Reading 1001 discussion

Randomizer pick for February 2024. Discussion thread.

Reading Group Questions:
Did you identify with any of the characters in Memento Mori? If so, who? Describe how you identified with them and at what points in the story.
How do each of the characters react to the anonymous phone calls telling them to remember that they must die? Did you find any of their reactions surprising? If so, why? How would you react to such calls?
How does Charmain change during the course of the story? Why does she think she’ll be more of a person in a nursing home? Do you agree?
The characters all have different theories about who is calling and telling them ‘Remember you must die.’ Describe some of those theories. Did any of them seem likely to you? Who did you think was responsible for making the calls? Why?
Discuss the ending of Memento Mori. Why do you think that Spark includes the list detailing the fate of each of the characters What’s the effect of reading it?

Did you identify with any of the characters in Memento Mori? If so, who? Describe how you identified with them and at what points in the story.
I probably identified the most with Charmian, if only because there were no other likeable characters to identify with. I felt sorry for her at first, when her memory/health are failing, and I liked how she rallied when Mrs. Pettigrew started bullying her. She is also smart enough to destroy evidence of her past sins so nothing can come back to haunt her (as it does her husband).

How do each of the characters react to the anonymous phone calls telling them to remember that they must die? Did you find any of their reactions surprising? If so, why? How would you react to such calls?
They all react differently, based on their own attitudes toward death. Lettie is almost offended and angered by the reminder. Godfrey is terrified. Charmian takes it in stride because she already knows she’s going to die and doesn’t need to be reminded. I was not surprised by any of their reactions, but I was surprised to discover (at the end of chapter 11) that Inspector Mortimer was receiving them as well.

How does Charmain change during the course of the story? Why does she think she’ll be more of a person in a nursing home? Do you agree?
As she recovers from her stroke, she gains strength of body and will – I love the description of her adventure of making her own tea. Despite the effort and time involved, she doesn’t cut corners. In the nursing home, she’ll no longer have to listen to her husband’s complaints and decrees or be bullied by Mrs. Pettigrew. She might be overstating the extent to which she’ll have independence – as we see from Taylor’s experience, she may be somewhat at the mercy of staff and nurses and doctors’ orders.

The characters all have different theories about who is calling and telling them ‘Remember you must die.’ Describe some of those theories. Did any of them seem likely to you? Who did you think was responsible for making the calls? Why?
Some think that Eric Colston is doing it to get back at his parents and aunt for cutting him off. Inspector Mortimer thinks that it is death itself. His theory seems the most likely in that, it does seem to be supernatural in some way with each character experiencing the caller in a different way. Again, I think it’s a manifestation of their attitude toward death. They are continually reminded of their mortality, with the passing of friends/family, and their bodies and minds failing. Perhaps Spark is literalizing these reminders with the phone calls.

Discuss the ending of Memento Mori. Why do you think that Spark includes the list detailing the fate of each of the characters What’s the effect of reading it.
It is another reminder that we all must die. The final paragraph recounting Jean Taylor’s meditation upon death being “the first of the last four things ever to be remembered” made the context clearer to me. I was not familiar with the adage about “death, judgement, hell and heaven.”

I also largely identified with Charmain because she was the most likable and was one of the ones who was not bothered by the obvious: "Remember you must die". She was also highly successful in her chosen profession. I also liked Mrs Taylor because she could see and understand other people better than most of the other characters. I would like to think that I could identify with that.

Each of the characters heard, to a certain extent, the age and tone of who they wanted to hear delivering that message. Charmain thought it was a polite young man while Godfrey found him threatening because almost anything threatened Godfrey. I don't like getting the huge number of spam calls I get now so a consistent caller would be irritating. However, I don't think that the message would be.

Charmain recovers her energy and comes out of her fog as the story goes on and she is better able to understand the needs and reactions of the people around her, specifically Mrs. Pettigrew who causes her to fight back and Godfrey, who she has obviously always pitied. Charmain has a internal life that consists of thoughts of her past life, her past writing and her own present cares. In the home, she knows she would be more likely to be less irritated by Godfrey and Mrs. Pettigrew and from an interior point of view I think she would be more independent. The nurses and the other residents may bully and bother her but that would not upset her as much as her own husband's odd needs not being met.

Various theories include a gang of people, possibly run by Mortimer, Death himself just doing his due diligence and a bad case of mass hysteria. I rather leaned toward Death himself although that is no doubt exactly what the author wanted me to think.

