Where the God of Love Hangs Out: Fiction (26 page)

8. Many of the most important scenes in these stories happen around the dinner table as the characters share a meal or a drink. What role does food play in each of the stories? How do we understand William and Clare sharing nectarines in “The Old Impossible”? Or Lionel teaching Buster to eat a peach in “Fort Useless and Fort Ridiculous”? How does the family Thanksgiving tradition evolve over the Lionel and Julia stories, and what does this reveal about the family?

9. What are some of the secrets kept in these stories? How do secrets affect love? How do they define the love relationships?

10. In the story “Where the God of Love Hangs Out,” Ray and Ellie remind each other that they vowed to love each other “for better or for worse.” Do you agree that love must be able to contain both? What were some of the “for betters” in these stories? What were some of the “for worses”?

11. In Bloom’s stories, it is the small acts of everyday love and intimacy that mean the most between two people. What are some examples from this collection?

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THE RANDOM HOUSE
PUBLISHING GROUP

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A
MY
B
LOOM
is the author of
Away
, a novel, and two collections of prizewinning stories:
Come to Me
and
A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You
. She teaches creative writing at Yale University, where she is a fellow of Calhoun College.

Amy Bloom is available for select readings and lectures. To inquire about a possible appearance, please visit
www.rhspeakers.com
call 212-572-2013.

Where the God of Love Hangs Out
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2010 by Amy Bloom

Reading group guide copyright © 2011 by Random House, Inc.

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Random House, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

R
ANDOM
H
OUSE
and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Random House Reader’s Circle and Design is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc.

Some of the stories in this work originally appeared in the following: “Compassion and Mercy” in
Granta
, Summer, 2009; “By-And-By” in
Ms.
, Summer, 2004; “Between Here and Here” in
Narrative
, December, 2009; “Your Borders, Your Rivers, Your Tiny Villages” in
Ploughshares
, Fall, 2002; “The Old Impossible” in
Ploughshares
, Fall, 2006; “I Love to See You Coming, I Hate to See You Go” in
Tin House
, Spring, 2004; and “Permafrost” in
Yale Review
, January, 2010.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material:

HarperCollins Publishers and Pan Macmillan, London:
“Sleepwalking” from
Come to Me
by Amy Bloom, copyright © 1993 by Amy Bloom. Rights in the United Kingdom are controlled by Pan Macmillan, London. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers and Pan Macmillan, London.

Jane Hirshfield:
“When Your Life Looks Back” and “Opening the Hands Between Here and Here” by Jane Hirshfield, copyright © 2008 by Jane Hirshfield. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of the author.

Random House, Inc., and Pan Macmillan, London:
“Night Vision” and “Light into Dark” from
A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You
by Amy Bloom, copyright © 2000 by Amy Bloom. Rights in the United Kingdom are controlled by Pan Macmillan, London. Reprinted by permission of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bloom, Amy Where the god of love hangs out: fiction / Amy Bloom.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-1-58836-987-1
I. Title.
PS3552.L6378W47 2009
813′.54—dc22    2009023722

www.atrandom.com

Cover painting: Sherrie Wolf,
Red and Yellow Cherries After Constable
(Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, Oregon)

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