Week Eight: The Book of Love
JULY 31, 2024 • CAMP TOB WEEK EIGHT
The Book of Love
second half discussion
Welcome to post-viral week at Camp ToB 2024! You should probably remain in your cabins for the duration of this summer’s festivities.
Our midsummer vibe of “magic is all around us” continues with our discussion of the second half of The Book of Love by Kelly Link, and returning this week to take us through the end of the book is the Commentariat’s C Pruett (she/her), whose discussion questions are below.
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Late one night, Laura, Daniel, and Mo find themselves beneath the fluorescent lights of a high school classroom one year after disappearing from their hometown, the small seaside community of Lovesend, Mass., having long been presumed dead. Which, in fact, they are. In the room with them is their previously unremarkable high school music teacher, who seems to know something about their disappearance—and what has brought them back again. Desperate to reclaim their lives, the three agree to the terms of a bargain their teacher proposes. They will be given a series of magical tasks; while they undertake them, they may return to their families and friends, but they can tell no one where they’ve been. In the end, there will be winners and there will be losers.
This has been excerpted from the publisher’s summary and edited for length.
1.
Although it’s an epic-length story with seemingly cosmic implications, The Book of Love takes place almost entirely in one small town. What aspects of the setting were most interesting to you, and how did the portrayal of this place affect your overall experience of the book?
2.
Magic appears in The Book of Love in the form of cosmic-level lore and world-building (centuries-long intrigue among immortal beings and gods with a taste for human flesh), and also in the form of specific images and set pieces (animal transformations, precision tsunamis, statues coming to life)? How effective did you find the magic overall, and what concepts or moments stood out to you?
3.
Which characters or relationships were most interesting to you?
4.
Circling back to questions from the first half—the book sets up a tension between work (labor/art) and love (affection/attraction)? How well do you think the ending resolves this question and what does it ultimately have to say about love?