Book Club Recipe ideas (one savoury; one sweet)
We'll start with sweet.
Pets de Soeur. Literal translation: Farts of a Nun.
How could I resist? After all, Clarisse's grandmother Bella is one feisty, reformed nun and she would definitely see the humour in recommending this sweet recipe.
Nuns' Farts really are delicious, despite their name. They're a popular pastry in the Acadian culture; legend tells us that they earned their name when a nun farted, which caused another nun to laugh so hard that she dropped a roll of dough into a vat of oil, and BAZINGA, a delicious nun's fart. True? Who knows? Pets de Soeur are essentially a flakier, denser version of a cinnamon roll.
The process is an easy one. You simply mix your dough, roll it into a rectangle, and pop in the oven.
Go to recipe.
It would seem everyone in Papillon is hiding at least one secret. The Book Club theme will therefore be all about secrets.
Spoiler Alert: These discussion questions reveal important details about Papillon. I suggest finishing the book before reading on..
Some Recommended Discussion Questions
1. The multiple narrators (mainly Carlos & Clarisse) of Papillon affirm there is never just one side to a story, that an event can be interpreted in a multitude of ways. As readers, however, we're conditioned to trust our narrator. Did you find one narrator inherently more trustworthy than another? What qualities suggest a credible narrator?
2. With the exception of places and a few older characters, Desveaux's first novel Garden of the Gods was strikingly different from Papillon. If you have read her first novel, how do you feel it compares?
3. In the second chapter of the manuscript, we peer into the past, into a schoolyard during the Spanish Civil War where two children are being bullied into marriage. Why do you think the author chooses to frame the found manuscript with this scene?
4. A novel steeped in history starts from fact, but its creator must mesh fiction with facts to create a compelling narrative. Several of Papillon's characters (e.g. Diego Rivera, Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Georgia O'Keefe, Modigliani, and Charlotte Corday) are actual, but fictionalized historical figures, while their children (Gianni, Grace and Soleil) are purely fictionalized relatives of these historical characters. Did you know or care which characters were fictional creations? What kind of responsibility, if any, do historical novelists have in their portrayal of actual historical events? Compare Desveaux's technique to those of other contemporary historical novelists you have discussed at book club, if any.
5. What scenes from Papillon do you remember most vividly?
6. Discuss the novel’s structure. In what ways do the alternating narratives between past and present enhance the story? How do the scenes in the past give you further insight into the characters and their actions?
7. Part two of the novel opens with the following quote by Pablo Picasso:
“Every child is an artist.
The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up."
What do you think of this statement? What are the mysterious forces that cause children to abandon their dreams?
8. Grace writes to Clarisse: "In bequeathing the villa, I’m hoping you’ll carry on the tradition of providing a salon for artists, and unless society changes significantly, care for their wounds. They’ll arrive hiding parts of their past, from you and from themselves, and they’ll be searching. I trust you’ll see the good in them, and in seeing this worth, the wounds inflicted through society’s indifference will heal."
Do you agree with what Grace says about how society treats artists? What do you think is the solution to this indifference?
9. Recurring themes in the novel are freedom & connection (or lack of it). Desveaux uses Leonard Cohen's words:
"Like a bird on a wire
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way
To be free."
How do you think this quote relates to the characters of the novel?
10. Did the book end the way you expected?
Pets de Soeur. Literal translation: Farts of a Nun.
How could I resist? After all, Clarisse's grandmother Bella is one feisty, reformed nun and she would definitely see the humour in recommending this sweet recipe.
Nuns' Farts really are delicious, despite their name. They're a popular pastry in the Acadian culture; legend tells us that they earned their name when a nun farted, which caused another nun to laugh so hard that she dropped a roll of dough into a vat of oil, and BAZINGA, a delicious nun's fart. True? Who knows? Pets de Soeur are essentially a flakier, denser version of a cinnamon roll.
The process is an easy one. You simply mix your dough, roll it into a rectangle, and pop in the oven.
Go to recipe.
It would seem everyone in Papillon is hiding at least one secret. The Book Club theme will therefore be all about secrets.
Spoiler Alert: These discussion questions reveal important details about Papillon. I suggest finishing the book before reading on..
Some Recommended Discussion Questions
1. The multiple narrators (mainly Carlos & Clarisse) of Papillon affirm there is never just one side to a story, that an event can be interpreted in a multitude of ways. As readers, however, we're conditioned to trust our narrator. Did you find one narrator inherently more trustworthy than another? What qualities suggest a credible narrator?
2. With the exception of places and a few older characters, Desveaux's first novel Garden of the Gods was strikingly different from Papillon. If you have read her first novel, how do you feel it compares?
3. In the second chapter of the manuscript, we peer into the past, into a schoolyard during the Spanish Civil War where two children are being bullied into marriage. Why do you think the author chooses to frame the found manuscript with this scene?
4. A novel steeped in history starts from fact, but its creator must mesh fiction with facts to create a compelling narrative. Several of Papillon's characters (e.g. Diego Rivera, Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Georgia O'Keefe, Modigliani, and Charlotte Corday) are actual, but fictionalized historical figures, while their children (Gianni, Grace and Soleil) are purely fictionalized relatives of these historical characters. Did you know or care which characters were fictional creations? What kind of responsibility, if any, do historical novelists have in their portrayal of actual historical events? Compare Desveaux's technique to those of other contemporary historical novelists you have discussed at book club, if any.
5. What scenes from Papillon do you remember most vividly?
6. Discuss the novel’s structure. In what ways do the alternating narratives between past and present enhance the story? How do the scenes in the past give you further insight into the characters and their actions?
7. Part two of the novel opens with the following quote by Pablo Picasso:
“Every child is an artist.
The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up."
What do you think of this statement? What are the mysterious forces that cause children to abandon their dreams?
8. Grace writes to Clarisse: "In bequeathing the villa, I’m hoping you’ll carry on the tradition of providing a salon for artists, and unless society changes significantly, care for their wounds. They’ll arrive hiding parts of their past, from you and from themselves, and they’ll be searching. I trust you’ll see the good in them, and in seeing this worth, the wounds inflicted through society’s indifference will heal."
Do you agree with what Grace says about how society treats artists? What do you think is the solution to this indifference?
9. Recurring themes in the novel are freedom & connection (or lack of it). Desveaux uses Leonard Cohen's words:
"Like a bird on a wire
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way
To be free."
How do you think this quote relates to the characters of the novel?
10. Did the book end the way you expected?