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Reviews
of Hester Among the Ruins Include:
Reading
Group Discussion Guide:
1.
While contemplating the book she plans to write, Hester
ponders the question of objectivity between author and subject.
Indeed, is she being objective in her writing of Heinrich's
life or is her account less than reliable?
2.
What are we supposed to make of Heinrich? He is a man with
many faults, and yet he is lovable. Are we to take this
to mean that all of mankind is flawed, but still worthy
of love and forgiven his transgressions? Does Heinrich,
in this way, represent Germany?
3.
Why would a woman prefer being a mistress to being a wife?
What is it about marriage that Hester fears and disdains,
and do we believe her?
4.
Hester's parents were good people who did nothing wrong
and loved their daughter. Yet, she was ashamed of them.
What about our society fosters such feelings?
5.
Heinrich, despite being a professor of history, never made
serious inquiry as to what role his parents, especially
his mother, played in the Third Reich. How would you reconcile
the love for your mother with the knowledge that she is
perhaps guilty of crimes against humanity?
6.
Heinrich's relationship to women is complicated. He worships
them, respects them, fears them, and can rarely resist trying
to seduce them. To what can we attribute such conflicting
responses?
7.
When Hester and Heinrich take their road trip through Germany,
Hester buys postcards, which are printed in the novel for
the reader to see. Why are they there? And what of the notes
Hester takes on the Third Reich and the Middle Ages? How
do they add up and connect?
8.
By the end of the novel, Hester concludes that, although
she doesn't have sufficient evidence, she wants Heinrich's
parents to be guilty of something awful. She says she won't
stop looking until she finds proof. Why does she want that?
Why will their guilt be satisfying to her?
9.
Did Hester overreact to Heinrich's anti-Semitic comment?
Was it, as he claimed, that he simply misspoke? Or was it,
as Hester believed, that prejudice is passed on from one
generation to the next and does not vanish simply because
new laws forbid it?
10.
Given the seriousness of the subject matter, why did Kirshenbaum
decide to use humor to tell this story?
11.
Hester's relationships with women are perhaps just as peculiar
as Heinrich's. She doesn't seem to maintain close female
friends, and describes herself as a loner. What about her
personal history might account for her being such a private
person?
12.
What is sex to Hester and Heinrich-intimacy or escapism?
13.
How might Heinrich have told this story? What would he have
noted about Hester in his journal?
15.
While Hester is writing a book about Heinrich as the German
Everyman, Kirshenbaum is writing a book about Hester as
a Jewish-American woman. What larger messages is Kirshenbaum
conveying about that experience?
16.
How much time, how many generations must pass, before wounds
of the past can heal? Can they ever be completely forgiven?
Or forgotten?
Other
Titles by Binnie Kirshenbaum:
On
Mermaid Avenue, 1992
A Disturbance in One Place, 2004
Pure Poetry, 2000
History on a Personal Note, 2004
An Almost Perfect Moment, 2004
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BINNIE
KIRSHENBAUM is
the author of two short story collections and four novels,
most recently the critically acclaimed Hester Among
the Ruins. She is a professor of fiction writing at
Columbia University and lives with her husband in New
York City.