussion Questions | ninciclopedia.org
Sign up for our newsletters! He abandons his pregnant wife and defies the tenets of his faith to prove that "the hours of his life How is his daughter, Sally, like him? When his grandchildren finally learn the truth about his death, what is their response? How does the work each of them chose suit their talents and personalities? How do they differ in their beliefs about God and faith, sin and human weakness? What wisdom do the old impart to the young?
Alice McDermott: The Ninth Hour
Jim, an Irish immigrant recently fired from his job as a subway motorman, takes his own life in the Brooklyn apartment he shares with his pregnant wife, Annie.
The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott review – the heartlessness and consolations of Catholicism
Last Post. How did you feel about the sequence of events leading up to Mrs. Costello's death? How soon did you realize what Sally was planning? What is 'the ninth hour' and how is it observed in the convent? Why might Alice McDermott have chosen this title?
See Featured Authors Answering Questions. To ask other readers questions about The Ninth Hour , please sign up. Answered Questions This question contains spoilers… view spoiler [What was the sin Sister Jeanne refers to at the end of the book? Does it have something to do with her knowing Sally was prepared to kill Mrs Costello? Carol This answer contains spoilers… view spoiler [ I don't know if it was the pieces of apple, but it was definitely my impression that something in the applesauce killed her, that Sister Jeanne did it …more I don't know if it was the pieces of apple, but it was definitely my impression that something in the applesauce killed her, that Sister Jeanne did it intentionally, that Sally didn't have a chance to give Mrs. Costello the alum that she had spooned up from the bottom of the tea, and that Sister Jeanne knew Sally had put something in the tea and got in between her and Mrs.
Rate this book. Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Picador. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions. It's also compulsively readable. A heartwarming memoir of motherhood and adoption told through an African American lens. Reader Reviews. Illuminating and deeply human, Today We Go Home shines a light on the brave military women of the past and present.
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While still in my wheelhouse of historical fiction, this is a a far cry from a WWII novel. More and more family legacy stories have made their way onto my reading list lately! The madness with which suffering was dispersed in the world defied logic. There was nothing else like it for unevenness. The repercussions of this act ripple into generations to come, beginning with his wife, Annie, and unborn daughter, Sally.
I t seems daring, in this day and age, to fill a novel with Catholic nuns. The Ninth Hour opens with a suicide. Jim, a young railway employee fired from his job, turns on the gas in the tenement he shares with his pregnant wife, Annie. This being Irish Catholic Brooklyn in the early 20th century, the nuns are not slow to appear. Catholicism, as rendered by McDermott, can be a cold, hard place, but within its world there are individuals of clear-sightedness and compassion. The author upends our expectations by not turning Annie into an arid, joyless widow. Sally, having grown up among nuns, imagines she has a vocation.
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