After I Do (27 page)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book is dedicated to my mother, Mindy, and my brother, Jake, because I would not be able to write about family without them. Thank you both for being so supportive and encouraging. The same goes for Linda Morris, an extraordinarily exceptional grandmother. And much thanks to the rest of the Jenkins and Morris families.

Thank you to the Reid and Hanes families, including but certainly not limited to the Encino clan of Rose, Warren, Sally, Bernie, Niko, and Zach. Words cannot express my gratitude for your unyielding and sincere support. I could not have married into a more loving family.

I am lucky enough to have far too many supportive friends to name and that alone makes me immensely grateful every day of my life. In addition to the wonderful friends I thanked in my first book, special attention must go to the early readers of this one: Erin Fricker, Colin Rodger, Andy Bauch, Julia Furlan, and Tamara Hunter. I am also hugely thankful to Zach Fricker for answering every medical question I have with a curmudgeonly zeal.

Carly Watters, my cheerleader and first line of defense, I’d be a starving artist without you. You also consistently prove that Canadians are the nicest people in the world.

Greer Hendricks, you make every book infinitely better in ways both big and small. Your expertise and intuition are invaluable. Sarah Cantin, you make being a professional writer feel easy. To the copy editors, cover designers, and publicity team at Atria, thank you. Atria feels like family I only see on the Internet.

I’ve been blessed with fellow authors who have shared their audience and time with me: Sarah Pekkanen, Amy Hatvany, Sarah Jio, Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, and many more. Thank you all so much. I feel so lucky to be the recipient of your kindness and support.

To the woman who opened up her heart to me and confided the story of her own beautiful and fragile marriage, I cannot thank you enough for your time and trust.

Special thanks go to my pit bull, Rabbit Reid, for being the apple of my eye. Rabbit, you can’t read and you don’t speak English, but I think you know how important you are to my every day. I also owe a great deal of thanks to Owl Reid, a dog so noble and good that I honestly believe I’m a better person for having known her. If anyone is thinking about getting a dog, give pit bulls a chance. There is no love quite like it.

And lastly, my husband, Alex Reid: This book is as much yours as it is mine. Every sentence I write is as much yours as it is mine.

AFTER I DO

TAYLOR JENKINS REID

A Readers Club Guide

Q
UESTIONS AND
T
OPICS
FOR
D
ISCUSSION

1. Read through Lauren’s flashbacks of her and Ryan’s relationship, leading up to the night of the Dodgers game. At what point did you notice a shift in their dynamic? Discuss with the group.

2. Early in the novel, Lauren playfully says of Ryan, “
He always loved making me say the things he wanted to say.
" In what ways does this become a loaded assessment of their relationship?

3. Turn to when Lauren and her mother are discussing marriage. Lauren says that she doesn’t want to fail at her marriage, which her mother dismisses: “
If you stay married for a number of years and you have a happy time together and then you decide you don’t want to be married anymore and you choose to go be happy with someone else or doing something else, that’s not a failure.
”
Do you agree with her?

4. Even though the underlying question of the narrative is whether Lauren and Ryan’s marriage will survive, Ryan himself is not an active character for the majority of the novel, and we spend much of our time with other people in Lauren’s life. How does observing Lauren in these dynamics enhance our understanding of her? And did you have a favorite supporting character?

5. What do you think Lauren gets out of her relationship with David? Is the fact that he is separated from his wife integral to their dynamic?

6. Did
Rachel’s revelation
surprise you? Do you have any relationships like hers and Lauren’s in your life—where the similarities are so clear that the differences can be ignored, sometimes to a fault?

7. Discuss the theme of communication within the novel. To what degree do these characters struggle to express themselves, and how do they find alternative ways of doing so when straight dialogue doesn’t suffice?

8. Re-read
the conversation that Rachel and Lauren
have with their mother about romance and long-term relationships. Do you understand Ms. Spencer’s perspective that “
I don’t need a life partner . . . I want love and romance.
” Can romance be kept alive by forestalling a greater commitment, or is it “
the nature of love
,” as Lauren suggests, for relationships to “
become more about partnership and less about romance
”?

9. Discuss the role that sex plays in Lauren and Ryan’s relationship, and how it relates to
the feelings of resentment that she describes
. If romance is, in fact, destined to evolve into more of a partnership, what happens to sex in that equation? Is romance required for a mutually fulfilling sexual relationship?

10. Even though Lauren and Ryan don’t have children, the potential demise of their relationship still has collateral damage. Turn to
the conversation that Lauren has with her brother about inviting Ryan to his wedding
. Do you think Lauren has a right to an opinion here? Do you agree with her statement that “
I made him a part of this family . . . and he’s a part of this family on my terms
”?

11. Thinking about Ryan, Lauren says: “
We have spent enough years together to know how to work in sync, even when we don’t want to
.” To what extent is a long-term relationship defined by whether the other person is someone with whom you know how to endure the tough moments of life? Find examples within the novel to support your opinion.

12. Lauren gets relationship advice from a variety of people throughout the novel. Did any of it in particular resonate with you? Pick a favorite line and share why you connected to it with the group.

13. Speaking of advice: the Ask Allie column plays a large role throughout the book. Was Lauren able to take any wisdom from Allie’s old columns that perhaps a closer friend or family member couldn’t have said to her directly? What did you think of her final letter to Lauren?

14. Consider the romantic partnerships that Lauren has to look to as models: her mother and Bill, Charlie and Natalie, Mila and Christina, even her grandmother and deceased grandfather. What does she take away from each of them?

15. Discuss the portrayal of compromise in the novel, and compare how it is depicted in romantic relationships versus within family dynamics. Do you think of compromise differently when it comes to family members, as opposed to romantic partners? Why or why not?

E
NHANCE
Y
OUR
R
EADING
G
ROUP

Read Taylor Jenkins Reid’s debut novel
Forever, Interrupted
as a group. How are these love stories different? Having now read two of Reid’s novels, what can you identify as distinct qualities of her writing style?

The emails that Ryan and Lauren write each other but never send prove to be very cathartic to both of them. If you could write to someone you’ve been romantically involved with (in the past or currently), knowing that they might read it but that they couldn’t confront you about it, what would you say?

The book makes the point that “marriage” is a word that has many different definitions. Whether you are married or unmarried, what does marriage mean to you?

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given about marriage and family?

ALSO BY TAYLOR JENKINS REID

Forever, Interrupted

We hope you enjoyed reading this Atria Books eBook.

Sign up for our newsletter and receive special offers, access to bonus content, and info on the latest new releases and other great eBooks from Atria Books and Simon & Schuster.

or visit us online to sign up at
eBookNews.SimonandSchuster.com

Washington Square Press

A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10020

www.simonandschuster.com

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2014 by Taylor Jenkins Reid

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Washington Square Press Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Washington Square Press trade paperback edition July 2014

WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or
[email protected]
.

The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at
www.simonspeakers.com
.

Cover design © Connie Gabbert Design and Illustration LLC

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Reid, Taylor Jenkins.

After I do : a novel / Taylor Jenkins Reid.

pages cm

1. Marriage—Fiction. 2. Separation (Psychology)—Fiction. 3. Self-realization—Fiction. 4. Domestic fiction. 5. Psychological fiction. I. Title.

PS3618.E5478A69 2014

813’.6—dc23

2013046056

ISBN 978-1-4767-1284-0

ISBN 978-1-4767-1285-7 (ebook)