Discussion Questions for Ruby Red Heart in a Cold Blue Sea
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But...and this would not bother ANYONE but someone who grew up in Maine---there is no big ball bowling almost anyplace in Maine---only candlepin! It's like the bowling references are an inside joke---they very well might be!
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On the other hand, [umm, spoiler alert, I guess? Can it be a spoiler when I'm warning you that something doesn't happen, even though you may have been w
I have mixed feelings about this one. It has a lot going for it. It's about a teenage girl struggling with tough circumstances in an everyody-knows-everybody small town, and what I like best about the story is how the main character manages to get so lost in such a tiny place. It's extremely readable, and the characters are vivid and convincing.On the other hand, [umm, spoiler alert, I guess? Can it be a spoiler when I'm warning you that something doesn't happen, even though you may have been waiting and hoping for it to happen? Anyway...] it's a bildungsroman where the main character doesn't leave town when she grows up. It seems like she's going to -- like all her sufferings, and all the broken bonds, are going to set her free and she'll fly away. But, nope. Doesn't happen. Also, dead people start appearing to her towards the end of the book, which I found extremely hokey. And, AND, [same kind of spoiler alert] there's a big mystery in this book that never gets solved, which would be fine, if I didn't think that a solution was hinted at a couple of times. So come on! If it's an unsolved mystery then fine, but don't wave it around like that or it will distract me from your actual plot.
This isn't really a review, sorry. It's more like me venting. On the whole, I guess I'd say it's uneven, just like its cover/title combo. Great cover, iffy title. Great book, iffy in places. Still probably worth reading if you like small-scale stories about young people finding their way.
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I am so glad I grabbed this one. It lived up to my expectations 10 fold.
Florine is born and raised on the harbor of Maine. Her father a fisherman, her mother a breathtaking beauty of a waitress. She enjoys her life with her grou
To say this book has been on my TBR list for a long time would be an understatement. I originally added this to Goodreads in 2013! As part of my 2021 goal, I made a pact to alternate my reading between an "old" TBR book and a new release- hoping to overcome the backlog.I am so glad I grabbed this one. It lived up to my expectations 10 fold.
Florine is born and raised on the harbor of Maine. Her father a fisherman, her mother a breathtaking beauty of a waitress. She enjoys her life with her group of friends, causing a ruckus when the wealthy summer tourists come to enjoy the fresh seafood and seaside views. She lives within a stones throw of her beloved grandmother who teaches her to bake loaves of bread for the local market and knit sweaters for the ever waiting list of purchasers.
Until one day, her mother disappears and life will never be the same.
Florine had so much heart it was almost obsessive with the quickness that I finished this audiobook. I couldn't quit thinking about her, her father, and the community that surrounded their family. I have always been a sucker for any book that has to do with Maine or the new England area. This one goes up there as a favorite with descriptions of the seafood, the fishermen, the small clapboard houses overlooking the surf.
Imagine my delight when I realized this book has a SEQUEL! Excuse me while I go dive back into the rough waves of the Maine coast with Florine and her friends.
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The premise of this book is interesting in that Florine, who is very close to her mother Carlie, finds it difficult to cope after she disappears from Florine's life, leaving no trace of what happened. Florine and her father don't know if she is dead or just gone off somewhere. Florine's grief is an intrinsic presence in the novel.
The sense of place is beautifully evoked. Some of the writing and the imagery in this novel is parti I debated between 2 and 3 stars for this book.Probably 2 and a half.
The premise of this book is interesting in that Florine, who is very close to her mother Carlie, finds it difficult to cope after she disappears from Florine's life, leaving no trace of what happened. Florine and her father don't know if she is dead or just gone off somewhere. Florine's grief is an intrinsic presence in the novel.
The sense of place is beautifully evoked. Some of the writing and the imagery in this novel is particularly effective and apt given the setting. I particularly liked women's voices rose and fell like gulls nagging at a fishing boat, the description of Rose with pale eyes the colour of water on sand, and the too wise for her years observation that maybe for Daddy at least, the devil was a clear, sharp liquid. These are just some examples of the imagery and prose that attracted me.
This is in sharp contrast to the brash voice of Florine who has, in the words of the novel, got a mouth on her and it makes for interesting if unsettling reading at times. Unfortunately in the publisher's blurb I read it was compared it to Fannie Flagg's Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle-Stop Cafe, which to my mind does this book a disservice, as Red Ruby Heart in a Cold Blue Sea does not have the same homespun warmth and gentle humour as that has.