At the end Miss Taylor says to Alec: "We all appear to ourselves frustrated with old age, Alec, because we cling to everything so much. But in reality we are still fulfilling our lives". For me, that is the core of the book. People struggle to make much of life, and when old age starts to cut back on what can be accomplished or enjoyed it is typical to deny or mourn, but really one is still living as much as ever and the ending is ultimately the same for everyone. Death is very embracing and not at all picky.

Did you identify with any of the characters in Memento Mori? If so, who? Describe how you identified with them and at what points in the story.

I identified with the fact that these characters were "old" and in the stage of life that I am. The fact that "we must die becomes more relevant at this stage.

How do each of the characters react to the anonymous phone calls telling them to remember that they must die? Did you find any of their reactions surprising? If so, why? How would you react to such calls? The novel is about death but the characters responses show that each person had their own way of reacting. To most extent they kept on living but their basic personalities did determine their reactions.

How does Charmain change during the course of the story? Why does she think she’ll be more of a person in a nursing home? Do you agree?

I do agree that for some people being in a nursing home is a better alternative that isolation in one's home or living in a situation that will cause the spirit to suffer.

The characters all have different theories about who is calling and telling them ‘Remember you must die.’ Describe some of those theories. Did any of them seem likely to you? Who did you think was responsible for making the calls? Why?

Some see the person as young, some as threatening, and their personality determines their reactions.

Discuss the ending of Memento Mori. Why do you think that Spark includes the list detailing the fate of each of the characters What’s the effect of reading it? It is a reminder that "you must die".
1. Granny Bean lives to 100
2. Jean Taylor "we all appear to ourselves frustrated in our old age, Alec, because we cling to everything so much. But in Reality we are still fullfilling our lives."
3. Alec Warner "felt dead, still alive"
4. Mrs Pettigrew will inherit from O'Brien "she will have her reward" Had a stroke went to live in a hotel
5. Matt O'Brien died in his sleep. Left a fortune
6. Charmian died at 87, uremia
7. Godfrey died the same year in motor accident, died of pneumonia
8. Guy Leet died at 78
9. Percy Mannering is in an old men's home. place in the alcove
10. Ronald Sidebottome, not expected to last another winter
11. Janet Sidebottome died of a stroke at 77. High BP
12. Mrs. Anthony widowed lives near her married son
13. Chief Inspector Mortimer died of hear failure 73
14. Mrs Mortimer spends time looking after grandchildren
15. Eric is getting through the Colston money

16. Alec Warner had a paralytic stroke, went to live in a nursing home Alex review of his index cards in his brain
Lettie Colston, frx of the skull
Godfrey Colston, pneumonia
Jean Taylor,
Tempest Sidebottome, carcinoma of the cervix
Ronald Sidebottome, carcinoma of the bronchus
Guy Leet, arterio sclerosis
Janet Taylor - mycardial degeneration
Henry Mortimer, coronary thrombosis.
Miss Valvona

"medicating sometimes confidingly upon Death, the first of the Four Last Things to be ever remembered.

I note that these people lived what I would consider a normal length of time with some exceptions living even to 100.

1. I actually identified with most of them, being in my eightieth year. I loved the perseverance of Charmian getting her own afternoon tea; with Godfrey's schadenfreude when old friends succumb to one disability or another; with Jean Taylor's stoicism; with Alec Warner's obsession but not, I must emphasise with the scheming Mrs Pettigrew.
2. They respond to the calls according to their personality. The first person we learn about is Dame Lettie. She hears a middle-aged man, becomes very unsettled by the calls, but is angry that everyone else seems to think she is making them up. She demands questions in the House of Commons. Godfrey thinks the caller must be a maniac. Charmian hears a charming young man and she thanks him for his courtesy in reminding her that she should "Remember you must die", or momento mori. Inspector Mortimer doesn't tell anyone that he has also received these calls. His wife suggests that the caller might be death itself. Jean Taylor agrees. We never know for sure. I received a number of anonymous calls when I was much younger. They were sexually explicit and a bit unnerving. I tried to identify if it could have been a student with an overactive imagination. In the end I blew a whistle down the line. He stopped calling.

3, Charmian is tired of being patronised by Godfrey. As she recovers from her stroke, influenced by the scheming Mrs Pettigrew and the revival of her novels' popularity, she longs to be her own person. As Spark has given us a rather lurid description of how "The Grannies" are treated in a nursing home, she may be too optimistic!
4. There are a number of theories: Eric as a revenge ploy; a group of schemers; and the idea that Death is making the calls. I don't ascribe the latter as plausible. I simply have no theory.
5. I really like the catalogue of what happened to so many of them. Often novels end and you wonder. In this case it underlines most forcibly: Momento Mori.