Neverhome

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. From the opening sentence, we know that the narrator, Ash, instead of her husband, chooses to fight in the Civil War. By the end of the novel, we recognize that there may be several reasons for her choice. What do you think was her greatest motivation for leaving? What do you think Ash herself believes about her choice?

2. Did Neverhome change your understanding of the Civil War?

3. As represented in Neverhome, what is the role of women in the Civil War, and what in particular is the relationship between women and violence? What might be the larger implications of Ash’s donning a woman’s dress to evade and then kill the bandits?

4. Describe Ash’s relationships with the various women in the novel, such as Neva, Ash’s mother, and the Colonel’s wife. How are the relationships similar? How are they different? What do her interactions with each reveal about Ash?

5. Discuss the role of men in Ash’s life, both before and during the war.

6. Why does the Colonel take such a particular interest in Ash? Discuss the squirrel hunting, the battle midway through the novel with the Colonel’s kinsman, and the visit in the psychiatric hospital.

7. How does Ash feel about her husband and her marriage? Do those feelings change when she returns from the war? Are those feelings different at the end of the book?

8. The narrative alternates structurally between intensity and calm, horror and grace, reaction and reflection. How does this structure clarify your understanding of war and deepen your understanding of Ash?

9. Go back through the novel and highlight the letter-writing efforts of Ash and others. What role do letters play in the story? Most fundamentally, what function does the act of letter-writing perform for the novel’s characters?

10. What is the symbolic import of Weatherby’s greenhouse? How might his damaged grandson be connected to its construction?

11. What is Ash’s motivation for telling her story? Is Neverhome a confessional, and if so, is there more than one reason for Ash to confess? What acts, both major and minor, impel her to tell her story? Does Ash actually understand or know herself?