The picture of a young girl's grief for her mother is beautifully portrayed and yet vaguely unsatisfying. In the end the author seems to imply that everyone should excuse Florine's behaviour because she lost her mother when young and had a hard life. Is that an excuse? Perhaps. But as she grew older, I found I became bored with the attitude of self pity and cared even less about Florine as she used her mother's disappearance and her grief as an excuse to further her selfish behaviour.
This is a debut novel for Morgan Callan Rogers, so it will be interesting to see what she comes up with next.
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This is a coming to age story which starts at the age 11 a
The story is set in the 60's.Florine is growing up in a little village at the coast of Maine. Her dad is a fisherman, her mom a waitress and she lives a happy life with her friends Dotty, Bud, Glen and of course her grandmother to whom she is very close. At age 11 her mom doesn't come back from a vacation trip with her best friend. Nobody knows what happens, did she run away, was it a crime? Florines world is shattered but life goes on...This is a coming to age story which starts at the age 11 and ends when she is about 17/18. First of all I had the complete wrong expectations about this book which was partly due to wrong advertisement I have seen in a bookstore. While I knew there was a sad part to the story overall I expected a funny light read but its far from that. Instead it talks about loss and about the deep grieves and sorrow that comes with it. The loss of her mother its not something that happened and a few chapters later its all forgotten instead it goes like a red string through most of the book.
Florine is probably not the most likeable main character in a book, honestly I was more drawn to her friend Dotty for the first half of the book but the same time it made her more realistic and in a way I could understand why she acted the way she did sometimes....
The first half of the book is a little bit slow and there were also parts where I thought that they seemed much older as how they have been described (when the whole dating thing starts...). In the second part the pace is starting to pick up and I read through that in no time. When I started reading it I thought about two stars for a rating and finally ended up with 4. Overall there was something very captivating about this story. One of these books that are still in your head after you have closed the last page also one of these books where you feel like you are in the middle of it and not on the outside. While the story is very sad, the book is not dark and there is also something positive about it. It feels a little bit like it was written to help people with their grieve.
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To the teachers out there: This novel can be read in school very well as it offers lots of possible tasks and discussion topics, as well as a general broadening of the students' horizon. Tasks can focus on the text itself but also use the text as a trigger for further discussion and student production, and I think that a lot of students will enjoy this novel. Learners of English should have an advanced level of language proficiency, B1+ or B2 CEFR.
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The way Florine handled her life struggles seemed very close to reality.
Loved it.
Growing up for most young girls is hard enough, but for Florine Gilham, the story's young protagonist, it is even more painful. The summer she was 12, her mother, Carlie, who worked as a waitress, disappeared during her annual trip with a friend to Crow's Nest Harbor. The lives of Florine, her fa
Red Ruby Heart in a Cold Blue Sea, is a coming of age, debut novel which takes place in a small sea-side town in Maine, in the 1960s. It's a place where most of the year round residents know each other.Growing up for most young girls is hard enough, but for Florine Gilham, the story's young protagonist, it is even more painful. The summer she was 12, her mother, Carlie, who worked as a waitress, disappeared during her annual trip with a friend to Crow's Nest Harbor. The lives of Florine, her father Leeman, a lobster-man are changed forever, and although Leeman's mother Grand, is wonderful, trying to fill the void however she can, there are just some aspects of mothering that leave her feeling helpless. You just can't replace the mother a child adored. One day when Florine is desperate to get her mother back, she throws Grand's favorite possession, a "Red Ruby Heart Necklace" into the sea, pleading for her mother to come back.
Red Ruby Heart in a Cold Blue Sea is a touching coming of age story. It's sad to see a child mourning the loss of a parent, and as a reader, I was anxious to see her come around and see a bit of sunshine, once again in her life. The novel features several great small town characters, like Stella, Leeman's former girlfriend, who add new interest to the story. The author does a great job of painting, what seems to be, an accurate picture of what life was like in the summer of the 1960s in one small Maine, resort-town.
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I can honestly say, I could not stop reading this book. It's a coming-of-age novel from the perspective of a young girl named Florine who grew up on the coast of Maine (presumably around the Bath/Midcoast area). She mentions traveling up Route 1 through Wiscasset and Camden and Rockland and the author herself grew up in Bat
It's taken me a few days to write this review, because I'm trying to separate my own personal story and how closely I can relate to it from the actual quality of the writing.I can honestly say, I could not stop reading this book. It's a coming-of-age novel from the perspective of a young girl named Florine who grew up on the coast of Maine (presumably around the Bath/Midcoast area). She mentions traveling up Route 1 through Wiscasset and Camden and Rockland and the author herself grew up in Bath, which is why I find this story so deeply relatable.
