Nora Webster (Toibin)

Discussion Questions
1. The novel opens with Nora discussing her intrusive visitors with her neighbor Tom O’Connor (p. 1). How does this set the tone for Nora Webster? What is your first impression of Nora?

2. What motivates Nora to sell the house in Cush? Is she just taking advantage of Jack Lacey’s offer (p. 6), or is it more emotional? Should she have consulted the children?

3. When Nora visits Josie to discuss Donal and Conor, Josie asks Nora, "Did you think they would come home unchanged?" (p. 54) What did Nora expect? Was it realistic? Is Josie being fair when she points out that Nora never called or visited the boys?

4. For her memory card for Maurice, Nora chooses "Too young to die, they say. Too young? No, rather he is blessed in being so young thus to be made swiftly an immortal. He has escaped the tremulous hands of age" (p. 57). Why do Jim and Margaret dislike it? Why does Nora insist on it?

5. When Nora gets her "fashionable cut" from Bernie, her enthusiasm turns to dismay, and she thinks that "anyone who saw her on the way home would think that she had lost her mind" (p. 63). Why does Nora react this way? Sometimes she seems to worry about what others think. Sometimes she is defiant. Where else does she second-guess her choices?

6. When Nora meets with William and Peggy Gibney to discuss working for them, she thinks of how Peggy and Francie Kavanaugh’s lives have changed since Nora first worked at Gibney’s. Is Nora comparing herself to them? Do either of them have anything that Nora wants?

7. On a beach trip with her sons (p. 129), Nora wonders about having never thought about whether the boys are happy or not. "Being with Donal sometimes made her afraid, but being with Conor could make her even more afraid, afraid for his innocence, his sweet loyalty, his open need to be taken care of." Why does Nora feel this way?

8. After Francie cuts up Nora’s folders and Nora storms out of Gibney’s (p. 146), unsure if she’ll return, why does she go to the sea at Keatings’ (p. 149)? What effect does Sister Thomas have on Nora?

9. When Nora decides to join the union meeting, she reflects, "Perhaps it was not wise. . . . But it pleased her to be grateful to no one" (p. 176). Where does this need to be unbeholden come from?

10. Why does Donal become so engrossed in photography? Nora thinks he wouldn’t have if Maurice had lived (p. 221). How are his camera and Margaret’s gift of a darkroom a reaction to his father’s death?

11. Laurie tells Nora, "You kept [your singing] to yourself. You saved it up" (p. 242). Is Laurie right? Why would Nora do that?

12. Why is Nora’s record player so dear to her (p. 280)? Consider the passages on pages 282 and 314–15. What does the woman of the Archduke Trio group come to mean to Nora?

13. What is it about Josie that allows Nora to turn to her after she struggles with her pain and insomnia (p. 358)? Is it the same thing that caused her to send the boys to Josie when Maurice was dying? What are the differences and similarities between these two episodes?

14. Throughout the story, family members make plans and keep secrets from Nora—about Una’s engagement (p. 155), Donal’s darkroom (p. 169), Josie’s offer of a trip to Spain (p. 261), Fiona’s worry that Nora is too interested in Paul Whitney (pp. 289–94), and Donal’s decision to go to boarding school (p. 298). Why do they do this?

15. When the British Embassy in Dublin is burned, are they right to panic over Aine? Is Nora correct that they all have a "lingering unease" that can be triggered by any crisis (p. 326)?

16. Does Maurice really appear to Nora or is it a dream (pp. 356–57)? What does it mean?

17. Why does Nora finally burn Maurice’s letters and let her sisters take his clothes away (p. 372)?

18. Nora thinks that no one notices her, but we see Mick Sinnott invite her to the union meeting (p. 174), Phyllis take her to the quiz (p. 192), Laurie give her voice lessons (p.236), and Dan Bolger help her fix up her house (p. 333). Phyllis tells her, "After all you’ve been through, everyone thinks you are.... Well, dignified" (p. 254). Is Phyllis right? Why doesn’t Nora see this?

19. Nora Webster is bold and independent, fierce and sympathetic at the same time. Does she remind you of other literary heroines? Which ones, and how so?
- See more at Simon & Schuster.

(Questions courtesy of publisher.)

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