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When Lolly summons home her nieces, Isabel and June – one recovering from a broken heart, the other struggling to bring up her young son singlehandedly – they assume she’s going to sell The 3 Cs, the place they called home after they lost their parents in a car accident. But the truth is much more heartbreaking than that. Along with Lolly’s daughter Kat – also at a crossroads in her life – the women spend their first summer together in years and home truths and long-buried secrets begin to emerge. Then movie buff Lolly invites her three offspring to attend her legendary movie nights and what at first seems like a few hours of distraction from their tumultuous lives becomes so much more. What they discover shakes them to the core, brings them together after years of discord, and provides them with the inspiration that they need to truly connect with each other and find happiness.
This reading group guide for The Meryl Streep Movie Club includes an introduction, discussion questions, ideas for enhancing your book club, and a Q&A with author Mia March. The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book.
Introduction
Three estranged women—two sisters and the cousin they grew up with after a haunting tragedy—find unexpected happiness in the most unexpected way: by watching Meryl Streep movies together. It is only when the three are summoned to their family matriarch’s inn on the coast of Maine for an important announcement that they are able to reconnect through surprising and heartfelt discussions of movies such as Out of Africa and Mamma Mia! and discover who they really are and what they truly want.
With warmth, depth, and candor, Mia March skillfully opens the lives of these three very different women, each coping with their own challenges and secrets.
Topics & Questions for Discussion
1. Consider the novel’s epigraph, which is one of Meryl Streep’s lines from the film Out of Africa: “Perhaps he knew, as I did not, that the Earth was made round so that we would not see too far down the road.” What does this quote mean to you? How does it relate to the novel?
2. The Meryl Streep Movie Club brings together a collection of unique characters. Was there one character with whom you most identified? Discuss your favorite characters and why you felt drawn to each.
3. Isabel wants to use a “magic” ravioli recipe to help reignite a spark between herself and her husband, Edward. Do you have a special dish, place, song, or something that you think of as “magic” for you and someone you love?
4. In the prologue, readers indirectly learn that something devastating happened to Lolly’s husband and Isabel and June’s parents on New Year’s Eve. However, the specifics are not directly revealed until later in the novel. How did this intensify the revelation of what happened that New Year’s Eve? Did you find this technique effective? Why or why not?
5. At the beginning of the novel, June, Isabel, Kat, and Lolly are all leading separate lives. What ultimately must happen for them to unite? What do they each have to let go of in order to reconnect with each other?
6. “And then one day, Edward said, you realize right in the middle of whatever you’re doing that you’re not thinking about it, and it gets better from there, becoming a piece of you instead of everything you are” (p. 11). Do you agree with this description of grief? Discuss the ways in which recovery from loss connects various characters in the novel.
7. “All that was left of John Smith was a face she’d never forget, a face she saw in Charlie’s every day” (p. 29). Do you think it is possible to fall in love at first sight? Why or why not? Discuss June’s character. How does her encounter with Charlie’s father both haunt and enhance her life?
8. Isabel, June, Kat, Lolly, and even many of the minor characters hold heartache at the center of their lives—death, affairs, divorce, guilt, dropping out of college, being afraid to love. Do these difficulties make you care about or relate to the characters in a deep way? How do you think the context of the story determines your expectations and opinions of the characters?
9. “The feel of flour sifting through her fingers, of dough, warm and pliant and sweet-smelling in her hands, of chocolate chips and fruit, always lifted her heart in the way movies did for her aunt. The way playing with Happy did for Isabel. And the way June looked when her son sat on her lap at meals, unable to get close enough to her” (p. 139). Do you have a hobby or favorite activity? Is there something that brings you as much peace as baking does for Kat? What do you think each characters’ favorite activity says about them?
10. June’s son, Charlie, does not know his father. He becomes more aware of not having a father, grandparents, or family on his father’s side when he is given a school assignment to complete his family tree and much of it is left empty. Did you agree with June’s decision to seek out the man she only knew for two days and never saw again? Discuss why you think this may have been a good or bad decision.
11. Isabel and June’s stories open the novel, and readers don’t hear Kat’s story until chapter three. Why do you think the author chose to introduce the sisters first? Would you have felt differently about them if we’d been invited to the inn first, to get to know Kat and Lolly before the sisters? Discuss your thoughts.
12. Lolly makes her big announcement on page 50 and shocks her daughter and two nieces. Did her news come as a surprise to you? What did the author do to set up this announcement and make it so dramatic?
13. How does the movie The Bridges of Madison County mirror the lives of the characters in the novel? Can watching a fictional account of something familiar be helpful? Can it be harmful? Compare and contrast the movie’s themes, events, and characters with those of The Meryl Streep Movie Club.
14. Which do you think was more difficult and shocking to Isabel: Edward’s betrayal or Lolly’s news that she is dying of cancer? Which do you think would be more difficult to deal with?
15. Lolly and the girls find deep meaning even in comedies and musicals, such as when Lolly points out that she and Kat were in the same situation as the mother and daughter in Mamma Mia!—only their roles were switched. Identify and talk about other examples from the book in which a comedy or lighter film leads to a discussion of a serious topic.
16. Which Meryl Streep film described in the novel do you most identify with? Why? Are there any other Meryl Streep movies not included in the narrative that you think Lolly and the rest of the “club” would have enjoyed?
17. How did reading her mother’s letters impact Isabel?
18. There is a moment toward the end of the book when Edward visits the inn and lets Isabel know that he still loves her, even though he wants to marry someone else. What does Isabel realize about her feelings toward Edward in this scene? What does she realize about herself? How might the scene have played out differently?
19. Lolly, Isabel, June, Kat, Pearl, and other guests meet regularly to watch their favorite Meryl Streep films and then discuss them. How is their club similar to your own book club experience? How does it differ?
20. Kat has always lived at the inn and fears being trapped there. Isabel, in contrast, always wanted to get away from the inn as a child and now wants nothing more than to stay. Are there any examples in your own life where you wanted to get away from a place, person, or situation only to discover later that you wanted it back? Which of the new “three captains” do you envision remaining at the inn and following in Lolly’s footsteps?
Enhance Your Book Club
1. At the beginning of The Meryl Streep Movie Club, there is a list of ten Meryl Streep movies, all of which are viewed by the characters in the novel. Select one to watch with your book club members. Do you find you can relate to some of the movie scenes and characters the way the women in the book did? Discuss the movie you watched with the group. Did watching the movies help to deepen the discussion of the book?
2. The author writes, “A Meryl Streep movie was as good as chicken soup, a best friend, a therapist, and a stiff drink” (p. 56). Do you have a favorite comfort—be it a movie, actor, book, writer, album, song, television show, or artist? Share your response with the group.
3. Isabel and June’s mother kept copies of letters she sent to her daughters. Fifteen years after her death, they have the chance to read those letters. As adults, they revisit what their mother thought through her words—not just what they thought she thought. If you don’t do so already, try keeping a journal. Start off with recording your thoughts and activities for a week and see if a habit forms! You may decide to continue writing in it regularly.
4. The Three Captains’ Inn is a safe haven for the characters of the book. It is also a place where they reconnect in deeper and more meaningful ways than before. Consider getting away to an inn, bed and breakfast, or another retreat with your discussion group, friends, or loved ones with whom you’d like to reconnect.