This book has mystery, anger, humor, romance, pain, and understanding. It unfolded in beautiful ways, yet I found a few strands of the story unclear, or perhaps underdeveloped. I wondered about the character, Patty, and what happened to her.
All in all, one of the best books I've read in a very long time. I would especially recommend this to anyone who grew up in the Midcoast area.
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OTOH, I had no trouble with the young girl in LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE, so maybe it's the author's delivery.
Back to the Panama Canal. (Also reading Path Between the Seas.)
While this had some pretty good reviews, I was listening to it and the juvenile voice of the female narrator -- probably not really a child, but trying to sound like one -- and the early going was too juvenile for me. I guess I'm pretty weary of coming-of-age novels.OTOH, I had no trouble with the young girl in LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE, so maybe it's the author's delivery.
Back to the Panama Canal. (Also reading Path Between the Seas.)
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The first of a series. "Read" this in two sittings. A coming of age story, I figured that out all by myself! A light read about teenaged Florine whose mother goes on a trip and never returns. Her father and she are soon at odds, so she moves in with her grandmother. Probably not a book I would have chosen for myself, but it kept me entertained.
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Morgan, thanks so much for letting me ask you these questions!
Jaime Boler: When did you begin writing Red Ruby Heart in a Cold Blue Sea?
Morgan Callan Rogers: I began the book seven years ago, in 2004. It was originally a short story that turned into a novella. Actually, it's 'backstory'. The original short story involved an adult Florine who was having a conflict with someone in her life. Someone asked me what the source of the conflict was, and I began to write an explanation. Red Ruby Heart in a Cold Blue Sea is the 'explanation'.
JB: What was your inspiration for this novel and for Florine?
MCR: Ooh – this is such a fun question and I love answering it. So – it's important to pay attention to all sorts of flotsam and jetsam – the weirdnesses that happen in our every day lives. Sometimes, they turn into novels, or pieces of art, or music, and so on. Okay – so the inspiration for this novel came from a letter to the editor in a community newspaper. The writer of the letter wrote as she would speak – in a perfect Maine dialect. The subject of the letter: lawn ornaments that had been stolen from her neighbors. The writer was incensed about the theft and wrote about how special the ornaments had been, and what they meant to her neighbors. I was in the middle of my Masters in Fine Arts degree in creative writing at the time, so I decided to write a story from the point of view of the 'neighbor', who turned out to be Florine. I named her right off, and she opened her mouth, and her story tumbled out.
JB: You have been compared to both Fannie Flagg and Elizabeth Strout. How does it feel to hear your name alongside these talented writers?
MCR: Humbling. Elizabeth Strout's book, Olive Kittredge, is an amazing piece of literature. And Fannie Flagg is brilliant and funny. So, yes, humbling.
JB: Why was the novel published first in Germany in 2010? Could you not find a US publisher at the time?
MCR: My agent was shopping the novel around the U.S. While she was doing that, a foreign 'scout' came into the agency and saw the manuscript, thought it might be a good fit for a small, but awesome German publishing company that just happened to specialize in coastal communities and on the sea. And they loved it, and I had the amazing privilege of working with them for a year before it was sold to Viking. And Viking – I mean Viking. Look at the list of authors that have been published there! Again, humbling. By the way, I have an awesome agent – just had to say that.
JB: Red Ruby Heart in a Cold Blue Sea is set in Maine, where you grew up. How difficult was it to capture the state's beauty and its people on the page?
MCR: It was a labor of love, and a love letter to the people I grew up with and the gorgeous, tough and tender place where I was raised. It was not difficult at all. I loved writing it all down.
JB: As I was reading your book, such nostalgia struck me, both for the idyllic seaside setting and for a seemingly more innocent time. How would Florine's story be different if it were set in Maine today?
MCR: Good question. Well, everyone would have a cell phone, so her mother could be tracked. The way missing folks are located is a completely different process now. Florine would have a laptop and access to the bigger world, and probably she would whine until she got an iPhone. Coffee would be made with a French press, or Ray's store might have a Starbucks attend. Florine could download any tunes she wanted, and might be able to 'friend' her cousin, Robin, who appears briefly, but is important, none-the-less. Technology rules the earth, now. It was a more 'innocent' time, although the fear of being bombed and the threats set off by the Cold War were ever-present. When President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, then Robert Kennedy, then Martin Luther King, things changed forever.
JB: Do you have a favorite character in Red Ruby Heart in a Cold Blue Sea? If so, which one?
MCR: Well, I don't have a favorite character, but I think the one that surprised me the most, that kept showing different aspects of his personality despite the fact that he was supposedly tied to The Point and to his lobster boat, was Florine's father. He broke my heart. Also, I loved it whenever Dottie walked into a scene. I always breathed a sigh of relief when she showed up.
