Questions to Ponder about The Husband's Secret, by Liane Moriarty

From Joyce: I am not going to ask anyone to read any extra reading but be sure you read the epilogue. 

1.       What do you think about the way Moriarty tells her story? Characters are introduced and then bit-by-bit their lives intersect and even enmesh.

a.       Did you feel there was a satisfactory resolution to the issues people were dealing with before you read the epilogue? ….after you read the epilogue?

b.       We also read “Big Little Lies” by this author. Did you see any similarities or differences in her storytelling?

c.       Most of the characters spend a good deal of time remembering things from the past. Does perseveration over “what If” or mistakes you have made make them better or worse over time?

 

2.       I thought the emotional turmoil of the characters was the most interesting part of this book, so I would like to organize our discussion around what these emotions were and how they were managed by the characters:

a.       The big one was GUILT – the cause of the guilt and how the characters dealt with it

·         John Paul has lived his adult life with the guilt that he lost his temper and strangled Janie. Is there any reason he shouldn’t have felt guilty? (Of course he didn’t know about her Marfan Syndrome condition). How has he handled his guilt in all the years that followed? What was his “penance”? Why did he feel the need to confess in a letter to be read after his death? What good would that have done?

·         Cecelia lives with the guilt of opening the letter even though John Paul asked her not to. Cecelia says it is her nature to “try to make things right”. For who? Her, John Paul, or Rachel?

·         Will and Felicity told Tess that they are in love, although they had not been intimate. Would it have been better or worse if they had been? Why did they tell her at this point? Did one of them feel more guilty than the other and, if so, why?

·         Tess had sex with Connor Whitby and enjoyed it. Did she feel guilty or justified? Remember the motorcycle ride.

·         Rachel was late picking up Janie for her doctor’s appointment. She had a lot of hate and suspicion for Connor, but did she have guilt for her own lapse? Should she have (why or why not)?

b.       Anger and revenge

·         Rachel is one angry lady. She is angry at Connor for (she thinks) killing her daughter. She is angry with the police for not acting on the video of Connor and Janie. She is angry at her son and daughter-in-law for moving to NY. In trying to get her revenge, does she find any relief?

·         Tess is very angry at Will and Felicity. What was the source of her anger? Does her tryst with Connor even up the score? Does that make it better or worse? Eventually Felicity tells Tess she doesn’t want Will (actually he doesn’t want her). Can Tess and Will’s relationship be saved? What do you think will be the cost?

·         Can Felicity and Tess’ relationship be saved?

·         Why does Tess tells Felicity about her fling with Connor?

c.       Forgiveness

·         Has Cecelia forgiven her husband or is she just going to accept what he did?

·         Can Tess forgive her husband and Felicity? Will she? Does her fling with Connor even the score?

d.      Regret

·         Does Cecelia regret that she can’t make everything right for everybody?

·         Does John Paul regret writing that letter in the first place? Why did he (especially if he didn’t expect that anyone would see it until after he was dead)?

·         Does Cecelia regret telling John Paul that she found it, or that she opened it?

·         In the hospital Rachel confesses to Cecelia that she hit Polly because she was trying to kill Connor because he killed Janie. Cecelia tells her that she has been wrong all these years because John Paul killed Janie. Is this betrayal of her husband’s secret justified?

·         Tess and Connor had a relationship while they were teens. At any point does she regret choosing John Paul over Connor?

·         Does Rachel regret staying late at an interview so she could flirt with Toby Murphy because that’s what made her late picking up Janie for her doctor’s appointment.

e.       Suspicion

·         How does Cecelia’s knowledge of her husband’s secret color how she sees other things he does?

·         If Tess had been suspicious of Will and Felicity, how would it have changed things?

General discussion:

·         At one point (p. 194), Cecelia wonders “can one act define a person”? Discuss.

·         Does everyone in the book have a secret they are hiding? Do we all have secrets all the time and what is the cost?

·         Is revenge, in fact, sweet? Is it best served cold?