The Gap Year

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS


I am indebted to the Dobie-Paisano Fellowship at the University of Texas, the Johnston Foundation, and the Texas Institute of Letters for giving me the support and sanctuary I needed to finish The Gap Year. In particular, I must thank Michael Adams, the Saint Francis of writers, for allowing me to light awhile on his shoulder.

Kristine Kovach inspired me with her humor, empathy, and vast expertise as a lactation consultant. She was extraordinarily generous in allowing me to shadow her on her hospital rounds, audit her classes, and steal juicy chunks of her great material.

Thank you, Gabriel Bird-Jones, for understanding that the only child going off to college in this book isn’t you.

Tiffany Yates, super copy editor, supermodel, it was a happy day for me when you stepped into the Hyde Park Theater.

The book benefited immeasurably from the insights of early readers Kristine Kovach, Robin Chotzinoff (no relation to Dori), Carol Dawson, Caroline Zancan, Mary Helen Specht, Cora Walters, Gabriel Bird-Jones, Kathleen Orillion, Mary Lengel, Sarah Farr, Christy Krames, and mis hermanitas, Martha and Kay Bird.

Knopf is the best there is. I am grateful that Patricia Johnson and Christine Gillespie connected with the book; that Caroline Zancan kept it on schedule; that Kathleen Fridella guaranteed that all the infelicities were corrected; that Iris Weinstein created an elegant design; that Barbara de Wilde captured the book’s essence in a lyrical jacket; that Kim Thornton will help readers find it.

There would be no novel, no career, without Ann Close and Kristine Dahl, editor, agent, true friends. Ann, you always find the narrative fulcrum where even a minor shifting of the load brings it all into balance. Kris, thank you for getting me through this summer. No writer has ever been luckier.

And always, always, always to my sweet G-Men, George and Gabriel.





READING GROUP GUIDE



ABOUT THIS READING GROUP GUIDE

The questions, discussion topics, and reading list that follow are intended to enhance your reading group’s discussion of The Gap Year, the witty and resonant new novel from acclaimed author Sarah Bird.


ABOUT THE BOOK

“Alternately hilarious and heartbreaking, The Gap Year is a pitch-perfect portrayal of a mother and teenage daughter on the precipice of seismic change. Everyone is given full rein in this snappy, deliciously vicious, modern spin on growing up, growing old, and letting go. Bird’s timing is impeccable.” —Cristina García, author of National Book Award finalist Dreaming in Cuban


“The Gap Year, haunting and laugh-out-loud funny, speaks to a mother’s soul … This is a page-turner of a book for every mother who ever worried she wasn’t up to the hard parts—gracefully accepting the you-never-understood-me complaints our children make; rising above the condescension of smug, overachieving mothers; accepting our own self-doubt as we measure ourselves against impossible ideals. Cam’s dilemma will feel like your dilemma from the moment you begin reading.” —Debra Monroe, award-winning author of On the Outskirts of Normal: Forging a Family Against the Grain


From the widely praised author of The Yokota Officers Club, a keenly felt, wonderfully written novel about love that can both bind family members together and make them free, set in that precarious moment before your child leaves home for college.


Cam Lightsey, lactation consultant, is a single mom, a suburban misfit who’s given up her rebel dreams to set her only child on an upward path.


Aubrey Lightsey, a pretty, shy girl who plays clarinet in the school band, is ready to explode from wanting her “real” life to begin.


When Aubrey meets Tyler Moldenhauer, football idol of students and teachers alike, the fuse is lit. Aubrey metastasizes into Cam’s worst teen nightmare: full of secrets and silences, uninterested in college. Worse, on the sly she’s in touch with her father, who left when she was two to join Next—a celebrity-ridden cult—where he’s a headline grabber. As the novel unfolds—with emotional fireworks, humor, and edge-of-your-seat suspense—the dreams of daughter, mother, and father chart an inevitable, but perhaps not fatal, collision …


QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. How does Bird use humor to convey character? What about the characters who aren’t particularly funny?

2. On this page, Cam observes a group of mothers with their young children, “They wanted what we all want: reassurance that they had made the right choices.” Does Cam believe she has chosen wisely? Does Aubrey agree with her? How do Aubrey’s own choices reflect upon Cam’s?



3. Discuss the way Bird uses time—setting Aubrey’s story in one period and Cam’s in another. How do the two timelines play off each other?



4. Cam believes that Tyler is the reason for the friction between her and Aubrey, but how does the secret that Audrey is keeping about Martin affect her rebellion against Cam?



5. “My mother hovered and clung more than any helicopter mom that was ever invented after her. But even she couldn’t control any of the most important events in my life.” (this page) How does Cam’s distaste for her own mother’s parenting style affect her relationship with Aubrey? Why is Bobbi Mac so important, in contrast?



6. What do Aubrey’s and Cam’s notions of independence and individuality say about their decisions in life? Who seems more comfortable following her own path?



7. Discuss the notion of maternal sacrifice. How are Cam’s and Dori’s sacrifices interpreted by their daughters?



8. Why does Martin allow himself to be sucked into Next? Why doesn’t Cam do the same?



9. Throughout the novel, Cam and Aubrey make assumptions—about each other, about Tyler, about Martin. Why can’t they communicate more openly? Why have they lost each other’s trust?



10. On this page, Martin tells Cam, “For some of us, being right is so much sexier than sex.” What does he mean by this?



11. How does the revelation about Tyler’s upbringing change your perception of him? What do you think Cam’s response would be?



12. Martin tells Cam she is “a true rebel,” who always knew exactly who she was and what she wanted. (this page) How does this differ from the way Aubrey sees her? From the way Cam sees herself?



13. Discuss the ending. How does Twyla’s newborn, Aubrey, help Cam to accept her own daughter?




SUGGESTED READING: Back When We Were Grownups, by Anne Tyler; About a Boy by Nick Hornby; Imperfect Birds by Anne Lamott; Little Children by Tom Perrotta; Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse; The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.