JB: On your website, I read that you've been a librarian, a journalist, an actress, an editor, and a teacher. Wow! What got you into writing?
MCR: I have a gigantic imagination. All of the characters and stories in my head had to go somewhere. Down on paper seemed to be the safest and clearest way to claim some sort of sanity. All of the things you've listed above played an important part in writing these books. Librarian = access to all kinds of books; Journalist = research, organization, wide-spread interest in all sorts of things; Editor = Clarity and the ability to cut my precious jewels without crying too much; and Teacher = Confidence and knowledge of character.
JB: What is your writing process like? Can you describe a typical day of writing for you?
MCR: I write in the mornings – from about 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., after I take the dog for a walk, clean the house, brew some tea, and so on. I can write for about four hours. Sometimes I'll work at night for a little while, but morning seems best for me. I take Sundays off.
JB: Will you go on a book tour? If so, which cities will you visit? (Please come to the South!).
MCR: So far, I'm 'touring' in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. If the novel does really well, maybe I can expand that territory. I would LOVE to come to the South!
JB: What do you like to do when you are not writing?
MCR: When I can, I sing jazz and blues with a friend of mine who plays guitar. I ride horseback (not well, but I love horses). I read, I walk the dog, I see friends, I like to cook. I like to do many things – time seems to go so fast.
JB: Do you have any favorite authors? What would you say is the one book you would never part with?
MCR: I have a lot of favorite authors and I can never remember them when I am asked this question. John Irving, Ray Bradbury, Harper Lee, T.C. Boyle, Amy Hempel, Ann Tyler, Margaret Atwood, George Saunders, James Joyce, Dylan Thomas. So many… Some of the books I will never part with: A Prayer for Owen Meany, Cat's Eye, A Child's Christmas in Wales, Dandelion Wine, Morgan's Passing, Dubliners, To Kill a Mockingbird, and a little-known but amazing book called The Little Locksmith by Katharine Butler Hathaway.
JB: I read on your blog that you are working on a sequel to Red Ruby Heart in a Cold Blue Sea. Can you give fans any little sneak peeks?
MCR: Um, no. I never give sneak peaks. All will be revealed at some point down the road. :)
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Ah, well, a fan can dream…Thanks, Morgan, for a great interview!
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Instead this first time novel by a Maine native focuses on the life of Florine from the age of 12, when her mother disappears to the age of 18. Life in a small Maine coastal town is described beautifully: there is a real sense of community and love among
For me, the title of this novel seemed much more ominous than it actually was. While the jacket cover tells the reader that The narrators mother will go missing, I was very afraid that her body would be found in the depths of the sea somewhere.Instead this first time novel by a Maine native focuses on the life of Florine from the age of 12, when her mother disappears to the age of 18. Life in a small Maine coastal town is described beautifully: there is a real sense of community and love among Florines friends & family.
Over the course of the six years covered in the novel, both Florine's grandmother and father die, but the most traumatic experience is her mother's disappearance, which affected her greatly, perhaps because she was still so young when her mother disappeared. There is a happy ending, however.
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Loved this book from the first page to the last!👍🏻
I've had my moments. I ro
For marketing purposes, one of my publicists asked me to think about why I stand out. That's a hard question to answer during fractured times filled with bombastic narcissists shouting LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! It's almost better to NOT stand out. So maybe the question is, what is anti-special about me? You're only cool when you don't worry about being cool. It's a Catch-22.I've had my moments. I rode a three-speed bicycle across England during a very rainy summer. When I read Wild by Cheryl Strayed, I related to her excitement (high) versus preparedness ratio (low). I was an actress for twenty years, appearing in everything from Skin or Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder to Under Milkwood by Dylan Thomas. I have an awesome voice, discovered when I was about forty. I've held a number of jobs, from service-type positions to professional stints as a journalist and editor. I've traveled back and forth across country a number of times between South Dakota and Maine. Anything you want to ask about Routes 80/90? I have the answer.
I've spent a lot of time in my head, living in worlds parallel to this one. So, what DOES makes me special? My imagination, which I almost forsook for health insurance and mortgage payments. These things are both necessary, but neither is fodder for the soul. My imagination rescued me by speaking loud and clear to me on an ordinary afternoon several years ago. The small but intense voice in my head whispered, "Excuse me. I have something to say. You can use this gift and live as you were meant to live, or you can merely exist in a place where you've never quite fit." So, I began to honor those characters in my head. I listened to what they had to say and I brought them into being.
What makes me special? I was given the gift of creating worlds, and I am honoring the privilege of doing that. I am a lucky woman.
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